"Adler's somewhat naive optimism about human nature should not be allowed to obscure his co. gent observations on the social quality oj existence and the necessity j o r community. What this means ~or pastoral care is an increased attention to the social embeddedness oJ every human dilemma."

Alfred Adler's Individual Psychology and Pastoral Care the fact that Alfred Adler D ESPITE succeeded Sigmund Freud as Pres-

HERBERT ANDERSON

Assistant ProJessor oJ ident of the Vienna Psychoanalytic SoPastoral Theology ciety and served as co-editor of the Princeton Theological Seminary Society's journal, his thought is not widely known. Adler's relationship with timistic and teleological. More than that, Freud began in 1902 when he and three he was an activist whose social concern others were invited by Freud to join a led him to become actively engaged in discussion group. During the interven- socialist reform movements, which acing years, Adler had continually held to cording to Erik Erikson, would have positions which departed from Freudian conflicted with Freud's passionate disorthodoxy. In 1907, he published his taste for Marxism. Study o] Organ Inferiority in which he Shortly after the split with Freud, described how a person compensated Adler founded his own professional sofor an organ defect by strengthening ciety and journal around the theory of it through intensive training. (Because Individual Psychology. The movement of rickets, Adler himself did not walk gained wide attention in Europe. Adler's until the age of four.) By 1911, the split interest in child development led to the between Adler and Freud was irrevoc- establishment of the first child guidance ably polarized. Adler had renounced the clinics in Vienna and to his larger consexual etiology of neurosis, redefined the cern ~or education. His desire to make unconscious, and questioned the phe- practical application of psychological innomenon of repression. sights made him a popular lecturer both Although it is reported that Adler on the Continent and in the United defended Freud when the latter's views States. From 1926 he lectured regularly met with a 'bad reception' in the early in the United States and finally settled years, Adler himself did not consider in New York in 1935. At the time of Freud his teacher and disclaimed any his death in Scotland on May 28, 1937, attempt to suggest he was a disciple of he held the chair of medical psychology Freud. The conflict between Freud and at the Long Island Medical College, now Adler reached beyond the psychology the Downstate Medical Center of the of neurosis. Adler's orientation was op- State University of New York. His in15

fluence is continued in this country through the "Journal of Individual Psychology," although leading exponents of Adler have modified his original position. Whatever is said about Adler, his early and intimate association with Freud should not be dismissed too readily. It may be true, as Adler and his advocates contend, that he was not a disciple of Freud. He was by his own definition, a co-worker with Freud in the "psychology of neurosis." Furthermore, Adler recognized the debt which all modern psychology, including Individual Psychology, owes to Freudian psychoanalysis. Lewis Way suggests that Freud and Adler do not differ over fundamental facts as much as their interpretation of them3 Urban and Ford note, however, that Adler differed from Freud in the most fundamental and basic fashions possible. 2 Both may be true. What is important to acknowledge, for the purposes of this essay, is that Adler's Individual Psychology needs to be understood in relation to, as well as distinct from, Freud. It is difficult to assess why the thought of Adler is not more widely known. His clear break from Freud no doubt placed him outside the mainstream of psychoanalytic thought, particularly in the United States. That Adler's influence would have continued more on the Continent is not surprising, if Allport's LockeanLiebnitzian contrast is appropriate. The absence of a clearly defined system has made it easy for Adler's thought to be absorbed by others without retaining its own identity. Adler's Sometimes sim1. Lewis Way, Adler's Place in Psychology. New York: CoUier Books, 1962, p. 287. 2. Donald H. Ford and Hugh B. Urban, Systems o} Psychotherapy. New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1963, pp. 304-365. 16

