Die Individualpsychologie Alfred Adlers und ihre Bedeutung für die Erzählforschung

doi:10.1515/fabl.2004.008

Although Adlers Individual Psychology is one of the three schools of depth psychology, it plays practically no role as far as psychological interpretations of folk narratives are concerned. Instead, interpreters exclusively deal with psychoanalysis and analytical psychology. Disregarding Adlers theory, however, is objectively not justified. Its possibilities of application but also its limits shall therefore be pointed out. On the one hand, Individual Psychology has gained entry to popular forms of the humanistic discourse, yet it is neither mentioned nor recognised as such. On the other hand, the study of folklore and Individual Psychology share a common goal in their sociocultural orientation. And thirdly, the basic assumptions of Individual Psychology offer new insights capable of stimulating folk narrative research. These are, primarily, the interdependence between feelings of inferiority and the drive for power (or striving for superiority), the rediscovery of the final cause (causa finalis), neglected in modern scientific tradition, and the concept of fictionalism, an early constructivist theory developed by Hans Vaihinger in his Philosophy of As If.

Die Individualpsychologie Alfred Adlers und ihre Bedeutung für die Erzählforschung

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