Humor: Imprints

The power of imprints!

Recent Summer Workshop

We had a superb two-day Experiential Workshop in Bellingham this past weekend. Several participants engaged the exceptional peer group of Classical Adlerians with personal and professional issues and came away fortified with encouragement and insight to sustain their ongoing development. At one of our many delightful dinners together, we toasted Stefanie Lietzow from Germany, who just earned her Certification in Classical Adlerian Psychotherapy. She plans to begin teaching the Classical Adlerian approach in her country. We plan to offer the experiential workshop every summer for our distance training students.

Humor: Dreaming

American Dreams.

Quote of the Day: Self-Transcendence

"Adler saw early on that a person was not destined to care constantly and exclusively for himself, but that he was capable of transcending himself, and to devote his strength and capabilities to other matters and to other people. ..... With his concept, has come very close to the old, established view of mankind which sees a person from a double perspective: Who is for me if I am not for myself? - But who am I if I am only for myself?"

Alexander Mueller

(From an unpublished manuscript, "Alfred Adler's Individual Psychology," by Alexander Mueller, in the AAINW Archives.)

Humor: Managed Care

The HMO model.

Quote of the Day: Inferiority Feelings

"The child has a natural feeling of inferiority, of being samller, of not being able to do many things. Help him overcome that feeing by conquering difficulties and achieving successes that allow him to have a good opinion of himself. Let him say: 'I can do it.'"

"A child who has not succeeded in a task pays dearly for his failure in his feelings about himself. We must help the child deal with his inferiority feelings..... People will not take action because of a fear of making a mistake, a fear of failing. The person may feel bad, but he fears that he will feel worse if he tries and fails. It feels safer not to move."

Sophia de Vries

(From a tape-recorded interview with Henry Stein.)

Humor: Birth Order

Family Constellation.

Quote of the Day: Movement

"Life is about movement, and we really apply the term, life, only to forms able to move; therefore, we must also consider movements in psyche and mind. Of course, we must recognize them because all our ideas, thoughts, feelings, emotions, wants, likes, dislikes, and mental attitudes, are in the passing moment and moving, so psyche and mind show movement."

"Movement can be understood only as connected with direction and goal. All possibilities, all power, need a goal. The influences of the environment could not accomplish this goal or force someone to move in this direction. Therefore, something in the goal pulls; the mind has a pulling power. "

Alfred Adler

(From The Collected Clinical Works of Alfred Adler, Volume 8, Lectures to Physicians and Medical Students, page 2. See http://www.Adlerian.us/cwaa-v8.htm.)

Humor: The Meaning of Life

Private Logic.

Feeling Tone Theory

Many years ago, as a subscriber to Marilyn Ferguson's Brain-Mind Bulletin, I discovered William Gray's "feeling tone theory" and his fascinating assumption that feelings code and organize thinking. Recently, I found one of his articles posted on the Internet, corresponded with his wife (he died several years ago), and she generously sent me copies of his writings. Although I do not agree with some of his conclusions, many of his ideas about feelings, emotions, system theory, and the creative process are quite stimulating and often compatible with Adlerian theory. I have incorporated some of his thinking into my approach to the process of life style analysis.

Mind Mapping

I have found mind mapping to be a useful alternative to outlining for organizing text material. There are several commercial software products available, like MindManager and MindGenius, but there is also an excellent free software program called FreeMind, available at http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page. You will need to have Java installed on your computer, but that is also a free download from the FreeMind site.

Humor: Innovative Psychotherapy

Enjoy your summer vacation.

New, Unpublished Lectures by Adler

Volume 10 of "The Collected Works of Alfred Adler" is in the final stages of editing and will probably be published in August. Titled "The General System of Individual Psychology," it comprises a series of thirteen unpublished lectures given by Adler, in the United States, that provide a superb, comprehensive overview of Adlerian theory, philosophy, and practice. The original manuscript has been edited for highly improved readability.

Humor: Symptom Selection

Adler's theory of compensation?

Expressive Movement and Ludwig Klages

Adler's ideas about expressive movement were influenced by Ludwig Klages, who is perhaps best known for his contributions to graphology. I am trying to find English translations of Klages' work on "expression analysis." A Google search yields http://www.revilo-oliver.com/Writers/Klages/Ludwig_Klages.html, mentioning his work on this topic, but offering only modest amplification.

Outliners for Organizing Text Material

Outliners have been extremely helpful for me when organizing material for teaching and writing. Two outstanding software outliners that I like are Maxthink and Ecco Pro. Maxthink for DOS was my favorite preliminary outliner for many years, so I have a great deal of research in that older format; Maxthink for Windows will convert the older files. Check http://www.maxthink.net for details. Ecco Pro is more complex, combining outling with category columns (like the old Grandview). You can find out more about it at http://www.compusol.org/ecco/. Its one of my most useful programs, no longer sold or supported, but now a free download.

July Workshop for Distance Training Students

We are preparing for the summer visit of our distance training students from many places: San Francisco and Redwood City, California; New York City; Winston-Salem, North Carolina; Feldberg, Germany; and Ingaro, Sweden. We will spend two full days on July 23rd and 24th in an experiential workshop, working on personal and professional issues, demonstrating our individual therapeutic styles, followed by individual study-analysis sessions over a couple of days. For some, this is their first visit to our charming city of Bellingham, Washington, a beautiful coast-side community with an abundance of natural beauty and cultural enrichment. Being in the company of fellow Classical Adlerians, all sharing a common philosophy of living as well as a strong bond of Gemeinshaftsgefuhl, is a wonderfully rejuvenating experience.

Welcome!

Welcome to a web log of informal notes about my explorations into Classical Adlerian Psychology, philosophy, useful software, and humor. Many of the posting will be "works in progress," speculations, and reports of programs I am trying out. Your comments and suggestions are invited. Also visit the Classical Adlerian Psychology web site at http://www.Adlerian.us.