Chapter 3    Adler: Individual Psychology81
this fiction guides the lives of most of us. People are motivated not by what is true 
but by their subjective perceptions of what is true. A third example of a fiction might 
be a belief in an omnipotent God who rewards good and punishes evil. Such a belief 
guides the daily lives of millions of people and helps shape many of their actions. 
Whether true or false, fictions have a powerful influence on people’s lives.
Adler’s emphasis on fictions is consistent with his strongly held teleological 
view of motivation. Teleology  is an explanation of behavior in terms of its final pur -
pose or aim. It is opposed to causality,  which considers behavior as springing from a 
specific cause. Teleology is usually concerned with future goals or ends, whereas cau -
sality ordinarily deals with past experiences that produce some present effect. Freud’s 
view of motivation was basically causal; he believed that people are driven by past 
events that activate present behavior. In contrast, Adler adopted a teleological view, 
one in which people are motivated by present perceptions of the future. As fictions, 
these perceptions need not be conscious or understood. Nevertheless, they bestow a 
purpose on all of people’s actions and are responsible for a consistent pattern that 
runs throughout their life.
Physical Inferiorities
Because people begin life small, weak, and inferior, they develop a fiction or belief 
system about how to overcome these physical deficiencies and become big, strong, 
and superior. But even after they attain size, strength, and superiority, they may act as 
if they are still small, weak, and inferior.
Adler (1929/1969) insisted that the whole human race is “blessed” with organ 
inferiorities. These physical handicaps have little or no importance by themselves but 
become meaningful when they stimulate subjective feelings of inferiority, which serve 
as an impetus toward perfection or completion. Some people compensate for these feel -
ings of inferiority by moving toward psychological health and a useful style of life, whereas 
others overcompensate and are motivated to subdue or retreat from other people.
History provides many examples of people like Demosthenes or Beethoven over -
coming a handicap and making significant contributions to society. Adler himself was 
weak and sickly as a child, and his illness moved him to overcome death by becoming 
a physician and by competing with his older brother and with  Sigmund Freud.
Adler (1929/1969) emphasized that physical deficiencies alone do not cause  
a particular style of life; they simply provide present motivation for reaching future 
goals. Such motivation, like all aspects of personality, is unified and self-consistent.
Unity and Self-Consistency of Personality
The third tenet of Adlerian theory is: Personality is unified and self-consistent.
In choosing the term individual psychology,  Adler wished to stress his belief that 
each person is unique and indivisible. Thus, individual psychology insists on the fun -
damental unity of personality and the notion that inconsistent behavior does not exist. 
Thoughts, feelings, and actions are all directed toward a single goal and serve a single 
purpose. When people behave erratically or unpredictably, their behavior forces other 
people to be on the defensive, to be watchful so as not to be confused by capricious 
actions. Although behaviors may appear inconsistent, when they are viewed from the 
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