Style of life
Encyclopedia
The term style of life was used by psychiatrist Alfred Adler
as one of several constructs describing the dynamics of the personality.
It reflects the individual's unique, unconscious, and repetitive way of responding to (or avoiding) the main tasks of living: friendship, love, and work. This style, rooted in a childhood prototype, remains consistent throughout life, unless it is changed through depth psychotherapy
.
The style of life is reflected in the unity of an individual's way of thinking, feeling, and acting. Often, bending an individual away from the needs of others or common sense, movements are made to relieve inferiority feelings
or to compensate for those feelings with an unconscious fictional final goal.
Classical Adlerian psychotherapy
attempts to dissolve the archaic style of life and stimulate a more creative approach to living.
Adler felt he could distinguish four primary types of style. Three of them he said to be "mistaken styles."
These include the ruling type: aggressive, dominating people who don't have much social interest or cultural perception; the getting type: dependent people who take rather than give; and the avoiding type: people who try to escape life's problems and take part in not much socially constructive activity. The fourth life style by Adler is the socially useful type: people with a great deal of social interest and activity.
Alfred Adler
Alfred Adler was an Austrian medical doctor, psychotherapist, and founder of the school of individual psychology. In collaboration with Sigmund Freud and a small group of Freud's colleagues, Adler was among the co-founders of the psychoanalytic movement as a core member of the Vienna...
as one of several constructs describing the dynamics of the personality.
It reflects the individual's unique, unconscious, and repetitive way of responding to (or avoiding) the main tasks of living: friendship, love, and work. This style, rooted in a childhood prototype, remains consistent throughout life, unless it is changed through depth psychotherapy
Depth psychology
Historically, depth psychology, from a German term , was coined by Eugen Bleuler to refer to psychoanalytic approaches to therapy and research that take the unconscious into account. The term has come to refer to the ongoing development of theories and therapies pioneered by Pierre Janet, William...
.
The style of life is reflected in the unity of an individual's way of thinking, feeling, and acting. Often, bending an individual away from the needs of others or common sense, movements are made to relieve inferiority feelings
Inferiority complex
An inferiority complex, in the fields of psychology and psychoanalysis, is a feeling that one is inferior to others in some way. Such feelings can arise from an imagined or actual inferiority in the afflicted person...
or to compensate for those feelings with an unconscious fictional final goal.
Classical Adlerian psychotherapy
Classical Adlerian psychology
Classical Adlerian psychology is a values-based, fully integrated theory of personality, model of psychopathology, philosophy of living, strategy for preventative education, and technique of psychotherapy...
attempts to dissolve the archaic style of life and stimulate a more creative approach to living.
Adler felt he could distinguish four primary types of style. Three of them he said to be "mistaken styles."
These include the ruling type: aggressive, dominating people who don't have much social interest or cultural perception; the getting type: dependent people who take rather than give; and the avoiding type: people who try to escape life's problems and take part in not much socially constructive activity. The fourth life style by Adler is the socially useful type: people with a great deal of social interest and activity.
Further reading
- Shulman, Bernard H. & Mosak, Harold H. (1988). Manual for Life Style Assessment. Muncie, IN: Accelerated Development. ISBN 0-915202-72-7
- Powers, Robert L. & Griffith, Jane (1987). Understanding Life-Style: The Psycho-Clarity Process. Chicago, IL: Americas Institute of Adlerian Studies. ISBN 0-918287-03-0
- Eckstein, Daniel & Kern, Roy (2009). Psychological Fingerprints: Lifestyle Assessments and Interventions. Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt. ISBN 0-7575-6189-6
- Bishop, Malachy L. & Rule, Warren L. (2005). Adlerian Lifestyle Counseling: Practice and Research. New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-95216-6