plistic terminology and his inclination to be moralistic frequently diluted the depth of his insights. Furthermore, his effort to make popular his psychological ideas and his appeal to common sense won Adler disfavor among many in the medical profession. Biographers of Adler note a significant change after his return in 1916 from medical duty during the war. To the dismay of some colleagues, he emphasized more than before the human necessity of gemeinschaftsgefiihl or community feeling. Because he believed that the whole civilization had become ordered by a false interpretation of life, Adler felt he could not limit his ideas to a narrow circle. Despite such early religious advocates as Ernst Jahn, Rudolf, Allers, and Fritz Kunkel, it is not surprising that Individual Psychology has had very little direct influence on the movement of pastoral care in the United States. During the time when pastoral care was self-consciously about the task of gaining recognition and respect from the scientifically oriented psychoanalytic tradition, it would have been disadvantageous to identify with Adler's nontechnical, non-scientific "common sense" approach to the human psyche. Furthermore, his optimism about human nature was certainly contrary to the existentialist and neo-orthodox pessimism that dominated the theological scene during Adler's span of life. Recent shifts in both theology and psychotherapy should make Adler's position more acceptable to religious counselors. The theology of hope presumes a kind of optimism about the human situation at the same time that it directs our attention to the future. Therapeutic psychology continues to recognize the unscientific nature of its discipline and the significance of phenomenology for understanding human behavior. Social PASTORALPSYCHOLOGY/OCTOBER 1970

tion. It is both a normative goal and a direction-giving goal. Adler does not blush at the metaphysical overtones to this normative ideal of mankind as community. There is no science, he contends, that does not enter the realm of metaphysics. Adler also recognizes /he kinship between gemeinscha]tsgefiihl and the religious admonition to 'love the brother.' Even though from the Christian perspective I would quibble with the etiology of this fellowmanship (mitmensehlichkeit), Adler's communal emphasis is a helpful corrective to the individualism that has frequently dominated Christian theology and the pastoral care movement. Whatever psychological and theological theories might undergird our efforts on behalf of humanity must begin with the assumption that man is inextricably bound to being in community. Contrary to what one might assume Man's Innate Feeling ]or Communhy from the label Adler himself chose for One of the most significant features his movement, Individual Psychology of Adler's thought is his idea of gemein- considers all important problems, needs, scha[tsge[iihl, what has mistakenly been or values within the larger social contranslated as "social interest." Such text. Language, intelligence, and comconnotations of 'social' as conformity mon sense all proceed from and find or gregariousness coupled with the in- their validation in the common meaning nocuous quality of 'interest' do not re- held by society. Even so, Adler seems to flect Adler's conviction that human be- preserve the idiosyncratic quality of ings are innately predisposed toward a personhood while at the same time infeeling for community. "Every human sisting on the communal nature of hubeing brings the disposition for social man life. The individual gains his uninterest with him; but then it must be iqueness through his willingness to act developed through upbringing, especially as a functional unit of the community. through correct guidance of the creative "If the community needs the unique power of the individual. ''3 The "iron individual for the purpose of its own logic of communal life" means for enrichment, the individual also needs the community to give him his uniqueness. ''4 Adler that every individual's unique goal must be embedded in the social situa- Such interactional mutuality is, according to Adler, the best guarantee for the continued existence of human beings. 3. Alfred Adler, Superiority and Social InThe three words that most accurately terest, ed. by Heinz L. and Rowena R. Ansbacher. Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press, 1964, p. 140. 4. Way, .;idler's Place in Psychology, p. 197.

psychology in general and field theory or general systems theory in particular have refocused our interest in the indivldual's adaptation to his social context. Who has caught up with whom is immaterial. The point is that some of the new directions in the therapeutic disciplines make it more likely that Adler will have a long overdue hearing. Many themes in Adler are worth noting. My intent, however, is to indicate those aspects of Adler's thought that are readily germane to specific concerns in pastoral care. The themes selected from Adler reflect some of my biases regarding the future direction of pastoral care. Primary attention will be given to Adler's teleology and to his understanding of community feeling (or gemeinschaftsgefiihl) with some reference to organ inferiority, the origins, and the treatment of neurosis.

