Running Head: ARTISTICALLY CREATING OUR LIVES 1 Adler's
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Running head: ARTISTICALLY CREATING OUR LIVES 1 Adler’s and Jung’s Insights for Artistically Creating Our Lives A Master’s Project Presented to The Faculty of the Adler Graduate School _______________ In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for The Degree of Master of Arts in Adlerian Counseling and Psychotherapy _______________ By: Richard J. Chandler March, 2015 ARTISTICALLY CREATING OUR LIVES 2 Abstract This paper applies Alfred Adler’s and Carl Jung’s psychological principles to the question of creating our lives in an intentional and artistic way. Although there is a body of psychological writings comparing the principles of Alfred Adler to those of Sigmund Freud, and even more writings comparing Carl Jung’s constructs with those of Freud’s, writings that compare and contrast Alfred Adler’s body of work to that of Carl Jung’s, are limited. This paper presents affinities, comparisons, contrasts and an integration of Adler’s and Jung’s insights for the purpose of supporting artistic creation and self-actualization. ARTISTICALLY CREATING OUR LIVES 3 Acknowledgements I gratefully wish to thank, acknowledge and express my deep appreciation to my professors, our administration, staff, (with special thanks to Earl J. Heinrich), and fellow students of the Adler Graduate School Galen Martini, MA, LP, Jungian Analyst and artist for your generous contribution of time, knowledge and original art. Your interviews opened the Jungian the world of artistry for me. Roger Ballou, PhD, LMFT, LPCC for your interview and ongoing support, both for this project and through your supervision classes. I treasure your profound expression of Adlerian thought. Marina Bluvshtein, PhD, LP, LMFT, my Master’s Project Chair, and Ev Haas, MA, my MP Reader, for your encouragement, for attending my November 8th, 2014 community presentation in Saint Cloud, MN, and for your insight and guidance throughout this Master’s Project. Herb Laube, PhD, LMFT, for your contribution to my Master’s Project, your supervision mentorship and for your gift of connecting through stories. Eugene Beniek, MA, LICSW, LMFT, for mentoring me through your role as my clinical supervisor. Your curiosity and compassion for clients continues to enthuse and inspire me. Bonnett Chandler, my romantic mate, wife and practice partner. Taking this academic journey with you, hand-in-hand, has been delightful, satisfying, supportive, and in every way fantastic! ARTISTICALLY CREATING OUR LIVES 4 Table of Contents Abstract ……………………………………………………………………………………….. 2 Acknowledgements …………………………………………………………………………… 3 Table of Contents ……………………………………………………………………………… 4 What Motivated this Choice of Topic?...……………………………………………………… 5 Why Alfred Adler’s and Carl Jung’s Insights Inform Artistic Creation of Our Lives? ………. 5 Alfred Adler’s Insights for Artistically Creating Our Lives ………………………………….. 6 Carl Jung’s Concepts Inform Artistic Creation ………………………………………………. 12 Adler’s & Jung’s Similar Insights …………………………………………………………… 19 Jung’s Introverted Orientation Contrasts with Adler’s Extroverted Orientation …………… 21 Integrating Adler’s and Jung’s Insights for Artistically Creating Your Life ………………… 22 Generalized Protocol Summaries for Artistically Creating Our Lives ……………………….. 29 Summary Ideas of Alfred Adler and Carl Jung ………………………………………………. 32 References ……………………………………………………………………………………. 33 ARTISTICALLY CREATING OUR LIVES 5 Adler’s and Jung’s Insights for Artistically Creating Our Lives What Motivated this Choice of Topic? Although much of psychology focuses on dysfunctions in mental health, this writer was curious to discover how people without mental health impairments might utilize the psychological principles of Alfred Adler and Carl Jung to artistically create their lives. The word “artistically” implies: Movement inward, by journeying deeply into our interior psyche. Movement outward, by retrieving and transforming our inner discoveries into creations of value, to be shared with others. Aesthetics, by creating our lives as works of art, so our individually unique vision of truth and beauty concurrently embraces principles of universality, and therefore connects with our mutual humanity. Intentionality, by embracing our responsibility for uniquely creating our lives. Action, which is the indispensable ingredient for creating. Why Alfred Adler’s and Carl Jung’s Insights Inform Artistic Creation of Our Lives? In addition to acknowledging the artistic creation shown within their published writings, Adler and Jung personified artistry and creation within their lives. In addition to his life as a psychologist, author, lecturer and the inventor of “Depth Psychology,” Carl Jung lived the life of a visual artist, working in drawing, in