ABSTRACT
Alfred Adler was another early contemporary of Freud’s who had his own ideas about the human psyche. For Adler, there were a number of elements he felt were more important to the development of the human personality than Freud’s sex and aggression drives. Adler felt like a child’s birth order and other early childhood experiences significantly impacted the adult personality. He developed the ideas of the need for dominance over others and what he termed “the inferiority complex” as central motivating factors in human behavior. This chapter includes exercises that explore the influence of family history as well as interpersonal feelings about power and personal control.