17

describe the character of gemelnscha[tsgefiihl are identification, other-directedness, and cooperation. Adler means something quite different than Freud by the term identification. It includes the ability to understand, to see with the eyes of the other, to have empathy. "The capacity for identification, which alone makes us capable of friendship, love of mankind, sympathy, occupation, and love is the basis of social interest and can be practiced and exercised only in conjunction with others. ''~ Sympathy is only a partial expression of identification. Adler observes that the child is primariIy other-directed in its impulses of affection. Self-boundedness, by contrast, is an artifact thrust upon the child during his education by the nature of the social structure. The traditional theological and psychoanalytic notion that man is somehow by nature incurvatus in se, or narcissistic, is, according to Adler, an erroneous conclusion. The willingness to cooperate and mix with other persons is the only natural attitude of life. The opposite of cooperation is a negative, neurotic, or autistic style of life. Adler's practical remedy for the neurotic conflict is to give up egotism and return to cooperation. It should be noted that Adler's emphasis on cooperation and community feeling does not necessitate an attitude of acquiescence or unconditional accommodations to the present social order, or to the wishes of others. In fact, a true social feeling would impel the person to eliminate existing social evil. Passive conformity is no more appropriate to community feeling than private logic. Each person is regarded as having something of unique value 5. Heinz L. and Rowena R. Aasbacher, eds., The Individual Psychology oJ AlJred Adler. New York: Harper and Row, 1964, p. 136. 18

for the whole of reality. Nonetheless, Adler places a high priority on social usefulness. "In our view, a man of genius is primarily a man of supreme usefulness . . . The origin of genius lies neither in the inherited organism nor in the environmental influences, but in that third sphere of individual reaction, which includes the possibility of soeialIy affirmative action. ''s Criminals, neurotics, problem children, and psychotics all operate in different ways on the socially useless side of life. Such persons lack the necessary courage and feeling of interdependence that would enable them to make a useful contribution to the community. Meaning in life is found by contributing to the whole of human activity. Adler considers friendship, occupation, and marriage to be the three practical tasks of life. All three of these demand for their resolution a developed interest in other persons. These tasks arise from the inseparable bond that necessarily links men together for association, for the provision of livelihood, and for the care of offspring. Because these tasks are very closely connected to one another, every person's style of life is reflected more or less in the phasespecific way of Erik Erikson, and the focus on the psychology of adulthood is very much the same. In terms of man and his society, I suspect that the therapeutic truth lies somewhere between Adler and R. D. Laing. At a time when anti-social or at least asocial behavior patterns are too common to be automatically considered pathological, gemeinschaftsgeffthl is a welcome word. There is theological justification for the conviction that selfboundedness, social isolation, or the ab6. Ibid., p. 153. PASTORAL PSYCHOLOGX/OCTOBER 1970

sence of community feeling are ultimately self-destructive both for the individual and his society. Adler's somewhat naive optimism about human nature should not be allowed to obscure his cogent observations on the social quality of existence and the necessity for community. What this means for pastoral care is an increased attention to the social embeddedness of every human dilemma. Goal-Setting and the Future Adler's theology holds that the psychic life of man is determined by his goal. This goal is a fiction or creation of the individual. A goal is subjective, created by the person, and most often unconscious. It functions to provide a unity to the personality (what Adler refers to the guiding self-ideal) and a schema by which the individual finds his way. A fiction is a mental structure that enables one to deal with reality effectively. It has the essential flavor of 'as if'. Although every man's goal is his own creation, it is influenced by the impressions which the environment gives to the child. By the age of four or five, this goal has been set. "Such a goal not only determines a direction which promises security, power, and perfection, but a/so awakens the corresponding feelings and emotions through that which it promises. ''7 Because every man in some way moves toward a goal, there are limitations to human freedom. Adler refers to this as "soft determinism," by which he means that the goal is se/fimposed rather than caused by external pressures on the ~ndividual. To have a goal is to aspire uhimately to be like God or to be perfect. The idea of God functions as the harmonic complementation for all groping and erring movements in life. The idea of perfec7. Ibid., p." 100.