painting and in sculpture mediums (Shamadasani, 2009). Adler also led an artistic life, taking the lead in creating - along with collaboration of his colleagues - the field of “Individual Psychology” (Hoffman, 1994). Along with his associates, he also created a network of children and parents’ clinics in Germany (Hoffman, 1994). Additionally, Adler was a singer and engaged in music as a hobby (Bottome, 1957). ARTISTICALLY CREATING OUR LIVES 6 Alfred Adler’s Insights for Artistically Creating Our Lives Inferiority, Superiority and Assigned Meaning Alfred Adler (1917) postulated that inferiorities themselves, including their manifestation within our bodies as organ inferiority, abnormal size, looks, or even traumas during our development, are less relevant to living fulfilling lives, than how we respond to our inferiorities (Adler, 1917). For Adler, our volition, our striving and our goal-orientation are paramount. His position sharply contrasted with that of Sigmund Freud, who posited that instinctual drives are the primary motivational determinants of human behavior. Adlerian authors Oberst and Stewart (2003) write: But in spite of the mutual respect the two men had for each other, a certain rivalry between Freud and Adler existed from the inception of their relationship. It seems that Adler never was wholly convinced of all of Freud’s ideas, especially the concept of sexuality being the primary motivator of most behavior. (Oberst & Stewart. 2003, p. 3) In Alfred Adler’s view (1992), we assign meanings to our experiences, from very early childhood onward. Meanings assignment is a creative process that serves to either empower or disempower us, either connecting us more deeply and empathetically with our fellow humans, or to instead motivate us to cut our ties to others, or even to seek power over them. The meanings that we assign become a filter from which we view all of our new experiences, often reinforcing earlier assignments of meaning. Adler taught that it is not our hereditary givens, environmental experiences, or even the behaviors of others towards us per se, but rather our creative assignment of meaning to all of our experience that matters most (Adler, 1992). He also believed that our foundational assignment of meanings occurs in our formative years. But meaning can be changed ARTISTICALLY CREATING OUR LIVES 7 later in our lives through an impact of a major life event, or due to intentional self-reflection, commonly occurring within a psychotherapeutic process. As infants and children, we notice our inabilities and feel inferior to older siblings and adults. Feeling inferior is our human condition; we have all felt, and will continue to feel a “Felt Minus” from time to time. Our innate desire to move to a plus position marshals us. A healthy response is to move forward through actions that give us more of what we want, and away from feelings of inferiority. Alfred Adler writes: Our …creative power of life, which expresses itself in the desire to develop, to strive, to achieve, and even to compensate for defeats in one direction by striving for success in another. This power is teleological; it expresses itself in the striving after a goal, and, in this striving, every bodily and psychological movement is made to cooperate. (Ansbacher & Ansbacher, 1956, p. 92). Thus we move from a “Felt Minus” toward a “Perceived Plus” of superiority, which is a healthy human response. There are three common ways that healthy striving towards superiority might be derailed: 1. When inferiority equals guilt or shame, we might attempt to hide our inferiority. When this occurs, healthy striving toward mastery stops and our striving response instead might become a quest for reasonable excuses as a justification for our perception of inferiority. 2. When healthy striving toward superiority is discouraged, we can give up, which often leads to avoiding situations, or people, that remind us of our inferiorities. 3. We may overcompensate, which can develop into a “Superiority Complex,” as described by Alfred Adler: ARTISTICALLY CREATING OUR LIVES 8 The superiority complex, as I have described it, appears usually clearly characterized in the bearing, the character traits, and the opinion of one’s own superhuman gifts and capacities. It can also become visible in the exaggerated demands one makes on oneself and on other persons (Ansbacher & Ansbacher, 1956, p. 261). In Adlerian “Individual Psychology” we accept our inferiority as a natural part of being human. In doing so, we embrace two stances that are vital for artistically creating our lives, which Adlerian practitioners are fond of stating. These stances are: “the courage to make mistakes” and “the courage to be imperfect.” Without committing to these stances, our creative striving forfeits to the fear of our own judgments, or the