2 - Purpose; Goal-directedness; psychological teleology

Individual Psychology is teleological in that it views behavior as oriented toward future ends, purposes, or results. A thing, process, or action is teleological when it is for the sake of an end (Greek: telos), which can be of two types: intrinsic (for the sake of itself, as is the case when one seeks happiness simply to be happy) or extrinsic (or the sake of something or someone outside one’s self, such as the happiness of another person).

Generally, Adlerian thinking leaves behind the strict cause-effect formula in favor of a dynamic, future-oriented, choice-driven (rather than past-driven) approach to individual movement. Specifically in Adlerian thinking, behavior is governed by, serves, and expresses the person’s Fictional Final Goal.

In cause-effect thinking, when we ask “why” we look for some cause in the past that explains a present effect. For example, that when I am sad and strike out at others can be laid to the “cause” of the way my parents raised me. My behavior is not my fault, but theirs, in the past.

In Adlerian teleological thinking, we ask, “What is the purpose of that behavior? What do you intend to get as a result?” Applied to the example, the focus shifts from the past to my personal present, and to what I want to have happen as a result of what I do. Applied to psychotherapy, the teleoanalytic approach looks at behaviors in terms of their usefulness in attaining an outcome, usually within the social sphere. As Adler himself said,

A person would not know what to do with himself were he not oriented toward some goal. We cannot think, feel, will, or act without the perception of some goal. All the "causalities" in the world do not enable the living organism to conquer the chaos of the future and the planlessness of which we should be the victims. Without any self-consistency, physiognomy, and personal note we would rank with the amoeba. Inanimate nature obeys a perceptible causality, but life is [subjectively] a demand.

And

The essential point to be grasped psychologically and the one that interests us exclusively and practically and psychologically more than all others, is the path followed. Let me observe that if I know the goal of a person, I know in a general way what will happen. We recognize that the person under observation would not know what to do with himself were he not oriented toward some goal. If we look at the  matter more closely, we shall find the following law holding in the development of all psychic happenings: we cannot think, feel, will, or act without the perception of some goal.

Related are the twin concepts “sequence” and “consequence.” In a sequence, two or more events occur in a given order, with results (consequences) that follow from (but are not “caused by”) the events. Adlerians consider two main types of consequences:

Natural consequences arise from the natural or physical order of things in the world. “If you touch something hot, you get burned.” “If you don’t eat, you get hungry.” “If you bump into something, you’re likely to get bruised.”

Logical consequences arise from the logic of the social or community order of things. “If you are nasty to others, people may not like you and will avoid you.” “If you are friendly to others, they are likely to be friendly to you and will want to be around you.”

The reasoning of this teleological approach to sequences and consequences is the basis for an Adlerian approach to child rearing, especially to helping children to behave in ways that they can learn something from, and is also socially useful among others.

Next time: Subjectivity; personal viewpoint; apperceptive schema, perceptual
framework, phenomenology