tion or socialism or pure social interest could do just as well. "Whether one calls the highest effective goal deity, or socialism, or as we do, the pure idea of social interest, or as others calls it in obvious connection with social interest, ego ideal, it always reflects the same ruling, perfection promising grace-giving goal of overcoming.''s Whatever it is called, it is the same "mysterious creative power of life" that expresses itself in the striving after a goal, and this gives meaning to human activity. Some mention needs to be made of Adler's attitudes toward religion, though it is not my intention to demonstrate how Adler was more or less sympathetic than Freud to the religious enterprise. Adler was not a religious man in any theistic sense. He was a humanist with a deep concern for social justice and had a positive attitude toward socially relevant aspects of religion. Religious faith for Adler functions as an interim sort of thing until it can be replaced by such profound insight that will dispel error and teach virtue to everyone. Until that utopian state is achieved, Adler contends it ,is very natural for people to concretize and/or contemplate God as the highest idea of perfection. Adler labels the self-consistent movement toward a goal the "style of life," which not only includes the goal but also the individual's self-perception and his perception of the world, as well as the unique way in which he is attempting to achieve his goal. The foremost task of Individual Psychology is to prove this (self-consistent) unity in each individual--in his thinking, feeling, acting, in his so-called conscious and unconscious, in every expression of his personality. This (self-consistent) unity we call the style of life of the indi8. Adler, Superiority and Social Interest, 277-278.

pp.

19

viduaI. What is frequently labeled the ego is nothing more than the style of the individual.9 The unity to each person's style of life grows out of difficulties in early life and out of the striving for a goal. Some of this falls under the category called "schema of apperception" which is roughly equivalent to the individual's subjective view of himself and the world. Every person's apperception is biased and constant in favor of the original meaning given to life and the goal set to achieve that meaning. The style of life is a unique creation, albeit an unconscious one, of the individual. Adler insists that this uniqueness of the individual cannot be expressed by general rules nor can it be judged by any measure of probability nor is it unchangeably fixed. "Everything can also be different. 'u~ Because he sees a unity and a self-consistency to every individual's style of life, it is important for Adler to consider the person in a holistic way. The similarity between Individual Psychology and Gestalt psychology is extensive at this point, although Adler holds that the latter needs to be supplemented by the former "in order to be able to form any conclusion regarding the attitude of the individual in the life process. ''11 It follows from Adler's holistic, selfconsistent view of the unity of the individ.ual that the traditional psychoanalytic distinction between conscious and unconscious is a fiction which the person may use to escape responsibility for his behavior. For Adler, the unconscious is simply that part of the human psyche which is not understood. Man knows 9. Ansbachers, Individual Psychology, p. 175. 10. Ibid., p. 194. 11. Adler, Superiority and Social Interest, p. 39. 20

more than he understands. The unconscious is that which we have been unable to formulate in a clear concept. The unconscious becomes conscious when it is understood. The conscious life becomes unconscious as soon as we fail to understand it. There is no contradiction between consciousness and unconsciousness except that we are likely to become conscious of only those things that enhance our goal and leave the rest undisturbed or unconscious. Both are governed by the same rules. Rather than saying that the conscious and the unconscious are in conflict, Adler argues that each human being can ,only be understood as a whole, unified structure which is complete in itself. Moving from a Minus to a Plus Situation

