Systems of Family Therapy

An Adlerian Integration

Robert Sherman, Don Dinkmeyer

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9780876304570
• eBook ISBN: 9781317772729
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: History & Theory in Psychology
• Index: Psychology

First published in 1987. This book connects Adlerian theory, defined as a human systems approach, with the other systems theories of family therapy. By comparison and contrast with five other popular family therapy theories, the authors suggest that Adlerian family therapy can well serve as a much-needed integrative model-a need often stressed in the literature and in many conference presentations. Adlerian psychology is described as an open system theory that provides the theoretical base for synthesizing the multitude of concepts and techniques now extant in the burgeoning field of family therapy. Systems of Family Therapy fulfills the need for integration and synthesis and enables clinicians to make use of the broad range of ideas and methods generated in contemporary family therapy theories within an internally consistent framework. Chapters describe the history of the theory, basic principles and con­cepts, structure of the therapy, the behavior change model, and specific techniques for conducting the therapy. Many case examples are used throughout. The volume is enhanced by five distinguished contributing authors who are skilled in both Adlerian theory and another major theory. They each make a detailed comparison of the two theories with respect to history, major concepts, definitions of well and dysfunctional families, diagnoses, change models and techniques, and a summary of their findings. The theories analyzed are Satir's model, the M.R.I. Interactional View, Strategic therapy, Structural therapy, and Rational-Emotive therapy.

1

Understanding Human Behavior

Introduction

The Adlerian approach has its origin in the methods developed by Alfred Adler and Rudolf Dreikurs. We begin by providing a short overview of Adlerian psychology as developed by Adler, Dreikurs, and those who studied and worked with them.

Adler was a psychiatrist who worked in Vienna during the first quarter of the century. He was a social psychiatrist who understood dysfunctional behavior in terms of discouragement rather than illness. He believed it was essential for each individual to restore faith, hope, and belief in his potential. He saw that most individual problems were really social in nature and an outgrowth of poor human relationships.

Adler was for a period associated with Sigmund Freud in the Psychoanalytic Society. They ended their relationship because of certain theoretical differences, illustrated by the following very brief comparative list:

Adler	Freud
We are social beings	We are biological beings
Motivated to find a place to belong and to complete oneself	Motivated by instincts and drives, particularly the sex drive
Indivisible, total personality (holism)	Personality divided into polar forces of id, superego, ego

In 1922 Adler organized the first Child Guidance Center within the community. Eventually 31 such centers were in use. (Dreikurs, 1959) Adlerian family counseling as conducted in these centers is the predecessor of family therapy from an Adlerian point of view. The counseling, done in public, in front of families, became very popular. The centers remained open until 1934 when the fascists came to power in Austria.

Rudolf Dreikurs, a student of Adler, emigrated to Chicago in 1937. Soon thereafter he established the Child Guidance Center at Abraham Lincoln Center. Dreikurs encouraged other centers and eventually trained counselors from many parts of the world in the method of Adlerian family counseling. These centers are now found in a number of places throughout the United States and in many other countries.

Dreikurs systematically organized the techniques of Adlerian psychology. He was a master teacher and demonstrator of the process. For example, he developed a system of identifying the purposive nature of behavior in children into four goals of misbehavior. Dreikurs was perhaps the dominant influence on the Adlerian family counseling approach in the United States. A more recent exposition of this model is the work of Christensen and Schramski (1983) and McAbee and Grunwald (1985).

Adlerian psychology was formally founded by Adler in 1912. The seminal nature and influence of Adler’s early work are revealed in its impact on a variety of schools of therapists. Certainly Harry Stack Sullivan, Karen Horney, and advocates of Rational Emotive Therapy and Reality Therapy all acknowledge Adler’s contributions. Adler’s central concepts have also influenced countless therapists even though they may not consider themselves to be Adlerians.

Adlerian thinking has also had a significant impact in the areas of parenting and school counseling. The Adlerian approach to parent education has already been adopted by millions of parents who have studied STEP (Systematic Training for Effective Parenting), STEP/ Teen (Systematic Training for Effective Parenting of Teens), or Children: The Challenge. Further, school counselor literature features many references to Adlerian thinking (Dinkmeyer, 1964, 1968, 1972, 1981; Dinkmeyer & Carlson, 1984; Dinkmeyer & Dinkmeyer, 1982, 1983; Dinkmeyer & McKay, 1976, 1983; Dinkmeyer, Pew, & Dinkmeyer, 1979; Dreikurs, 1950; Dreikurs, Grunwald, & Pepper, 1971; Sweeney, 1981). In this book we show how Adlerian concepts can also become the base for integrating the various theoretical orientations to family therapy.

