Chapter 3    Adler: Individual Psychology105
• Human behavior is shaped neither by past events nor by objective reality, 
but rather by people’s subjective perception  of a situation.
• Heredity and environment provide the building material of personality, but 
people’s creative power is responsible for their style of life.
• All people, but especially neurotics, make use of various safeguarding 
tendencies —such as excuses, aggression, and withdrawal—as conscious or 
unconscious attempts to protect inflated feelings of superiority against 
public disgrace.
• The masculine protest —the belief that men are superior to women—is a fiction 
that lies at the root of many neuroses, both for men and for women.
• Adlerian therapy uses birth order, early recollections,  and dreams  to foster 
courage, self-esteem, and social interest.
References
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