#adlerian

[psychinfo]

“It is the individual who is not interested in his fellow men who has the greatest difficulties in life and provides the greatest injury to others. It is from among such individuals that all human failures spring.” - Alfred Adler, What Life Could Mean to You

Alfred Adler is one of my personal favorite historical figures of all time, and his theories and quotes have seemed very applicable to recent events.  Adler may be best known for his theory of Gemeinschaftsgefühl, AKA social interest/community feeling.  Adlerian psychology teaches us that without prosocial behavior (things that we do to benefit others), we are unable to grow.  An important piece of social interest is that it is active, not passive.  It is not good enough to care about others or want to help - it is actually taking those actions to benefit others that will in turn benefit you!

If you’re interested, you can take a look at my post on Adlerian Theory in Counseling here.  I’m also always happy to answer questions or recommend articles/books that you can read to learn more!

[psychinfo]

[psychinfo]

Gemeinschaftsgefühl: What is it and why should you care?

I believe I’ve mentioned this before, but just in case you don’t know, I am currently attending Adler University, which is a school of Adlerian (or Individual) psychology.  One of the most important concepts of Adlerian psychology is gemeinschaftsgefühl.  Gemeinschaftsgefühl is a German word that translates to “communal feeling”, and is often referred to as “social interest” or “social feeling” as well.  This concept is the reason that I chose to attend an Adlerian school for my Master’s degree - to me, this is one of the most important concepts for us to understand.

One important thing to note about gemeinschaftsgefühl is that it is not referring to an instinct or a passive feeling that we have as a part of human nature.  Gemeinschaftsgefühl is the act of feeling in a communal way.  This is manifested when we do things to deliberately benefit other people.  The word “deliberately” is key here - gemeinschaftsgefühl is not doing things for ourselves that also happen to benefit others, but doing things for the purpose of benefiting other people.

Adlerian psychology teaches that in order for us to grow and be healthy, we must engage in communally beneficial behaviors.  If we neglect to do these things, we may be left feeling stuck or dissatisfied, and we will not grow as individuals.  Communally beneficial behaviors don’t necessarily have to be grand gestures or take up a lot of time and money, either.  You don’t have to volunteer all your time to help people in need or donate all of your extra money.  Communally beneficial behaviors can include checking in on friends if you know they’re struggling, mowing your neighbor’s lawn when they need extra help, or creating content intended to make people laugh.  Doing small things to help people fosters wellbeing and personal growth, and we should all be doing things to help others.

During the current COVID-19 pandemic, our sense of gemeinschaftsgefühl is more important than ever.  There are so many people around us who are suffering as a result of the pandemic - people who can’t leave their homes to buy food because they are immunocompromised, people who have lost their jobs and source of income, people who have lost childcare as a result of schools closing...  We all have opportunities to do something, even if it is as simple as giving someone a phone call to help them from feeling lonely or picking up someone’s groceries for them.  Like I said, these don’t have to be grand gestures.  Every little bit will help other people, and will help you, too.

[psychinfo]

[psychinfo]

I know I’ve been pretty inactive lately on this page, but I wanted to talk about one of the reasons why!  In August, I started working on my Master’s degree(!!!) in Clinical Mental Health Counseling, which believe it or not, takes a whole lot of time.  I’m an online student for 51 weeks every year, but for one week in October, I get to go on campus for an intensive residency where we get to practice our counseling skills with each other in person!

This is a picture of me at my school, Adler University.  Adler is a really great school because not only does it promote Adlerian values, but it is also heavily involved in social justice and encourages (even requires) students to be social justice workers and advocates.  As stated in their mission statement, “We are out to change the world for the better.”

[ayyyyytothena]

'Fake it 'till you made it' - AJ, 03/02/22

Fake it until no one sees it.

Make it real 'til everything feels surreal.

No one will know.

Play your part beautifully,

'till people doubting either you're in pain or not.

Lead them to the path that they think they could manipulate you,

but the truth is it's the other way around.

Choose your word properly.

Choose it, so you can control the audience.

Let them think that they're right.

Hence, it's the other way around.

Human are born to survive.

They will survive no matter what it takes.

Once again Aldrerian, your philosophy never fails to amuse me.

[tritera]

STOICISM ON THE FREEDOM FROM INFLUENCES AND WITHDRAWAL FROM THE WORLD

It had been said by many Stoic Philosophers that the only way to freedom is to have withdrawn from the world. In my perspective as a Stoicism student, this is true but not entirely. Whilst we long for freedom, we are merely social creatures, built by the Higher One for community. It has been long studied that people do well when there is a sense of belonging. When one is part of a big picture. Not only are we socials, but the main point of our being is to serve others in the sense of the four virtues of Stoicism. In Adlerian philosophy, it was stated that our impressions and problems all stem from our connection with other people. If we root out the depths of our problems, we realize that everything we feel and do all comes from how we perceive others and how others perceive us. We feel sad because someone has said something to us, or we feel inferior because we compare ourselves. What if we take out the people? We will still feel sad as we crave human affection. And again, it all comes down to our nature as social creatures. In my perspective, what Seneca was trying to say as to withdraw from the world is to withdraw from the impressions the world has on us. That in whatever we do, we are free from any influences, and constantly flowing with life yet stern in philosophy’s guidance. We will be like waves of water, tossed and turned wherever the wind desires, but as we are, we will remain, Water does not change when a storm comes, nor does it do so in the brightest of the day. A water is still water despite the weather that may come.

[rmdreier]

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