Alfred Adler as a Staunch Supporter of Freudian Psychotherapy - Research Paper Example

?RUNNING HEADER: Alfred Adler and the Creation of Child Guidance Clinics Alfred Adler and the Creation of Child Guidance Clinics BY YOU YOUR SCHOOL INFO HERE DATE HERE Alfred Adler and the Creation of Child Guidance Clinics Introduction Alfred Adler had been a staunch supporter of Freudian psychotherapy until 1912, having come to significant disagreements with Freud about the relevancy of psychoanalysis. Adler, instead, believed that counselors should adopt a holistic, socially-centric approach to providing therapy to those with maladjusted or otherwise disturbed cognitions and behaviors. After being chastised by the counseling community for failing to abide by Freudian principles of therapeutic interventions, Adler established a school of thought referred to as individual psychology. This new branch of psychology was akin to modern humanistic psychology in which the patient is encouraged, treated as an equal during interventions, and where maladjusted behaviors could be reformed through the establishment of community and cooperation. Adler took a special interest in working with children, believing that inferiority complexes in children could be attributed to the familial and social environments when exposed to over-bearing parental figures or neglectful caregivers. This strong belief in the evolution of neurotic or unstable behaviors stemming from the social environment led to the development of a variety of child guidance clinics designed to foster support for child caregivers to assist in developing a respectful, cooperative and responsible youth. These clinics provided caregivers with options for utilizing non-oppressive and non-coercive disciplinary systems to ensure the child would develop into a healthy and socially-responsible adult. Adler’s model of therapy is still quite relevant today and his theories of therapy illustrate that a socially-centric or humanistic-style approach to child guidance provide significantly-positive mental health outcomes. The Basis of Adler’s Theory Adler was a powerful proponent in the belief that it was the social environment that continued to reinforce unhealthy attitudes and behaviors in children. Adler believed, learned through his experiences working with children, that all youths maintained an inherent need to gain social acceptance and belonging. Much like Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, Adler’s stance on child development was that once the individual achieved this sense of social belonging, the inborn drive for social inclusion became actualized and the individual could focus on higher order goals and ambitions without the constant burden of inferiority lingering in the psyche. However, in order for there to be the establishment of social belonging, there must be equality developed between the individual and the greater family structure or community. Adler believed that positive human interaction could be achieved through this equality establishment (Ferguson, 2012). Adler recognized that improper parenting skills and habits strongly contributed to mental health problems, even in youths as young as three years of age. To Adler, a family that was not properly oriented, where the youth is neglected or chastised, would ultimately lead to an inferiority complex in the child. Concurrently, Adler and his protege Dreikurs warned that over-pampering children would have the same effect, what was referred to as an assumed disability (Bitter & Main, 2011), forcing the individual to question their own self-worth and value when attention from family members begins to cease. This is why Adler was so interested in developing child guidance clinics: to facilitate a more effective, equalizing and harmonious methodology for caregivers that focused on removing discouraging components of child rearing philosophies and idealizing a cooperative, community-centric parenting education curriculum. Adler’s concern over the volume of youths that maintained negative mental health problems, coupled with his belief in the role of social and family systems in creating these mental disturbances, is what drove the development of a new type of educational system for caregivers so as to provide society with well-adjusted adults that can contribute to a more cooperative social order. Adler was also considered a strong follower of the socialist movement, which also contributed to his desire to build a more robust social environment for broader society. Adler (1930) believed that children could absolutely be raised to be free of discouragement over perceived or genuine social ostracism and be reared for social inclusion: “If a child has a good upbringing in his first three or four years…he will be spared not only bashfulness and egotism, but also a possible neurosis and even insanity (p.196). Thus, Adler believed that the formative years for ensuring a child is properly developed as a cooperative and equal member of society and the familial structure were during the earliest years of child development. Therefore, Adler developed the child guidance clinics to provide parents with a model by which to assist a developing youth avoid self-discouragement and social isolation that would, in Adler’s view, construct an adult with neurotic or otherwise irrational cognitive and behavioral problems. Though the guidance clinics were also inclusive of the child during therapeutic interventions, the main focus of the facilities, as a loyal socialist, was to provide caretakers with the tools and knowledge necessary to assist a child in healthy mental development. The Child Guidance Clinic Model The child guidance clinic model was developed with a specific mission and vision: “Social justice and socially responsible practice” (ACGC, n.d., p.1). The child guidance clinics provide parents with a humanistic approach to intervention that include diagnosing what is causing child maladjustment and to understand the realities of what is driving misbehavior. For the child specifically, the clinics assist children in identifying and accepting the consequences of their behaviors coupled with their involvement in a variety of family meetings facilitated by the counselor. Through instruction, parents and caregivers are given instruction on how to adjust poor behaviors utilizing encouragement strategies rather than eliciting