Lesson 22 Adler & Winnicott NCFE Level 3 Diploma in Counselling Skills

Learning Objectives Case-study group Psychodynamic therapy by Alfred Adler: Birth order ‘Individual Psychology’ Inferiority Complex Psychodynamic therapy by Donald Winnicott: The “good enough mother” The Transitional Object

Alfred Adler http://muskingum.edu/~psych/psycweb/history/adler.htm Alfred Adler was born on February 7, 1870 in the suburbs of Vienna. Alfred did not walk until he was four because he suffered from rickets. At the age of five, he almost died of pneumonia. These events are what motivated him to became a physician. Growing up, Alfred was a very outgoing, popular, and involved scholar. Married, had 4 children and both became psychiatrists. http://muskingum.edu/~psych/psycweb/history/adler.htm

Birth Order

Individual Psychology Social Psychology: “We are fully functioning units who somehow have to cope with living together on this planet. We need each other.” We are all “goal-directed human-beings”: “We move purposefully through life towards goals which attract us. Therefore we are not driven by the past, but rather attracted by the future, a future which we create for ourselves.” There is purpose: All behaviour is seen as purposive. In other words, what is the psychological gain behind what each of us is doing (including thinking, feeling and acting, which are all ‘behaviours’)? When we understand the reasons, we can change them. Source: Adler, A (1997), Understanding Life, An Introduction to the Psychology of Alfred Adler, Second Edition, Oneworld Publications

Inferiority Complex Positive inferiority: We are biologically inferior to nature: We become ill and die, we build houses to protect ourselves, etc. Negative inferiority: The myth of social inferiority: Certain people are ‘worth less’ than others. “As children we all feel inferior, and are so. As we grow up, we loose our sense of inferiority (hopefully). But many of us doubt our value when we are older. Often we don’t want others to see that we feel inferior, so we try to cover this up by developing and displaying some form of superiority. We could do this by overcompensation, deprecating others, or avoiding anything that risks our exposure. So we move from a feeling of not being good enough, to a belief that we are indeed good enough.” Source: Adler, A (1997), Understanding Life, An Introduction to the Psychology of Alfred Adler, Second Edition, Oneworld Publications

Suggested Further Reading Adler, A (1997), Understanding Life, An Introduction to the Psychology of Alfred Adler, Second Edition, Oneworld Publications

Donald Winnicott Lived from 1896 until 1971. He was a London Paediatrician who studied with Melanie Klein (known for depressive and paranoid-schizoid position). He found that the key aspect of healthy development is based on people’s relationships. He did a lot of work on Transitional Objects, True Self & False Self, Developmental Stages and the “good enough-mother”.

The “Good Enough Mother” “The way to be a good mother is to be a good enough mother.” Winnicott’s good enough mother is sincerely preoccupied with being a mother. She pays attention to her baby. She provides a holding environment. She offers both physical and emotional care. She provides security. When she fails, she tries again. She weathers painful feelings. She makes sacrifices. Winnicott’s good enough mother is not so much a goddess; she is a gardener. She tends her baby with love, patience, effort, and care. https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/headshrinkers-guide-the-galaxy/201205/in-search-the-good-enough-mother Copyright 2012 by Jennifer L. Kunst, Ph.D.

Transitional Objects When a mother (or carer) leaves an infant, they can easily become upset by the disappearance of their primary care-giver. To compensate and comfort for this sense of loss, they imbue some object with the attributes of the mother. This item is called a Transition Object. This is a form of splitting as the mother is divided between the actual mother and the transition object. Use of transition objects starts to appear at around 4 to 6 months, when the infant is moving towards the external world, but has not quite separated it from the internal world. The transition object is typically something soft, such as blanket or soft toy, that is reminiscent of the mother's warm arms and breast. By cuddling the object, they feel that they are cuddling the mother and thus feel comforted. Around 60% of children adopt such objects. Taking away the object from the child can cause great anxiety as they are now truly without their mother and suffer great feelings of loss and aloneness. http://changingminds.org/disciplines/psychoanalysis/concepts/transition_object.htm

Transitional Objects –Part 2 The transition object also supports the development of the self, as it is used to represent 'not me'. By looking at the object, the child knows that it is not the object and hence something individual and separate. In this way, it helps the child develop its sense of ‘other’ things. However the object is now intimately bound up with the identity of the child. Taking away the object now is also taking away something of the child itself. The idea of the transition object can also now be applied to the mother, who becomes identified as separate from the infant, and who can be a significant representative of the external world. Key attributes of the transition object include: The infant has total rights over it. The object may be cuddled, loved and mutilated. It must never be changed, except by the infant. It has warmth or some vitality that indicates is has a reality of its own. It exists independently of 'inside' or 'outside' and is not a hallucination. Over time, it loses meaning and becomes relegated to a kind of limbo where it is neither forgotten nor mourned. http://changingminds.org/disciplines/psychoanalysis/concepts/transition_object.htm

Did we cover this? Case-study group Psychodynamic therapy by Alfred Adler: Birth order ‘Individual Psychology’ Inferiority Complex Psychodynamic therapy by Donald Winnicott: The “good enough mother” The Transitional Object

Closing