New Web Site Address

We have a new web site address for Classical Adlerian Psychology: http://home.att.net/~Adlerian/homepage.htm.

Kindly update any links so that they direct to the new URL address.

New Adlerian Publication: "Educating Children for Cooperation & Contribution"

"Educating Children for Cooperation & Contribution," Volume II,contains exceptional, new child guidance resources for educators,therapists, and parents: "The Work of an Adlerian Psychologist in theSchools," Enlightening Children," and "Influencing the Child," byAnthony Bruck. Bruck, who was trained by Alfred Adler, embodiedseveral central qualities of his mentor: warmth, gentleness, andcreativity. His work with children was reminiscent of Adler'sremarkable ability to make immediate contact and win a child withrespect, simple insight, and infectious optimism. Like a kindly uncle,he guided children Socratically to make their own conclusions aboutnew ways to cross the bridge from misbehavior to cooperation.
Volume II also contains three articles by Alfred Adler: "Training forCourage," "Children's Life Tests," and "The Lazy Child;" and "TheChallenge of Kindergarten," by Theodore Grubbe.
To order Volume II , or for additional information, go tohttp://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/hstein/ecc-v2.htm.
If you do not yet have Alfred Adler's seminal, child guidance texts,"Individual Psychology in the Schools," and "The Education ofChildren," you can also order "Educating Children for Cooperation &Contribution," Volume I athttp://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/hstein/ecc-v1.htm

Social Inclusion and the Democratic Character

A new paper by Dr. Stein, "Social Inclusion and the Democratic Character" explores Alfred Adler’s ideal of the democratic character and the implications of this for social inclusion: for child rearing, education, and the work place. A “Levels of Functioning” chart investigates how a community of optimally functioning individuals would represent the antithesis of social exclusion. To read the paper, go to http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/hstein/inclusion.htm.

Adlerian Humor: Private Logic

Depreciation tendency for shoppers.

A New Era of Service

President Barack Obama has called for a "A New Era of Service" in a Time Magazine article, dated March 10, 2009. He describes how through service, he found the direction he'd been seeking, discovering that his own story fit into a larger American story. This perception of contribution as a key to personal significance and security has deep roots in the psychology of Alfred Adler, who emphasized that a personal commitment to social contribution was a prerequisite for optimal mental health. It is not just the economic, educational, and medical fate of a nation that is at stake, but the psychological well-being of each of its' citizen. Too many greedy, socially indifferent, political and business leaders have set a national tone of justifying sociopathic policies and behavior. Perhaps President Obama will provide a new era of socially responsible, inspirational leadership by example.

Ponzi Schemes for the Masses

According to Yale University economist Robert Shiller, author of "Irrational Exuberance," the housing and stock market bubbles were "naturally occurring" Ponzi schemes. Successive waves of investors generate gains for the last wave until the bubble bursts. "The essence of a Ponzi scheme is a story that justifies these enthusiasms," Shiller says, whether the phenomenon is Internet stocks or housing prices or Madoff. "The social feedback loop of other people making money causes people to suspend disbelief."

The seductive idea that one can make money without providing a useful product or service, by simply riding the wave of artificially inflated value, is a reflection of a socially exploitive, pampered style of life. The realization of profit without creating a real increase of value, relies on an endless river of gullible investors who assume that other gullible investors will follow them. In the housing market, each investor was willing to indulge the previous owner, believing that another naive buyer would indulge them. Home buyers, real estate agents, and lenders all grabbed what they could for themselves, indifferent to the impending fate of the "suckers" who came late to the party.

Bernard Madoff ran a Ponzi scheme on a monumental scale. Many stock and real estate investors ran their own small-scale versions of the same scam.

Adlerian Humor: Parenting Styles

Perhaps the Second, third, fourth, or ...... child?

Don't Just Blow Away Smoke--Put Out the Fire!

"Why Wall Street Always Blows It," by Henry Blodget, in the December 2008 issue of The Atlantic, side-steps the humility of personal responsibility, by proposing that "everyone" is to blame for the current financial disaster. The author takes refuge in the assumption of a natural and inevitable self-interest in all people, without contemplating the potential for overcoming that egocentricity. The root of the problem, as well as the solution, is not simply adjusting our economic habits by saving more and spending less, but breaking the psychological glass ceiling of self-interest and aspiring to a new philosophy of enlightened mutual-interest. The Wall Street dream of retiring at 40 reflects a larger American dream of making money without improving the common welfare.

Nearly a century ago, psychiatrist Alfred Adler pointed out that the only road to genuine security and significance for individuals and groups is through social contribution. If we look behind the obsessive accumulations of wealth, as well as the widespread desire for gaining wealth without contributing real social value, we often find the uncertainty of personal value hiding behind a facade of financial worth. After we blow away the financial smoke by implementing economic first aid, we could address the psychological root: encouraging people to transcend the archaic assumption of self-interest and pursue a higher purpose of mutual benefit through contribution. The deeper meaning of democracy is not merely the freedom to pursue personal gain, but to provide for the common good. Imagine a world where this value is reflected in relationships, families, schools, businesses, religious organizations, and government. For an amplification of this perspective, read "A Psychology for Democracy" at http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/hstein/iaip-6.htm.