Alfred Adler, who many consider to be the father of modern psychology differed greatly from Sigmund Freud.  In fact, Adler was once part of Freud’s psychoanalytic society, but was removed due to many of his differences from Freud considering human potential and his insistence on looking farther than merely ones parental upbringing but also looking at multiple other social aspects.  He also differed from Freud in the counselor client relationship.  It is of then wonder than many human centered philosophies, such as Rogerian counseling, stemmed and can trace its roots back to Adler.

Please also review AIHCP’s numerous healthcare certifications, as well as behavioral and mental health certifications in grief counseling, trauma informed care, stress management, anger management, crisis intervention, as well spiritual and Christian counseling

Adlerian Counseling

Alfred Adler’s approach was far less pessimistic than Freud’s outlook and instead of subconscious determinism, Adler saw potential (Tan, 2022).   Adler focused on goal orientation with less focus on the subconscious and more attention to the conscious mind to meet goals and develop one’s potential (Tan, 2022).   This led to Adler’s “Individual Psychology” that looked at a more wholistic view point of human nature rather  than just limiting to subconscious and biology factors.  Below are some of his key concepts in approaching psychology and counseling.

Subjective Perception of Reality

Adler took a phenomenological approach to human experience as something subjective to the agent and how the agent responds to a myriad of experiences.  This approach is very much tied to numerous modern schools of thought.  The counselor instead of quietly and out of view interpreting instead becomes an active agent in discussing these experiences with the client (Tan 2022).

Unity and Holistic Development

Adler focused on the full holistic of human nature, emphasizing the purpose of life goals and meeting those goals.  In doing, so Adler is famous for identifying and coining the term “inferiority complex”.  Many attribute this term due to the fact Adler was one of many children and faced inferiority complexes himself.    Adler believed that one could overcome these inferiority complexes by continuing to strive for perfection and competence.   He, however, warned of how inferiority complexes can become pathological, as well as superiority complexes which is merely a mask of feeling inferior (Tan, 2022).

Social Interest and Community Feeling

Adler also emphasized the importance of the individual’s role in community and social life as an important part of being a human person.  He also considered how one contributed to society with his or her talents as key part of a healthy mental person (Tan, 2022).

Life Tasks

In contrast to Freuds sexual phases of development, Adler emphasized the importance of completing life tasks.  He listed the task of building friendships, love-marriage task of intimacy and the occupational task of work and making contributions to society.  Later professionals would also add self acceptance, development of spirituality and the parenting and family task. (Tan, 2022).

Birth Order

Key to Adler, since he belonged to a large family, was birthing order and how it plays a significant role in one’s personality.  Like Freud, Adler maintained most of one’s personality is formed within the first 6 years of life, so naturally birth order and the family paradigm was important.   Birthing order to Adler did not always necessarily mean by chronical order, but also sometimes with maturity, as well as groupings of children who were far younger than maybe the first two children who were close of age.  Within this, Adler categorized eldest characteristics, as well as middle child and youngest child (Tan, 2022).

Counselor/Client Relationship

Adler is seen as the father of modern psychology because of his patient centered approach to counseling.  He pointed out the importance of a therapeutic relationship with the patient that encourages, shows empathy, and walks with the client.  Important to good counseling are detailed assessment to help the counselor better understand the needs and history of the client.  Following assessment are many probing open ended questioning techniques such as “The Question” which entails asking someone if his/her life was different, what would one like to do and the “what if” questioning.  Adler hoped to help clients see their self worth as well as to identify their self-concept and self ideal in conjunction with their worldview and ethical convictions (Tan, 2022).

Adler emphasized in self assessment and growth the danger of over-generalizations, false or impossible goals, misconceptions of life’s demands, minimization of self and also pointing out faulty values (Tan, 2022).  In doing so Adler developed numerous counseling techniques which include encouragement, immediacy, “as if” exercise, catching oneself prior to bad behavior, creating healthy images, “spitting in the client’s soup”, “Avoidance of the Tar Baby”, push button techniques of controlling emotional regulation, paradoxical intention, task setting and commitment and finally the use of homework for the client (Tan, 2022).

For deeper clarification in some of the terms, “spitting in the client’s soup” is a technique a client uses to take the reward or attraction from something the client seems to be heroic or good.  It permits the client to see more clearly how detrimental their statements or emotions are.  “Avoiding the Tar Baby” is a technique that pushes the client to address issues they hope to avoid.  The “Push Button Technique” is used to help clients visualize pleasant and unpleasant memories and to learn to feel and regulate the emotions within them.  Finally, “paradoxical intention” is a technique that exaggerates a bad behavior to help clients see how ridiculous the behavior already is (Tan, 2022).

Conclusion

Albert Ellis, one of the founders of CBT, considered Alfred Adler to be the true father of modern psychology (Tan, 2022).  It is easy to see why since it goes well beyond psychoanalysis but engages the client with empathy but also helps the client face their behaviors to promote change.  This type of therapy or tools taken from it and borrowed by other schools has proven to be effective for many psychological ailments such as anxiety, affective disorders, personality disorders and anti social disorders.

Please also review AIHCP’s healthcare certifications as well its many behavioral health certifications, including Christian Counseling as well as Grief Counseling.

Additional AIHCP Blogs

Psychoanalytic Counseling: Access here

References

Tan, S-Y. (2022). Counseling and psychotherapy: a Christian perspective. (2nd Edition). Baker Academic, a division of the Baker Publishing Group.

Additional Resources

Cherry, K. (2025). Alfred Adler’s Career, Life, and Theory of Personality. VeryWellMind. Access here

Hoffman, R. (2024). Alfred Adler’s Theory of Individual Psychology and Personality.  Simple Psychology.  Access here

Adlerian Therapy. (2022). Psychology Today. Access here

Sutton, J. (2023). 22 Most Effective Adlerian Therapy Techniques and Worksheets. PositivePsychology.com.  Access here