Adler's first published writing focused on the inferiority of organs and the biological principle of compensation whereby an individual strives to overcome inferiority. Taking his cue from Darwin, Adler proposed that human adaptation and development press toward overcoming expressions of inferiority by organic or psychic compensation. " . . . the historical movement of humanity is to be regarded as the history of its feeling of inferiority and of its efforts to find a solution of its problems. Set in motion at one time or another the material of life has been constantly bent on reaching a plus from a minus situation. 'u2 This movement toward overcoming should not be confused with Nietzsche's 'will to power' which Adler used to describe a neurotic fiction aimed at ending inner insecurity. It is rather a movement from a minus to a plus situation. Everybody begins a life from the position of inferiority. Man enters the world 12. Ibid., p. 97. PASTORAL PSYCHOLOGY/OCTOBER 1970

of adults as a weak, helpless, ignorant infant. Compared to the gigantic, apparently self-sufficient adults who inhabit his world, the infant feels dependent and primarily inferior. "This is the driving force, the point from which originate and develop all the child's efforts to posit a goal for himself from which he expects all comfort and safeguarding of his life for the future, and which causes him to enter a course which appears suitable for the achievement of this goal. 'u3 Such striving for superiority should be understood as a normal consequence of human adaption and self-enhancement. It is considered neurotic ,only when the striving for superiority becomes an exaggerated compensation for deep feelings of inferiority. An inferiority complex results when an individual does not find a proper concrete goal of superiority. The inferiority complex leads to a desire for escape and this desire for escape is expressed in a superiority complex, which is a goal on the useless side of life. As long as the striving for superiority includes the normal amount of social interest, it is considered a natural category of life. Apart from the natural inferiority that characterizes every human entrance into the world, Adler posits three specific instances that may result in Jeelings of inferiority which in turn will cause a neurotic striving for superiority. (1) Children born with specific organ inferiority experience their bodies as burden and frequently over-compensate by becoming inconsiderate and selfish on their way to feeling superior. (2) Inferiority feelings also develop where there is an environment that pampers children. "Living in a kind of symbiosis, like parasites, always connected with their mother, their goal of superiority is

to make this relationship permanent. 'u4 (3) Unwanted or neglected children develop the same desire to suppress, the same lack of social interest, and the same shyness and suspicion. Inferior organs, pampering, or neglect frequently mislead children into a struggle for power and conquest which contradicts the welfare of the individual and his larger community. The pampered or neglected child must continually strive for superiority without community feeling because his feelings of inferiority intensify as the demands of the external world increase. Whether by neglect or pampering, a neurotic is essentially a person with a false interpretation of life. lie lacks community feeling. He is hypersensitive and exceedingly cautious, liis feelings of insecurity and inferiority have led him to build a fiction which provides a safeguard against the problems of life. The neurotic's "schema of apperception" is such that all experience will be "eitheror"----either inferior or superior, either weak or strong. Because of his false assumptions, all of life is a battleground of triumph or defeat. The goal of perfection becomes absolute. The neurotic creates a gulf between the private and the real which can no longer be bridged by any form of logic. There are innumerable nuances in Adler's discussion of neurosis that are not as marketable as they might otherwise be because of the lack of systematic presentation and because the words used to describe neurotic behavior patterns are often so common and non-technical that it is difficult to see them as anything other than homespun philosophy. Since all failures in life ultimately result from a lack of community feeling, the task of therapy in Individual Psychology is to change the patient's goal by develop-

13. Ansbachers, Individual Psychology, p. 115.

14. Ibid., p. 118. !21

ing increased interest on the useful side of life. Insight alone cannot accomplish such a transformation. It requires the recovery of courage, which Adler equates with activity plus social interest. Resistance is only a lack of courage to return to the useful side of life. Approach to Treatment The Ansbachers outline three stages of treatment in Adler. is The first, of course, focuses on understanding the unique, self-consistent style of life of the patient. A tentative hypothesis of the patient's life-style is gained through empathy, intuition, and guessing. Adlet's mention .of guessing as a part of the diagnostic process helps to dispel the notion that therapy is a science rather than an art. Understanding of the patient's life-plan is best acquired through artistic and intuitive empathy with the essential nature of the patient. Adler also recognized the value of exploring such things of the past as (1) the earliest childhood recollections, (2) the position of the child in the birth order, (3) childhood disorders, (4) day and night dreams, and (5) the nature of the exogenous factor that causes the illness. The important aspect of this phase in the treatment process is to focus on the total person that is expressed by means of a self-consistent style of life. So far, there is very little new for pastoral care. Secondly, this understanding which the therapist has of the patient must be told to the patient so that he will accept this interpretation despite his predictable initial negativism and lack of cooperation. The patient's cure or reorienration is brought about by a correction of the faulty picture of his world and the acceptance of a more mature picture of himself and his world. Again there 15. Ibid. 22

