Unity (more tenets and adler)

• The third tenet of Adlerian theory is: Personality is unified and self-consistent.
• Adler (1956) recognized several ways in which the entire person operates with unity and self-consistency. The first of these he called organ jargon, or organ dialect.
• The disturbance of one part of the body cannot be viewed in iso lation; it affects the entire person. In fact, the deficient organ expresses the direction of the individual’s goal, a condition known as organ dialect
• One example of organ dialect might be a man suffering from rheumatoid arthritis in his hands. His stiff and deformed joints voice his whole style of life. It is as if they cry out, “See my deformity. See my handicap. You can’t expect me to do manual work.” Without an audible sound, his hands speak of his desire for sympathy from others.
• A second example of a unified personality is the harmony between conscious and un conscious actions.
• Conscious thoughts are those that are understood and regarded by the individual as helpful in striving for success, whereas unconscious thoughts are those that are not helpful.
• unconscious as that part of the goal that is neither clearly formulated nor completely understood by the individual.
• The fourth of Adler’s tenets is: The value of all human activity must be seen from the viewpoint of social interest.
• Social interest is Adler’s somewhat misleading translation of his original Ger man term, Gemeinschaftsgefühl.
• Gemeinschaftsgefühl actually has a meaning that is not fully expressed by any English word or phrase. Roughly, it means a feeling of oneness with all humanity
• Social interest is the natural condition of the human species and the adhesive that binds society together
• Origins of Social Interest Social interest is rooted as potentiality in everyone, but it must be developed before it can contribute to a useful style of life. It originates from the mother-child relationship during the early months of infancy.
• Adler believed that marriage and parenthood is a task for two
• If the mother has learned to give and re ceive love from others, she will have little difficulty broadening her child’s social in terest. But if she favors the child over the father, her child may become pampered and spoiled. Conversely, if she favors her husband or society, the child will feel neglected and unloved.
• standards, a successful father avoids the dual errors of emotional detachment and paternal authoritarianism. These errors may represent two attitudes, but they are often found in the same father. Both prevent the growth and spread of social interest in a child.
• A child who experiences paternal detachment creates a goal of personal superiority rather than one based on social interest. The second error—paternal authoritarian ism—may also lead to an unhealthy style of life. A child who sees the father as a tyrant learns to strive for power and personal superiority.
• Adler believed that after age 5, the ef fects of heredity become blurred by the powerful influence of the child’s social environment. By that time, environmental forces have modified or shaped nearly every aspect of a child’s personality
• Social interest was Adler’s yardstick for measuring psychological health and is thus “the sole criterion of human values”
• A wealthy woman may regularly give large sums of money to the poor and needy, not because she feels a oneness with them, but, quite to the contrary, because she wishes to maintain a separateness from them. The gift implies, “You are inferior, I am su perior, and this charity is proof of my superiority.” Adler believed that the worth of all such acts can only be judged against the criterion of social interest.
• Adler’s fifth tenet is: The self-consistent personality structure develops into a per son’s style of life.
• Style of life is the term Adler used to refer to the flavor of a person’s life. It in cludes a person’s goal, self-concept, feelings for others, and attitude toward the world. It is the product of the interaction of heredity, environment, and a person’s creative power.
• used a musical analogy to elucidate style of life. The separate notes of a composition are meaningless without the entire melody, but the melody takes on added significance when we recognize the composer’s style or unique manner of expression.
• People with a healthy, socially useful style of life express their social interest through action
• People with a healthy, socially useful style of life express their social interest through action. They actively struggle to solve what Adler regarded as the three major problems of life— neighborly love, sexual love, and occupation —and they do so through cooperation, personal courage, and a willingness to make a contribution to the welfare of another.
• The final tenet of Adlerian theory is: Style of life is molded by people’s creative power.
• Their creative power places them in control of their own lives, is re sponsible for their final goal, determines their method of striving for that goal, and contributes to the development of social interest.
• Creative power is a dynamic concept implying movement and this movement is the most salient characteristic of life
• Each person uses heredity and environment as the bricks and mortar to build personality, but the architectural design reflects that person’s own style. Of primary importance is not what people have been given, but how they put those materials to use. The building materials of personality are secondary. We are our own architect and can build either a useful or a useless style of life.