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Review of Key Points
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Adler helped Freud gain recognition for Freud’s personality theory. This lends credence to Adler’s claim that he was never a student or follower of Freud, but rather a colleague interested in similar psychiatric/psychological questions.
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Striving for superiority takes the form of compensating for our weaknesses, which, unfortunately, can sometimes lead to overcompensation.
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Adler believed that all thought and behavior was tied to some goal. Our overriding goal is the life plan, and we pursue it by living a characteristic style of life.
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According to Adler, social interest is the best way to achieve superiority, and it can most easily be seen in cooperation.
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Adler described three life tasks: work, communal life, and love.
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Each person exists within their own perception of the world, known as the scheme of apperception. This scheme guides all experience to fit into our style of life and our goals.
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Adler was very interested in the effects of birth order and the family constellation. Being an only child is likely to result in pampering, whereas an oldest child must deal with being dethroned.
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The key to Adlerian psychotherapy is understanding the patient’s style of life.
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Once the style of life is understood, Adlerian psychotherapists work to strengthen social interest and reorient the style of life.
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Sullivan began his formal psychiatric career at two prestigious hospitals: St. Elizabeth’s and Sheppard Pratt.
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Sullivan referred to the energy transformation that underlies our personal interactions as dynamisms. Perhaps the most important dynamism is the self-system.
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Before we can truly understand relationships, we develop images in our mind known as personifications. The personified self includes everything we can consciously describe about ourselves.
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Sullivan described seven developmental epochs, which provide a framework for our unfolding abilities to engage in healthy interpersonal relationships.