are themes common to pastoral care. The work and success of the patient's cure is his responsibility. The therapeutic contract is a relationship of equals in which the patient is treated as a co-worker. Whatever explanations are made to the counselee should be done so clearly that he knows and feels his own experience instantly. There is, h~owever, a didactic quality to the counseling enterprise, as Adler prescribes it, that the pastoral care movement has sought to move away from through its emphasis on insight. Adler is much more optimistic about the conscious process of rethinking and retraining. Explanation rather than reflecti.on is the dominant mode. Adler's position presumes considerable confidence in education as a means of altering a selfish or .otherwise unsatisfactory style of life. The years of emphasis on insight were (and still are) necessary for pastoral care, but we have also learned the limitations of time and skill and acceptable counselees for such an approach. In more than some problem areas, personal insight is still the best therapeutic goal. In many other instances, however, retraining, behavior mo.dification, or some other kind of learning experience that acknowledges the power of consciousness is in order. The third phase of the treatment process is to strengthen the patient's selfinterest by giving him a continued experience of fellowship through the therapeutic relationship. Where the mother has failed to give her child the most c0mplete possible experience of human fellowship and to develop a feeling for community, it is necessary for the counselor to function analogously to the mother by creating an atmosphere of love in which the counselee is encouraged to develop a ~operative style of PASTORAL PSYCHOLOGY/OCTOBER 19%

life and a socially useful goal toward which to strive. Adler is correct in stressing that his goal-oriented therapeutic approach requires a feeling of courage, along with hope, in order to counteract the feelings of entrapment that may obstruct one's movement toward the furore. For all of its common kind of wisdom, there are flaws in Adlet's therapeutic approach that could set pastoral care back to its former days of preachments and moral judgments. That is one reason I am encouraging a rediscovery of Adler with cauti~ous enthusiasm. Despite the absence of any easily recognizable contribution to psychological thought, Adler's influence on the development of dynamic psychology has been widespread, though unheralded. Adler and Allport have much in common. Both theorists might be classified as idiographic teleologists because of their stress on purposive striving by individuals who can create approximate styles of life, who can intend the future, and whose constant, self-consistent changing makes typologies ,only approximately useful. There are numerous comparisons [hat might be made between Adler's holistic approach and'existential analytic thought without suggesting any causal connection. In general, both schools of psychology deviate from the mechanistic, reductionistic, and historical views, in the direction of greater emphasis on the individual's uniqueness and responsibility. In addition to being Gestaltist and holistic in character, Adler's thought has significant affinity to field theory, humanistic psychology, Erik Erikson's psychosocial theory, and the neo-Freudian culturalists. Some of these similarities might belong in the category of Zeitgeist. Individual Psychology can, however, be

appropriately classified with both the "third force" in psychology and with social psychological theories. This is partly because Adler has been able to insist on the uniqueness of the indivi.dual while stressing at the same time that every person is embedded in the social context. However, this global tendency in Adler's thought, which makes it possible to connect it with a wide variety of theories, is both an asset and a liability. Admittedly, Adler's Individual Psychology has many flaws, not the least o~ which is the absence of a clearly articulated system. In his e~orts to counteract the presumed mechanistic reductionistic nature of Freudian thought Adler tends to overstate his case. His oversimplification of complex human behavior into a few large concepts and a limited number of principles is a major defect from the psychoanalytic point of view, but it might be understood as a plus for Adler's contribution to pastoral care. One of the temptations for pastors who "specialize" in caring and counseling is to be enamored with the psychotherapeutic jargon, perhaps under the delusion that to be a "real" healer of psyches, one must know the proper incantations. If for no other reason than that his terminology is pragmatic, nontechnical, an.d hence more understandable for most people, pastoral care could benefit from a transfusion of Adler's Individual Psychology.

