Gemeinschaftsgefühl

n. social interest or community spirit: a spirit of equality, belonging, and unity (German, literally: “feeling for community”).

Adler believed that for all people there are three basic life tasks: work, friendship, and love or intimacy.

What are the foundational principles of Adlerian psychology?

The core Adlerian principles are only briefly reviewed here for context, as a more thorough explanation is readily available (Adler, 1958; Adler, 1969; Ansbacher & Ansbacher, 1956; Dreikurs, 1953; Dreikurs, 1971; Ferguson, 2010; Mosak, 1973; and Mosak, 1977). Learn more about Alfred Adler.

Social interest – the ability to care for the cares of others

• Belonging (or connection) – a primal need of every individual is to succeed or to belong

• Life-Style – a term coined by Adler to describe a kind of blue print for living that each person develops

• Family Constellation – a factor of life-style referring to the child’s perception of his or her position in the family based on birth order and its impact.

• Equality and Mutual Respect – a concept emphasizing the uniqueness of each individual. According to Adler, equality does not mean sameness. Equality means that each individual is deserving of dignity and respect.

• Encouragement – a skill focusing on strengths, effort and improvement in order to build self-confidence and self-esteem.

All of our problems are basically social problems,

Socially embedded.

An individual does not develop in isolation. A critical goal is to find a place of significance or belonging in the social group. All of our problems are basically social problems, i.e., how we relate to each other. The ability to cooperate and contribute is a measure of social interest and mental health. A well-adjusted person is oriented to and behaves in line with the needs of the situation. A mal-adjusted person has faulty concepts of his or her place in the group, feelings of isolation and inferiority, and mistaken goals, which are compensation for these feelings. Individuals grow up initially feeling a sense of inferiority and compensate by developing a unique sense of superiority or striving for significance (moving from felt minus to perceived plus). Given the inherent social nature of individuals, this striving is seen through the lens of social interest, either adequately fulfilling the tasks of life in socially useful ways or moving on the socially useless side of life and living a world more at odds with others, more in one’s own private logic and personal strivings for superiority.

Subjective.

Heredity and environment are only viewed as influences. It is an individual’s own ability to interpret information and draw certain conclusions that are most influential in the development of the personality or lifestyle (Ansbacher & Ansbacher, 1956). Reality is what we perceive and the meaning we attribute to these perceptions.

Self-determining and creative.

Because the belief system is created by the individual, it can change. This idea and the inherent social nature of individuals lead to an optimistic view of human nature that people are not victims of forces beyond their control but active participants. And, if given the choice along with proper encouragement, they will choose to be socially useful and find meaning and value in this perspective.

Goal-directed or teleological.

All behavior is viewed as movement towards a goal. The perceived place of significance becomes a final cause or the goal to achieve. As an individual moves through the tasks of life, this goal is projected out in front and the person is pulled towards it in all of his or her interactions. Thus, behavior has a purpose although individuals are often unaware of why they do what they do. Once individuals recognize their goals, they can continue behaviors in line with the goals or they can change.

Holism.

A person is not divided into parts, but is viewed as indivisible. The mind, body, and emotions work together all in the service of the individual’s final fictional goal. A trained individual can see themes and how everything fits into one complete picture.

Social justice and systemic thinking.

Adlerians view things from a system perspective. Adler was very sensitive to conditions of oppression and contextual factors that increase the probability of adverse consequences. Where possible, Adlerians will work at a systems level to change conditions impacting people in communities. Rudolf Dreikurs, founder of the Alfred Adler Institute (now Adler University) argued for social equality extensively in his book, Social Equality: The Challenge of Today. Dreikurs was especially focused on community education and empowering families.

The Dark Knight of the Soul.

Jung referred to it as  "The Dark Night of the Soul"... I jumped in, up to my eyeballs.. for the past 5 years when I embarked on training to become a psychotherapist (a decision that didn't come lightly). As it required a deep surrender, to the self-shattering and tumultuous dance between letting go & holding on, old & new, pain & joy.

