Varieties of Adlerian Experience

Abstract

Varieties of Adlerian Experience Erik Mansager (bio) and Dyanne Pienkowski (bio) Inspired by the published celebration in spring 2020 of Adler’s 150th birthday in volume 76 of this journal, your current guest editors wanted to see whether, outside of scholarly articles, the depth and diversity of our community might also be shared. We asked members to contribute their Adlerian stories—what has moved them most deeply about Adler’s writings, philosophy, application, and personal healing. The wide-ranging experiences of the various authors in this issue called to mind William James’s The Varieties of Religious Experience (1902/2014). This entire issue is a celebration of sharing professional journeys and sometimes profoundly personal stories about what can happen when Adler’s Individual Psychology comes into focus for an individual. So, read on as one of the contributors to this special issue illustrates the very personal story of experiencing Adler’s theory in real life. It is a fine summary of the wonderful contributions you are about to read: In The Varieties of Religious Experience, the Father of American psychology, William James (1842–1910), considers the word religion and its powerful meanings. To many, the word connotes organized or institutionalized religion and belief in the all-powerful divine! Consider Buddhism, Christianity, or Islam. However, James suggests we also associate the word with our strong, emotional—power-filled—individual belief system that leads, connects or, in Adlerian terms, moves us toward whatever we consider the divine. To James (1902/2014) that can mean, well, practically anything: a belief, for example, not in “a deity in concreto, not a superhuman person, but the immanent divinity in things” (p. 33), including one’s aspirations, which, in Adlerian terms means goals. In essence, The Varieties of Religious Experience focuses on individuals’ deeply personal awakenings—movement—toward their self-perceived ideas of the divine. (Les White, personal communication, November 20, 2020) In fact, the choice of the “Varieties of Adlerian Experience” as a theme was first suggested by Jane Griffith in a touching interchange we had about [End Page 1] Adler’s contributions to Individual Psychology today. She suggested that there were many pluses for invoking William James in an Adlerian context. As the author of The Principles of Psychology (James, 1890/1950), James is credited as breaking psychology away from philosophy, and he was the first to treat psychology as a separate discipline. And, as Les White mentioned, James is considered the “Father of American psychology,” which indicates the importance of this special issue for the North American audience. But mainly, by drawing to mind William James’s popular 1901–1902 Gifford Lectures, published as The Varieties of Religious Experience, Jane indicated that James’s range of individual experiences were so different one from another that some challenged whether they really constituted religion at all. To James’s great credit, he showed that all the experiences were united at the feeling level. Our focus for this issue also acknowledges, by demonstration, how Adler’s theory and therapy have become a pervasive influence across the varied fields of human caregivers today. Rather than lament what has been borrowed from Adler without attribution, this issue celebrates the growth of Adlerian influence along Adler’s original lines as well as among the enthusiasts who incidentally, accidentally, or intentionally attribute their appreciation of Adler to an understanding and practice of his theory and therapy. In doing so, the issue celebrates the self-identified Adlerian. Regarding the scope of this issue, we wanted to include perspectives from the Adlerian psychologist, therapist, counselor, coach, parent educator, teacher, professor, consultant, consumer, and others. To secure this breadth, invitations were made to published Adlerians for the names of those who they believed exemplified an Adlerian spirit. These identified practitioners were invited to share along the following lines: Describe the kind of work you do; identify features in Adlerian Psychology that are most valuable and useful to your particular work; share what and who influenced you most in your Adlerian identity; and cite the top few sources you draw from for your work. So, given the focus, population, and the topics—we needed only respondents. And respond they did! Enough to fill this...