Brian Johnson (Optimize) contrasts Alfred Adler’s teleological approach to neuroses with Sigmund Freud’s etiological approach. Adler emphasizes present goals and agency—asking “What do you want?”—while Freud emphasizes digging into past causes in upbringing. The clip recommends adopting Adler’s focus on agency and evaluating whether current behaviors serve desired ends.
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Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another Optimize plus one. Have you ever heard of Alfred Adler? He's probably one of the most influential 20th century psychologists you've never heard of. Adler was a contemporary of Sigmund Freud. They were both born in Austria, Adler in 1870, Freud in 1856. They were both medical doctors and among the first to use the budding field of psychology to help their patients optimize. But that's pretty much where their similarities ended. The major difference in their philosophical approaches. Well, as we learn in a book called the Courage to Be Disliked, in which we're introduced to Adler's theories, basically Freud was etiological, while Adler was teleological. In short, Freud focused more on what he believed were the etiological causes. I put that in quotes. Of neuroses, which usually led to an archaeological dig into your upbringing. Whereas Adler focused more on what he believed were the misguided teleological roots of your neuroses, which leads to an exploration of what you want and whether or not your current choices are helping you get that. For the record, if it isn't abundantly obvious, Eileen, heavily in the direction of Adler. Yes, we all have a myriad of experiences that have influenced us, not to mention genetic dispositions with switches that have been flipped in various directions based on our upbringing and lifestyle choices. But, and this is an important and big but, those experiences don't cause us to be a certain way today. We get to create that as long as we don't give up our power. Hello, agency. Check out the plus ones on agency. Joseph Campbell comes to mind here in the Power of Myth. He puts it nicely when he says Freud tells us to blame our parents for all the shortcomings of our life. Marx tells us to blame the upper class of our society. But the only one to blame, he says, is oneself. So today's +1. What do you want? Are your behaviors helping you get that?