The Significance o] a Future-time Perspective There are several themes from Adler that might be clustered around his teleology that are of importance for the future of pastoral care. The rediscovery of the future as active in the present has enable_d some theolo~ian.~ to speak of 23

hope. To be sure, Adler's optimism and Christian hope do not carry the same content, but the dynamic is similar. Human life, collective or individual, does not move toward a static future point, but that future shapes the present and past. The psychoanalytic predilection to the past which has also characterized the pastoral care movement needs to be reexamined. If to intend a goal is a human necessity, then an individual's future perspective may be more important than his past memories for the pastoral process. A person is free to change only a goal that he understands. That is Adler's way of describing making the unconscious conscious. It is also a part of the counselor's task to enable a person to envisage a new goal consonant with the norm of gemeinscha]tsge/iihl. Goal-setting may then beeome an important part of the process of pastoral earing. One of Adler's contributions to pastoral care may simply be a change in the time direction. The human psyche needs to be understood prospectively as well as retrospectively. In contrast to some of the more radical futurists, Adler's view of the future is not entirely open. With his stress on the "fiction" or "goal" that "eauses" a particular style of life to develop, one might argue that Adler has substituted one closed system for another. However, very few persons are able to cope with a radieally open future without goals or dreams toward which to move. Adler seems to be aware of the danger that these goals might foreclose possible change in the future by being absolutized. Everything, Adler reminds us, can be different. That hope--modified with a little more realism than Adler exhibits ---undergirds any effective, ehange-produeing helping relationship. 24

The Significance o] zldler's "Style o] Li/e" Adler's emphasis on the individual as an actor in creating his own goal or style of life supports the theological notion of responsibility. Man is not a hapless pawn. He can and does determine the movement of his life. Although an individual's goal or style of life is rooted in a period when, as a child, he is ineapable of conceptualizing and refleeting on his experience, it is still his own goal for which he is responsible. If it can be understood that every individual is an active contributor to his own style of life, then questions of responsibility, ethics, and sin can be dealt with in a more open way in pastoral earing situations than they have been dealt with in the past. There is an emphasis on behavior in Adler's stress on "style of life" that sounds similar to current trends in psychology. Adler was phenomenological in that he took seriously the person's subjeetive version of how he experienced his world. His "biased apperception" is a helpful tool for understanding the unique way in which each man views himself and his world. Adler also recognized the significance of behavior. Lewis Way quotes him as saying, "Close your eyes to what a man says and look at what he does. 'u6 Although I am not suggesting that pastoral eare should emulate Adler's moralistie readiness to judge a style of life as "wrong," there is a sense in which ethical neutrality is a luxury which the pastoral earing person cannot afford. The holistie approach to understanding persons that characterizes Adler's thought has beeome commonplace in pastoral care. The old dualistic battles 16. Way, .'Idler's Place in Psychology, p. 316. PASTORAL PSYCHOLOGY/OCTOBER 1970

are generally over. There is, however, still something alluring about the psychiatrist's ability to parse the psyche. In any relationship with a person in distress, there is something assuring about classifying or categorizing the experience rather than being compelled to discover the uniqueness of this particular person. One can finall.y understand a whole person as a whole or totality. Ir~dividium means precisely that personality is an undivided, indivisible unity. Adler's phenomenology de,serves serious attention. Egos are like souls. They may exist but we can't see them. What is evident, however, is a unique and selfconsistent style of life which the individual has selected to achieve the goal he himself has chosen. Admittedly, this is not always a conscious process. His style of life is nonetheless the individual's own responsibility, despite whatever stimulus he has received from his environment. The goal of counseling is primarily a conscious redirection away from a privatized meaning for life toward community feeling and self-esteem. Adler's convictions seem to coincide with the limitations of pastoral care.