punishment. Adler was influential in establishing the model by which today’s child guidance clinics are operated as many of his theories were founded on research-supported knowledge of interventions during adult-oriented psychotherapy that recognized a distinct correlation between society and friendship as well as love and sexuality. After seeking the catalysts for what drove adult maladjustment, Adler discovered that many unconscious attitudes and beliefs in adult patients reverted back to dysfunctional family structures, social ostracism and the role of the parental figure in creating discouragement or social inferiority. To prevent recurrences with other youths, Adler eventually became instrumental in moving the child guidance clinic model from Europe (post-Nazi occupation) to the United States where Adlerian psychology received a wide acceptance and following in the domain of psychology. The primary foundation of the child guidance clinic is to instill optimism in the child, reminding them that they are capable of achieving life goals both dependently and independently (Nicoll, 2011). Coupled with lessons regarding social responsibility and diversity (equality), a child with behavioral or other cognitive-based problems is steered toward a new type of self-understanding that essentially deconstructs established norms of thought and attitude. Under most clinic models, this involves public discussion of feelings or attitudes rather than one-on-one interventions. The rationale behind this is to assist others involved in the programs that there are similarities to their own needs and emotions, thus establishing a rather rapid sense of social belonging necessary for self-fulfillment (Main & Boughner, 2011). This also allows the counselor or program director to actively and, sometimes, publicly confront self-defeating behaviors or redirect the individual to understand what is driving their mistaken goal-setting strategies. This strategy assists in raising individual awareness of the benefits of community to assist the counselor and others involved in the programs to teach self-acceptance through communal intimacy. According to Adler, the healthiest personalities develop within vigorous social environments with particular emphasis on the family dynamic (Nicoll, 2011). Is the Model still relevant today? Rudolf Dreikurs was a trained psychologist that worked closely with Adler up until his death in 1937. Dreikurs worked diligently to carry on Adler’s work, developing a variety of international summer schools in which Adlerian philosophy was taught to children, educators and parents, focusing intensely on child guidance and elements of lingering psychotherapeutic techniques. By 1963, a secondary Adlerian summer school had been established in Eugene, Oregon that followed the trademark ideologies of Adlerian individual psychology (Ferguson 2012). This summer school concept, though not widely received at first, eventually gained a significant following from attendants and psychologists for its therapeutic benefits. The educational benefits of instructing Adlerian philosophy ranged from adolescent counseling techniques to understanding human emotions and applying these lessons within a social communications framework. The practice work that occurred during the 1960s with summer schools founded by Dreikurs laid many of the foundations of the contemporary child guidance clinic that provides support and assistance to caregivers and children to develop a more holistic and equalized family or social structure. Today’s child guidance clinics, due to the hard work of Adler and Dreikurs, now have an established curriculum that provide meaningful social lessons to maladjusted youths and their caregivers. The emphasis with the evolved Adlerian clinics is to focus on equality at the social level, believing fundamentally that personal well-being begins when all members of a group are approached as equals which creates the necessary social belonging that is inherent universally with all human organisms. The clinics today utilize a blend of rehabilitative strategies to change poor behaviors in children coupled with modernized methodologies of interaction that have been built on the foundations of Adlerian ideologies. Referred to as in-group counseling, individuals with inferiority complexes come to understand the catalysts for these disturbed attitudes and behaviors whether it relates to neglect, over-pampering during childhood, or even abuse experienced during formative years. Today’s followers of Adlerian psychology have built a foundation of maladjusted behaviors that are common in children. Some of these include safeguarding, which is a blend of cognitive and behavioral strategies that a neurotic individual utilizes to avoid self-constructed, imagined failures. An individual that attempts to safeguard oneself will often adopt a variety of symptoms to excuse the self from taking responsibility for tackling basic life tasks. Such symptoms can range from general anxiety to social phobia creation. Compensation is yet another strategy utilized by those with inferiority complexes, which is a defense mechanism by which an individual takes on a useless sense of direction toward the achievement of unrealistic self-perfectionism. Why do the aforementioned strategies such as safeguarding and compensation matter in relation to the child guidance clinic model and contemporary counseling methods? The child guidance clinics in operation today utilize all of the fundamental, humanistic-oriented strategies that were outlined by Adler during the 20th Century. There has been such a tremendous following of Adler’s work (and Dreikurs) that many models of counseling have been superimposed over these foundational philosophies to create a more relevant and holistic counseling program. Contemporary child guidance clinics still recognize the importance of social belonging and the imperative of establishing social belonging as a primary goal, however the specific strategies by which clinics educate draw on some of the latter work of Adlerian followers in the domain of psychology that recognize complexities that stem from socio-economic backgrounds and the modern family structure that were not necessarily relevant during the lifespan of Alfred Adler and his protege Dreikurs. The modern child guidance clinic is now equipped to tackle more complex issues associated with child