I found moments of enlightening awareness, ecstatic joy, and belly-aching laughter at my distorted wounds.

https://www.mindbodygreen.com/articles/dark-night-of-soul

Journey of the wounded healer

After many many moves, I landed here, a solid stone house in the forest. Swapping people for wild animals.. wolves, boars, owls, bats, snakes and eagles as well as my more friendly fluffy fellows of course...

.. alone in stillness, sh*t surfaced. Twice I found myself shovelling through the debris of remains of broken waste pipes & when perpetual rain burst in through the front door, flooding the house, nowhere to run, no one to hide behind. A sweet metaphor indeed...

A mirror into the murkiest corners of my psyche. I said yes, to all the layers of pain, grief, torment, heartache, loneliness, abandonment, wading through it, observing it, sometimes felt like I might get swallowed up… after many moons, I hit the bottom, sat quietly & embraced it all. The shameful awkward parts in deep acceptance.

I believe that to truly work in the relational & healing depths of therapy, in the i-thou with another, you can only go as far with anyone, as you have gone with yourself… journey of "the wounded healer" C.Jung

Relational therapy & Emotional inheritance.

Relational therapy, sometimes referred to as relational-cultural therapy, is a therapeutic approach based on the idea that mutually satisfying relationships with others are necessary for one’s emotional well-being. This type of psychotherapy takes into account the ways in which social and familial factors relate to the relationships in a person’s life.

Galit Atlas explores this well in her work! Loss and trauma are ubiquitous, yet we are often unaware of their presence in our individual and family histories, much less how they affect us present-day. We carry them in symptoms, dreams, and patterns that seemingly lack explanation yet haunt us for much of our lives. The key to working through them may lie in uncovering ungrieved losses and making connections between past and present. Author and psychoanalyst Galit Atlas addresses such phenomena in her new book, Emotional Inheritance: A Therapist, Her Patients, and the Legacy of Trauma (Little, Brown Spark, 2022). She shares experiences from her work with patients that illustrate the healing power of verbalizing unspoken traumas, as well as her own journey to put words to what was never mourned. In our interview, we talk about how the book came about and what it taught her about loss and love. This interview is for anyone who feels perplexed about their experience and curious to understand themselves better.

Galit Atlas, Ph.D., is a psychoanalyst and clinical supervisor in private practice in New York City. She is a faculty member of the New York University Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis. She is a faculty member of the National Training Program and the Four Year Adult Training Program of the National Institute for Psychotherapies in New York City. Dr. Atlas has published three books for clinicians and numerous articles and book chapters that focus primarily on gender and sexuality. Her New York Times publication “A Tale of Two Twins” was the winner of a 2016 Gradiva Award. A leader in the field of relational psychoanalysis, Dr. Atlas is a recipient of the André François Award and the NADTA Research Award. She teaches and lectures throughout the United States and internationally.

Self Psychology

The theorist most identified with the self-psychology movement is Heinz Kohut (1913–81), who viewed the development of a cohesive and positive sense of self as the motivation of all patients (Wolitzky, 2011). Unlike traditional Freudian theory, which considers narcissism as pathological and as something individuals typically move away from in the interest of pursuing love of others, Kohut saw narcissism as developing in either a healthy or unhealthy way. He viewed the development of love of self as being separate from love one develops for other objects and suggested that a love of others is not necessary to lead a fulfilling life (Eagle and Wolitzky, 1992). By making this claim, Kohut brought into question Freud's stance that individuals are driven by instinctual (or sexual) gratification (Kohut and Wolf, 1978). According to Kohut, healthy development is dependent on the ability of a child's parents to provide what Wolitzky (2011) terms ‘adequate empathic attunement’ (p. 90).

Failure of parents to provide appropriate empathy is seen as the source of most psychopathology. However, intensive therapy can reproduce the essential elements of the patient's early environment in order to make up the inadequate environment. The goal of therapy is not to interpret unconscious conflict but to help the patient to develop or strengthen one's sense of self. The experience of being fully understood by another person is seen as curative, in that it allows the patient to resume healthy growth.