The Sfgnificance o~ ddler's Gemeinschaftsge/iihl /or Pastoral Care Adler's kinship with field theory is in the recognition that every action of the individual has to be understood within a particular field of forces. Although Hiltner pointed in the direction of a field theory, the pastoral care movement has not really taken seriously the interaction between the individual and his particular social context. It is debatable whether Adler has sacrificed something of the Eigenwelt for the Mitwelt. His emphasis on social usefulness tends toward making the social order the highest priority. Adler's imprecise definition

for your copies of

Because of a number of requests from readers, we have arranged for the manufacture of special binders for your copies of PASTORAL PSYCHOLOGY.

Each binder holds a full year's issues. The special wire holders are easily inserted and hooked into the end damps. This is the kind of binder used in many libraries. It is sturdily made, of the highest quality materials, and is usually sold at comparably high prices. But we are making k available to our subscribers at cost, in place of the more expensive and less practical bound volumes "of the past." Just send $3 to PASTORAL PSYCHOLOGY, Manhasset, L. I., New

York 11030, and your binder will be shipped to you, all charges prepaid by return mail. 25

much to contribute to the future of pastoral care.

of the self suggests a similar direction. And yet, over and over again, Adler comes back to his fundamental conviction that psychology deals with unique individuals; but equally important, it deals with persons as they appear to other persons within a larger social context. From Adler's perspective, pastoral ministry .to the whole person would necessarily include an individual's own social context9 Every action of the individual has to be understood within the field in which it takes place, and within the framework of the total personality. Adler's gerneinscha]tsgefiihl describes the intimate relationship between the individual and his society as both an innate disposition and the goal for human life. The pastoral setting is ideally situated to work toward effecting such a mutuality without neglecting either the idiographic quality of the individual or the social embeddedness of human existence. One-to-one pastoral caring relationships are effective to the degree that they pay attention to the organic mutuality between the individual and his community. In that respect, Adler has

BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR ALFRED ADLER Adler, Alfred, The Practice and Theory o] Individual Psychology, Routledge and Kegan Paul, Ltd., 1923 (Collected essays.) Adler, Alfred, Superiority and Social Interest, edited by Heinz and Rowena Ansbacher, Northwestern University Press, 1964. (Collected later writings.) Adler, Alfred, Understanding Human Nature, Fawcett Premier Book, 1927, 1954. Adler, Alfred, Problems o/Neurosis (book of case histories), edited by Heinz Ansbacher, Harper Torchbook, 1929, 1964. Adler, Alfred, The Problem Child (life style of difficult child analyzed in specific cases), Capricorn Books, 1963. Adler, Alfred, Social Interest: A Challenge to Mankind (summation and restatement) Capricorn Books, 1964. Adler, Alfred, The Science o/Living, Garden City (N.Y.) Publishing Company, 1929. (Introduction by Phillipe Mairet.) Adler, Alfred, The Individual Psychology oJ Al/red Adler, edited and with commentary by Heinz L. and Rowena R. Ansbacher, Harper Torchbook, 1964. (The best introductory volume.)

III

9 . . IF REALsuccess i 8 to attend the effort to brinff a man to a definite poskion, one must first of all take pains to find him where he is and begin there. This is the secret of the art of helping others. Anyone who has not mastered this is himself deluded when he proposes to help others. In order to help another effectively, I must understand more than he--yet first of all, surely, I must understand what he understands. If I do not know that, my greater understanding will be of no help to him . . . . --SoREr~ KIERKXCAARD,as quoted by Fm~mcH SCHmTT in Getting Along With Difficult People (Fortress Press, 1970).

26

PASTORALPSYCHOLOGY/OCTOBER1970