The cornerstone of Adlerian psychology evolves from the belief that people are indivisible, social, creative, decision-making beings whose beliefs and behavior have a purpose. Thus the individual is best understood holistically as a total being whose thoughts, feelings, and beliefs are unfolded in a consistent and unified pattern of actions.

Those who study and work in the field of family therapy can quickly see how a phenomenological theory which works with the social, purposive nature of transactions is a significant theory for the family therapist. The major principles of the theory can be separately identified for the purposes of understanding, but they function together in an intimate whole, each carefully interrelated and integrated with the others. Because of this, there is some repetitiveness in our effort to describe the major principles.

Psychological Principles for Application to Family Therapy

All Behavior Has Social Meaning

Each individual is socially embedded in an interacting social system. This embeddedness and the interactions within these systems influence each person’s behavior. Any movement in the individual, the family, or the environment (the larger ecosystems), and the cosmos instantly creates movement in all the other components. In turn, the family atmosphere and the family constellation help fashion the social meaning of behavior. The family atmosphere consists of all the family forces. The family constellation refers to the birth order of the children and each person’s place in the family’s organization now and multigenerationally. Strong credence is given here to positional psychology, the meaning a person gives to his position in social systems.

Human relationships require effective interpersonal behavior. Social interaction is not an option in life, but a requirement. We believe that family therapy can teach practical procedures for relating within the family and then within the larger systems of school, work, and society. Family therapy thus provides an opportunity to either learn or relearn. The family therapist will often prescribe the technique of a regular family meeting as a homework assignment and as a process for increasing the opportunities for positive interaction between members of the family.

Humans are social beings. Their behavior is always best understood within social context. As humans, they exist within a milieu that presents regular social demands. The basic desire of each person is to find his place in the group, to “belong.” Often misbehavior, inappropriate behavior, and failure to cooperate are a result of faulty perceptions of ways of belonging.

All Behavior Has a Purpose

A basic tenet of Adlerian psychology is the purposiveness of all human behavior. Behavior is goal directed. It is teleological movement toward a goal. This movement, action, and direction of the individual reveals the individual’s purpose and intentions.

Goals are created by the individual. Once the family therapist understands the goals and how they are used within family relationships, they can be employed to understand and modify behavior. Thus behavior that at first appears to be inexplicable or confusing becomes understandable once a goal is known. The family, too, as a unit develops its goal and moves intentionally toward it.

The therapist always observes transactions and involvement and tends to offer tentative hypotheses. The basic assumption here is that as we influence the members’ goals and beliefs, we come to influence their behavior. The striving then is to influence subjective goals and mistaken perceptions of each family member and the family as a unit. If the goal is valued and useful, the next step is to examine the means and to find more satisfactory ways of moving toward the goal. The therapist therefore looks at the direction of transactions and offers some guesses or hunches, such as “Could it be . . . ?” or “Is it possible . . . ?” (alluding to a goal). Bringing the goal to awareness enables the participants to consider it as chosen and to consider alternatives. It is important to remember that psychological goals are usually unconscious, subjective, and not always in an individual’s awareness.

The family therapist can become aware of goals by examining her feelings or by having the members involved in the transactions examine their actions and reactions. For example, in a parent-child conflict, the parent feels annoyed and the parent devotes much time to the child. It may be the child is attempting to seek the parent’s attention. However, if the parent feels challenged and would like to prove that the child cannot do that, it is likely that a power struggle will ensue. And if the parent feels hurt, the child’s desire to get even will be apparent. Feeling utter frustration or the need to rescue, the parent will know that although the child is capable, he is displaying inadequacy in order to cause the parent to give in and do for him.

It is critical to recognize that this is differentiated from a causal orientation. Adlerians believe that the goal itself, because it gives direction and meaning to any striving, can be regarded as the final cause— finalistic causality. The goal is forward, not behind, and feedback reinforces continuing behavior toward the ultimate goal. The goal in turn is related to significance and belonging, which is discussed in the section called “Striving for Significance.”

The understanding of each family member’s beliefs and goals has a strong effect on understanding all the meanings that occur in the relationship. Once beliefs and goals which mediate behavior are identified, it is then possible to predict behavior in a given social setting.