counseling and parental/teacher education that have real-life practical solutions for a modern society. Neo-Adlerian psychologists developed such strategies as transactional analysis, which is founded on Adlerian ideology, believing that all individuals are valuable, equitable to others, and worthy of respect. Transactional analysis serves as a neo-Adlerian model that explains personality, offering more explanations as it pertains to the human need for love rather than social belonging. Contemporary followers and developers of traditional Adlerian ideologies tend to place more emphasis on placing responsibility for neurosis on the individual rather than childhood experiences and caregivers, believing that it is the individual that maintains control over their own destinies. Therefore, decision-making can be changed when a person takes accountability for their behaviors, emotions and attitudes. The Adlerian approach emphasizes autonomy: “never do for the child what he or she can do for themselves” (Nicoll, 2011, p.211). In the contemporary child guidance clinic, new strategies and approaches are being utilized, but all within the classical framework of Adler’s individual psychology. The clinics have now expanded, with assistance of neo-Adlerian ideologies and findings, to include offering parents counseling as it relates to their adult intimate relationships as well as satisfying child needs for social and familial belonging. Without Adler’s influence in setting the groundwork that underpins the ideologies of child guidance clinics, it is likely that classical Freudian psychotherapy would still be the method of choice when attempting to diffuse or rehabilitate maladjusted child behaviors. There is much debate today about the Freudian approach to therapy and its practical applications for providing positive child development outcomes, however even the Freudian approach to counseling and therapy has been developed and redesigned backed by such psychologists as Karen Horney who challenged many of Freud’s theories and approaches. Neo-Adlerian psychologists assisted in paving the way for a more effective counseling curriculum that treats the individual and their entire social and economic environments as a holistic system that directly impacts behavior and attitude formation. The contemporary child guidance clinic now focuses on many dimensions that were not necessarily a construct of classical Adlerian ideology in counseling and psychotherapy. Though every child guidance clinic maintains its own curriculum and rehabilitative methodologies, there are many humanistic elements that were common during the time of Adlerian counseling practice. For instance, Gestalt Therapy (a dimension of humanistic psychology) retrains an individual to see past distorted or irrelevant preconceptions in order to effectively focus on how current behaviors are influenced by the past. Role playing is often utilized in this strategy to assist the individual in building more effective emotional intelligence and to understand why others in the individual’s social or family environment maintains the emotions that complicate a harmonious lifestyle. This is how the modern child guidance clinic operates today under classical Adlerian philosophy by bringing emotions and situations into the public venue for open discussion to build a cohesive sense of social belonging. Alfred Adler was instrumental in establishing the underpinning viewpoint necessary to achieve effective counseling outcomes in the clinic environment with supplementary, Adlerian-like strategies being employed for a progressive social and family cultural dynamic. Conclusion Adler and his protege Dreikurs were instrumental figures in assisting society with the development of child guidance clinics and providing the framework by which to achieve positive and long-lasting therapeutic outcomes for disturbed or neurotic children. Adler’s recognition that the past is monumental in explaining current behaviors assists today’s counselors in providing a curriculum of behavior modification and self-exploration to assist children in becoming more well-adjusted adults in society. By including parents and caregivers in similar education and self-exploration, the work of Adler and many neo-Adlerian followers in the domain of psychology have assisted in preventing other children from being victimized (either legitimately or perceived) by their childhood experiences. Adler’s model of socially-centric and people-centric counseling is still very much relevant today which is likely why the child guidance clinics are still in operation as they provide recognized and research-supported outcomes of rehabilitation and positive mental health achievements in children and adults alike. Though the child guidance clinic is now modernized to meet the needs of an evolving social and family structure, these clinics have Adler to thank for his dedication and research into human behavior that now assist caregivers, educators and children in becoming more effective contributors in society and within the family dynamic. The model of Adlerian ideologies is still being utilized today and should be respected for its ability to create a more harmonious and cohesive society one step at a time. References ACGC. (n.d.) About Adler Child Guidance Center, Adler School of Professional Psychology. Retrieved March 19, 2013 from http://www.adler.edu/page/institutes/child-guidance- center/about Adler, Alfred. (1930). The Education of Children, cited in E.D. Ferguson (ed.) Adler’s Innovative Contributions regarding the need to Belong, The Journal of Individual Psychology, 66(1), p.4. Bitter, James R. & Main, Frank O. (2011). Adlerian Family Therapy: An Introduction, The Journal of Individual Psychology, 67(3), pp.175-185. Ferguson, Eva D. (2012). The Rudolf Dreikurs Summer Institute and ICASSI, The Journal of Individual Psychology, 68(3), 210-215. Main, Frank O. & Boughner, Shelly R. (2011). Encouragement and Actionable Hope: The Source of Adler’s Clinical Agency, The Journal of Individual Psychology, 67(3), pp.269-291. Mosak, Harold H. and Maniacci, Michael P. (1999). Primer of Adlerian Psychology: The Analytic-Behavioral-Cognitive Psychology of Alfred Adler. Philadelphia: Brunner/Mazel. Nicoll, William G. (2011). Resilience-Focused Brief Family Therapy: An Alderian Approach, The Journal of Individual Psychology, 67(3), pp.205-221. Read More