Chapter 3    Adler: Individual Psychology79
goals is seldom realized. From the point of view of the final goal, however, they fit 
together in a self-consistent pattern. Adler (1956) used the analogy of the playwright 
who builds the characteristics and the subplots of the play according to the final goal 
of the drama. When the final scene is known, all dialogue and every subplot acquire 
new meaning. When an individual’s final goal is known, all actions make sense and 
each subgoal takes on new significance.
The Striving Force as Compensation
People strive for superiority or success as a means of compensation for feelings of infe -
riority or weakness. Adler (1930) believed that all humans are “blessed” at birth with 
small, weak, and inferior bodies. These physical deficiencies ignite feelings of inferiority 
only because people, by their nature, possess an innate tendency toward completion or 
wholeness. People are continually pushed by the need to overcome inferiority feelings 
and pulled by the desire for completion. The minus and plus situations exist simultane -
ously and cannot be separated because they are two dimensions of a single force.
The striving force itself is innate, but its nature and direction are due both to 
feelings of inferiority and to the goal of superiority. Without the innate movement 
toward perfection, children would never feel inferior; but without feelings of inferior -
ity, they would never set a goal of superiority or success. The goal, then, is set as com -
pensation for the deficit feeling, but the deficit feeling would not exist unless a child 
first possessed a basic tendency toward completion (Adler, 1956).
Although the striving for success is innate, it must be developed. At birth it 
exists as potentiality, not actuality; each person must actualize this potential in his or 
her own manner. At about age 4 or 5, children begin this process by setting a direc -
tion to the striving force and by establishing a goal either of personal superiority or 
of social success. The goal provides guidelines for motivation, shaping psychological 
development and giving it an aim.
As a creation of the individual, the goal may take any form. It is not necessarily a 
mirror image of the deficiency, even though it is a compensation for it. For example, a 
person with a weak body will not necessarily become a robust athlete but instead may 
become an artist, an actor, or a writer. Success is an individualized concept and all 
people formulate their own definition of it. Although creative power is swayed by the 
forces of heredity and environment, it is ultimately responsible for people’s personality. 
Heredity establishes the potentiality, whereas environment contributes to the develop -
ment of social interest and courage. The forces of nature and nurture can never deprive 
a person of the power to set a unique goal or to choose a unique style of reaching for 
the goal (Adler, 1956).
In his final theory, Adler identified two general avenues of striving. The first 
is the socially nonproductive attempt to gain personal superiority; and the second 
involves social interest and is aimed at success or perfection for everyone.
Striving for Personal Superiority
Some people strive for superiority with little or no concern for others. Their  
goals are personal ones, and their strivings are motivated largely by exaggerated  
feelings of personal inferiority, or by the presence of an inferiority complex.  Murderers, 
fei75766_ch03_072-106.indd 79  02/06/20  11:03 AMFinal PDF to printer