Reality therapy is not useful in treating problems in which there is severe withdrawal (as in autism) or cases involving serious mental retardation. To be effective, reality therapy presupposes that clients are able to communicate and are both willing and able to cultivate habits of self-discipline and personal responsibility.
ADLERIAN PSYCHOTHERAPY
For individuals interested in personal growth,
especially in social directions, and for persons
with low self-esteem who feel blocked and
discouraged about life.
The greatest principle of living is to love one's neighbor as oneself.
Rabbi Akiva, writing 2,000 years ago
Alfred Adler (1870-1937) was a contemporary of Freud. Early in his career, Adler was invited by Freud to participate in his special circle of professionals interested in the development of psychoanalysis. Adler's already formulated views were not in accord with Freud's, their differences became more pronounced, and Adler eventually separated himself from psychoanalysis. Freud was embittered and became a lifelong enemy of Adler.
In contrast to Freud's technical and abstract theory, Adler's is humanistic, open, and concrete. Where Freudian analysis believes that emotional disturbances have a sexual basis, Adlerian therapy claims that neurosis comes about through distorted perceptions and from habits and attitudes that are learned. In Adler's system of individual psychology, there is no concern for unconscious processes or for internal divisions of the self into id, superego, and ego. Adlerians stress that a person forms a unity and must be treated as a whole.
Adler's approach to psychotherapy is based on the view that feelings of inferiority are normal. They exist in children, and they continue to be present in adults who may feel weak psychologically, socially, or because of physical limitations. To compensate for feelings of inferiority, adults strive for superiority by dealing effectively with the world, or they become deeply discouraged (however, they are not considered to be "sick") and lose contact with positive, constructive activities.
Adler also postulated that emotional difficulties come about when you are convinced that you simply cannot solve the problems of life in a way that is compatible with a need to be superior in some way. Certain attempts to compensate for feelings of inferiority can lead to emotional problems later. They include seeking a feeling of superiority by requiring attention from others, striving for power over others, taking revenge, and giving up—declaring that you cannot cope because of personal deficiencies and weakness. Children from families where there is distrust, domination, abuse, or neglect tend to choose these paths.
Another facet of Adler's approach is that individuals who cannot compensate for feelings of inferiority are inclined to make a number of "basic mistakes" in perceiving the world. They will overgeneralize ("Nobody cares about me."), depreciate their worth ("I'm just a housewife."), set unrealistic goals ("I should please everyone."), distort ("You have to lie to get ahead."), and hold faulty values ("Win, even if you have to climb over others.").
Finally, Adler felt that, over the course of their lives, many people strengthen these basic mistakes while in pursuit of the ultimately unsatisfying desires for attention, power, revenge, or escape. Their styles of living may lead to depression, chronic anxiety, crime, alcoholism, drug abuse, and other problems.