ABSTRACT
OVERVIEW Alfred Adler was an Austrian psychologist who cofounded psychoanalysis with Sigmund Freud and a group of colleagues. Adler is well known for rejecting Freud’s view of the nature of human functioning, subsequently developing his own theory of individual psychology. In constructing his theory, Adler used the following central concepts: (a) Humans are social beings and their behaviors are embedded in their social contexts, (b) behavior is based on one’s subjective reality, and in order to understand behavior you must look at the individual’s idiosyncratic experience, (c) individuals function holistically and should not be viewed from a reductionistic perspective, in which aspects of functioning are isolated and examined independently, (d) in order to understand personality, one must examine the characteristic patterns and beliefs about a person’s view of the self, others and the world, all of which create a person’s lifestyle, (e) all aspects of behavior are goal-directed and purposive, (f) human beings have a need to belong, and (g) individuals have the power of choice in controlling their attitudes and behaviors (Brown, Pryzwansky & Schulte, 2006; Dinkmeyer, Carlson, & Dinkmeyer, 1994).
