Puget Sound Adlerian Society

Our Mission

Our mission is To nurture dignity for all by encouraging democratic relationships and a sense of belonging.

What We Do

“The science of human nature . . . cannot be pursued with the sole purpose of developing occasional experts. Only the understanding of human nature by every human being can be its proper goal.”  Alfred Adler

Since 1975, PSAS has offered resources and support particularly to parents, parent educators, teachers, counselors, school counselors, therapists, and psychologists, but we welcome everyone interested in human well-being. We help people create mutually respectful, cooperative relationships in families, classrooms, workplaces, and anywhere else.

Adlerian Psychology, developed in Vienna in the early 1900’s by Alfred Adler, MD, is the foundation of our work. Adler’s term gemeinschaftsgefűhl —“community feeling” or “social interest”– describes the state of social connectedness and interest in the well-being of others that he believed characterizes psychological health.

We Invite You to Participate

Everyone is welcome to our free grant-funded parenting courses and our free monthly First Friday Forums.

Parent education has been a major focus for PSAS, as it was for Adler. We help parents choose attitudes and actions of respect for their children and for themselves, choices that strengthen a child’s sense of belonging, improve family relationships, and better prepare children for living well. We offer the parenting courses Positive Discipline and Disciplina Positiva in cooperation with other nonprofit groups, particularly schools, PTAs, and family centers.

The First Friday Forums are informal presentations and discussions on parenting, counseling, and other related subjects, with get-acquainted time as well. Maybe you would like to suggest a forum topic or present one?

For more information, please call or email us, 206-527-2566, psasadler@gmail.com.

“(Adlerian) Psychology instructs in self-understanding, the understanding of others, independence, and encouragement. . . . Its foremost task is to establish among the broad masses of the people a firm basis for a sound, optimistic view and conduct of life, promoting the welfare of all.”  Alfred Adler, MD

Alfred Adler, M.D. (1870-1937), a Viennese physician and founder of Adlerian Psychology, believed that the well-being of families, classrooms, workplaces, etc., rests on a cornerstone of mutual respect.  Adler was the first in the fields of psychiatry and psychology to note the importance of our perceptions and social relationships to our own emotional and physical health and to the health of our families and communities.  He stressed the crucial importance of nurturing our innate ability to cooperate as equal human beings and to encourage ourselves and one another.

Adlerian Psychology holds that human beings are goal-oriented and choice-making by nature, not mechanistically victims of instinct, drives, and environment.  As social beings, our basic goal is to belong.  Although heredity and environment have strong influences, to a large extent we make our own choices of how to belong.

Adlerian Psychology has a strong focus on prevention of mental disturbance and social distress through education and parenting.  Much of Adler’s work was with teachers and parents who wanted to replace traditional authoritarian styles of relating to children with more democratic—but not permissive—ways.   One of Adlerian Psychology’s claims to fame is the attribution to Adlerian Psychology of the concept that “separate is not equal” by an author of the social science brief for the US Supreme Court case on school desegregation.  Today, many schools incorporate Adlerian-based approaches in teacher training and classroom work, and many parenting courses throughout the country are Adlerian based.

Adler’s concept of Gemeinschaftsgefühl, or a deep sense of fellowship in the human community and interconnectedness with all life, holds that human beings, as social beings, have a natural desire to contribute usefully for the good of humanity.  According to Adler, a desire for social significance must focus on contribution, not on status-seeking, or one’s social relationships and one’s mental health will suffer.

Adlerian Psychology is perhaps best known for the concept of the inferiority complex.  Adler viewed some behavior as overcompensation for perceived shortcomings.  We sometimes make choices about how to belong on the basis of an often mistaken feeling of inferiority.  Children, for example, sometimes seem to believe, mistakenly and not consciously, that they belong only when they are the center of attention.  Some adults act as if they believe, mistakenly, that they belong only when they can control others, or take revenge on others, or withdraw from others (and often such misperceptions develop in early childhood).

Both the inferiority complex and overcompensation indicated to Adler an exaggerated concern with self.  This self-concern could be eased by nurturing one’s innate abilities to  cooperate and contribute  through what Adler called the life tasks:  work, intimacy, and friendship.  Adlerian therapy helps to “liberate” clients by helping them move toward a clearer understanding of their unconscious, inferiority-based belief systems, or “life-styles,” and toward a clearer understanding of ways to incorporate cooperation and contribution and mutual respect in their relationships.  Adlerians hope to let go of “private logic” and embrace dignity and respect in all relationships, thereby becoming emotionally and physically healthier and creating a more democratic culture.

PSAS Board

(September, 2018 – August, 2020)

Anita Garcia Morales
President

David Paeth
Vice President

Ximena Grollmus, MEd
Treasurer

Ann Skutt
Board Member; Emeritus Coordinator

Carol Lee Smith, MSW
Board Member; Secretary

Skosh Jacobsen, MA
Board Member

Richard Meeks, MA
Board Member

Doug McClosky, MS
Board Member

Paulina Cuevas, MEd
Board Member

Jessica Hsieh, MA
Coordinator

PSAS Webmaster

Alvin Yang, MS
Webmaster