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A CALL FOR BROADER
APPLICATIONS OF ADLERIAN THEORY:
RUDOLF DREIKURS
REVISITED
Francis X. Walton, Ph.D.
Columbia, SC
Rudolf Dreikurs, or “Dr. D” as he was so
fondly referred to by many of his students and colleagues, was 71 years of
age when I met him. Meeting Dr. D was clearly one of the more important
and formative experiences of my life. I often have given thanks that he
did not retire from professional work at 65 or 70. Dr. D did some of his
most influential work between the years of 70 and his death at age 75,
when he might have been living a life of leisure. Students, colleagues,
and other professionals were continually touched by his ability to turn
theory into practice before our eyes as we watched him help people improve
their lives. His enthusiasm for spreading the knowledge and use of
Adlerian theory and technique was infectious.
The American Society of Adlerian
Psychology (as NASAP was known when Dr. D was alive) enjoyed its greatest
growth from about 1967 until a few years after his death in 1972. It was
during these last five years of his life, while he was retired from
practice, that he was most active as a teacher and consultant across North
America and internationally. I recall that for some years after his death
many Adlerians had difficulty getting through a presentation or
demonstration without mentioning his name several times as in “Dr D used
to say,” or, Dreikurs often emphasized. . .” We commonly referred to Dr.
Dreikurs more often that we referred to Adler, although his students and
colleagues clearly recognized we were indebted to both these geniuses.
It was when our esteemed colleague, the
clarifier and purifier of Adlerian theory, Heinz Ansbacher, finally
watched Dreikurs profide a family counseling demonstration, that Ansbacher
wrote to Dreikurs how much he enjoyed the experience and how it allowed
him “to learn what cannot be learned otherwise.” (Terner and Pew, 1978)
In 1975 Kurt Adler acknowledged, “The main trend today seems to be toward
prevention. Adlerian psychology... has always
been in the forefront in this area. Many years ago in Vienna, Adler
adopted the motto “teach the teachers’”... In
this country, however, Dreikurs demonstrated that the parents themselves
could be trained, and the tremendous impetus he gave...
has already made an enormous impact, occupying the major efforts of many
Adlerian groups and Societies.” (Terner and Pew, 1978)
A point that I wish to emphasize by
sharing these thoughts and memories with you is that the very Adlerian
theoretical constructs that so many watched Dr. D use to help change
people’s lives, continue to provide the foundation mental health workers
need to use more broadly today. Occasionally one of us adds an innovative
technique, but the theory is as alive and well in 2009 as it was in 1967.
One of the keys to the continued spread of the knowledge and use of
Individual Psychology is to keep “Dr. D’s” work alive in our minds, to
refer to his books, articles, and videotapes, and finally, but very
importantly, help mental health workers, parents and teachers learn how to
apply our theory and techniques to the emerging problems of our times. No
school of psychological though is better prepared to understand and treat
the majority of children who have been diagnosed as having the attention
deficit hyperactivity disorder and no school of psychological thought is
better prepared to understand and treat the burgeoning number of children
caught up in the pseudo-epidemic of autism. No school of psychological
thought is better prepared to provide a frame of reference to help prison
inmates make life enhancing changes while learning the life skills
necessary to function outside of correctional institutions. No school of
psychological thought is better prepared to provide families with the
insight and techniques to raise responsible and cooperative children, and
none is better prepared to provide the framework that will enable children
in our schools to become more responsible citizens who have truly learned
to care about fellow human beings.
I do not want to under emphasize the
opportunity available to introduce Adlerain/Dreikursian principles and
techniques in pre-school education. It is always worth repeating how
Adler reminded us the most important role of a mother is to spread the
interest of a child from the child, to the mother, to father, to other
members of the family, and then out to other members of society. (Ansbacher
and Ansbacher, 1956) It is critical to the welfare of young people that
child care administrators and teachers accept the importance of their role
in helping to increase the level of social interest in pre-school children
during this time in history when a very significant portion of the role of
“mothering’ has become the responsibility of the child care provider.
There is no shortage of challenging
social and psychological problems where we can continue to apply, or
strengthen our applications, or create applications of Adlerian theory.
Earlier I mentioned autism, a mental health condition for which the
diagnostic manual criteria has been broadened so in the last half dozen
years that most children we see today carrying the diagnosis bear little
resemblance to such children we might treat in previous years. Over
twenty years ago when the diagnosis was much more narrowly defined, an
administrator for the state psychiatric institute in Columbia called our
Adlerian Child Care Centers office to explain that the institute’s
outpatient program would be closed for six weeks around Christmas and he
needed to place an autistic child in care for the period. Our center had
been recommended and he wished to know if we would take the child. We
did. The Adlerian Child Care Center director asked the teacher and
children to treat the child as any other in our center, inviting him
Into the full range of activities,
applying the same techniques we would with others, and in addition, to pay
no attention to his frequently unusual and occasionally bizarre behavior.
When the boy returned to the psychiatric institute, the director of the
child care center received a phone call from the administrator wanting to
know what we had done that had brought about such changes that the boy no
longer met the criteria for the diagnosis of autism. Additionally he
requested that his staff members be permitted to come to observe the
practices in our center.
Much more recently, after attending a
conference on autism, I happened to leave a book on parenting of autistic
children on a restaurant table. Our waitress came hurrying to return it
to me. She wanted to tell me she had a grandson with autism. She told
how difficult he was to handle, and that the family could not even erect a
Christmas tree prior to Christmas day, because the child would have a
terrible temper tantrum if a tree was erected and there were no gifts for
him. Well friends, I think most of you could handle that one. I want you
to know the book on parenting of autistic children that she returned to me
was archaic by Adlerian standards in so far as the techniques that were
recommended. It was supposed to be state of the art, and yet reflected no
thorough understanding of the purposive nature of behavior, the
detrimental influences of reward and punishment, or the powerful
influence of underdeveloped social interest in such children. Friends,
you and I can help in this area.
If we are willing to broadly apply the
powerful guiding principles and creative techniques available to us,
collectively we, along with those with whom we share this knowledge, can
help provide solutions to social problems many have thought unsolvable.
As Dr D used to say “Adlerian psychology is fifty years ahead of its
time.” Well, if that was true fifty years ago, undoubtedly, this is its
time.
References
Ansbacher, H., and Ansbacher, R.
(1956). The Individual Psychology of Alfred Adler. New York,
Harper and Row.
Terner, J. and Pew, W.L. (1978) The
Courage to be Imperfect. New York, Hawthorn Books, Inc.
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