Unity, Pattern, Holism

Adler viewed people holistically, believing that the conscious and unconscious, the physical, mental, and emotional, were all part of a unified system moving toward the same psychological goal. We believe that the individual cannot be understood except as a unified whole. We need to understand all aspects of the client’s beliefs and perceptions in relationship to his unique goal. The basic question for the family therapist is how each member of the family uses each of these attributes in moving toward or relating to the same goal of the family. Dreikurs stated this well (1950): “The doctrine of the unity of the personality gave Individual Psychology its name. This name, which is so often misunderstood, is derived from the Latin word ‘individuum,’ which literally means ‘undivided,’ ‘indivisible.’” Life style is based on the premise that each person is a unified organism whose experience moves in meaningful patterns toward a goal. Thus beliefs, perceptions, and goals are interrelated. Similarly, the family is a unified whole organized around its goals.

Therefore, isolated events are understood in relation to the total pattern, and the relation of any of this movement to the goal. Adlerians believe that our movement is intentional, that we create it, and that we are responsible for it. There is no matter of blame since in terms of the internal logic of the person or system, we are doing the best we can to achieve goals that we perceive as appropriate to the circumstances.

Striving for Significance

All behavior is designed to overcome feelings of inferiority and attain feelings of superiority. As humans we have inferiority feelings which emerge in childhood. These are often a part of our obvious dependence on adults for survival. Then, as we develop, we become aware that we are truly insignificant when compared to the universe. This brings about our continuous striving to overcome the challenges of life. The striving in itself is not a problem. However, when the individual loses the courage to continue to strive, to move forward despite discouragement, this interferes with the person’s effective functioning.

We believe that the striving to meet the varied challenges of life-work, social, sexual, self, and spiritual—is the basis for motivation. We are motivated by our continuous desire to overcome our feeling of inferiority, to compensate through striving to achieve. We continuously work from a minus to a plus.

The inferiority feelings are based on our faulty subjective self-evaluations. They come out of a competitiveness which tends to make us believe “I am not as much as I should be. I can’t live up to others’ expectations. I’ll never do as well as I should.” These faulty, fictional perceptions of self, the world, and human relationships result in discouraged persons.

The person sometimes makes the faulty choice of attempting to overcompensate and prove that he is superior. However, he seldom tends to get even a sense of satisfaction when he does achieve. This is involved in the continuous striving toward the goal of becoming more than others. Hence the direction of striving is from perceived inferiority to the desired goal of superiority.

Adlerians see the solution to this problem in helping people to learn that it is possible to be both equal and significant, to strive for excellence rather than domination, to act in cooperation with others instead of competing. The goal is to actualize and complete the self, the community, and the species.

We believe that the master motive is to be competent and to belong, while creating a unique identity. The striving, then, can clearly move toward significance, which might be established in intellectual, athletic, financial, social, or other accomplishments that also contribute to the community.

A person’s behavior, perceptions, attitudes, ways of relating, all illuminate how that person believes he fits into the social milieu. How each of us seeks to achieve significance is clearly reflected by how we seek to be known. We are creative beings deciding our actions based on our subjective perceptions, not merely reacting. We actually often elicit responses that help us maintain negative self-perceptions. An understanding of the behavior that persons move toward or away from provides useful clues to identifying alternative behaviors.

It is in the family of origin that we first work out the issues of belonging and significance, and then again in the procreative family.

Behavior Is a Result of Our Subjective Perceptions

It is essential that the therapist understand the perception of the family members. Each person develops and is responsible for his or her subjective view of life. People give all of their experiences meaning. This ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Preface
• 1. Understanding Human Behavior
• 2. Family Organization and Dynamics
• 3. Structure of Adlerian Family Therapy
• 4. The Basics of Change
• 5. Adlerian Family Therapy as an Integrative Theory
• 6. Communication and Meaning: Satir in Adlerian Context
• 7. The MRI Interactional View and Adlerian Psychology: A Comparison
• 8. Strategic Family Therapy and Adlerian Psychology: A Comparison
• 9. Structural Therapy and Adlerian Family Therapy: A Comparison
• 10. Ellis’ Rational Emotive Therapy and Adlerian Family Therapy: A Comparison
• 11. Adlerian Family Therapy Techniques
• 12. Adlerian Family Therapy: An Educational Component
• Appendix: Summary of Principles of Adlerian Family Therapy
• Author Index
• Subject Index