Adlerians believe that most marital problems occur when one person feels either "less than" or "greater than" their spouse. When one person acts as though they deserve to dominate or call the shots, the person of lesser status inevitably resorts to either open rebellion or subtle sabotage…. Adlerian therapy helps the couple find ways to cooperate as mutually equal and dignified human beings." (Evans & Hathaway, 1993).

These techniques appear in a wide range of treatment approaches, also including self-help and support-oriented Alcoholics Anonymous and postmodern Solution-Oriented Brief Therapy. Adler has, in fact, been called "the father of self-help," a term that reflects his belief in the broad value of psychology. According to a recent biography by Edward Hoffman (1995), "Adler was a feminist thinker who believed psychology should be of, by and for the people…. He thought people could benefit from the insights of psychology without a therapist. (Hoffman, 1995) Carroll (1999) suggests that the holistic principles of Adlerian psychology are "remarkably in accord with the bio psychosocially and spiritually based philosophy and practices of AA." Adler's sense of people being discouraged rather than ill naturally flow from his core belief that society, work and love are three key life challenges people need to confront in order to successfully choose goals they want to pursue.

As a singular example, AA rejects the notion of perfectionism and favors realistic progress toward goals that include significant amounts of public and private encouragement of the individual. This parallels Adler's belief that people need to learn to have "the courage to be imperfect" (Pew & Pew, 1997, as cited in Carroll, 1999) and to think of mistakes as opportunities to learn. For Adler, knowing one is not perfect and yet also, at the same time, undeserving of condemnation because of it is a sign of psychological health. In AA, Adler's connection to the existentialists also becomes apparent through AA's stressing of spirituality as key to mental well-being. Dreikurs & Mosak (1967) noted that an important task people face is considering the meaning and purpose they give to life and deciding their belief about God's existence. In addition, Cooley (1997, as cited in LaFountain & Mustaine, 1997), wrote that "people who are alcohol dependent need to address the Adlerian spiritual task early in treatment." Solution-Focused Brief Therapy necessarily takes an eclectic, time-limited approach to treatment. Adlerian therapy is a psycho educational, present/future-oriented, and brief or time-limited approach, note Watts & Pietrzak (2000), adding that "Adlerian therapy, albeit theoretically consistent, is both integrative and eclectic and clearly integrates cognitive and systemic perspectives (and) the Adlerian approach … solidly resonates with postmodern ones."

In addition, with the rise of multicultural awareness and sensitivity in counseling in a managed care environment, Adler's focus on prevention, growth-producing policies, promoting competence, reaching out to others and finding meaning and community in a social context certainly reverberates with SFBT. "From my vantage point," notes Corey (1991), "Adler's ideas are certainly compatible with many of the macro strategies for future delivery of services to culturally diverse populations." (as cited in Watts & Pietrzak, 2000). Herring & Runion (1994) note that while Adler's contributions to counseling with ethnic children have received little attention by professional counselors, Adlerian theory includes many concepts that can be applied to ethnic counseling. Adler viewed people as creative, responsible individuals; he didn't try to fit children into neat categories, and criticized the use of the intelligence quotient to categorize children. Adlerian techniques, because of their great flexibility, emphasized a person's subjective view of his or her world, and supported respect for ethnic values and perceptions. (Herring & Runion, 1994).

Adler's most enduring contribution to psychology may actually not reside in his great flexibility or his intrinsic sense of equality, fairness and optimism about people and their ability to solve their problems. His most important contribution was his courage in breaking away from Freud. Freud's ideas, while not irrelevant by any means, centered so narrowly around issues of sex as a key motivator for behavior, that he missed the essence of what it means to be a person. Adler not only correctly identified the sense of personhood that people seek in attempting to resolve conflicts within their lives, he also created a model flexible enough to evolve as succeeding generations put their own spin on his theories. Adler could easily be called the first eclectic psychologist, and the most complete in his wide-ranging, person-centered, positivist approach to celebrating the human spirit. All of the therapies discussed in this paper are derivatives of Adlerian thought and practice, and there are many more not discussed here for which Adler could rightly claim parenthood. As Watts & Pietrzak (2000) note, "Adler's constructivist approach was too far ahead of its time. Thus the ideas of Adler and subsequent Adlerians were, for the most part, ignored or overlooked because they were considered unscientific or unworthy of note….Adler's ideas were marginalized because they were out of step with the dominant metaphors of his time, and, consequently, his theory was discounted, even though many of his ideas have been assimilated into subsequent theoretical positions."

If a family tree were created for psychology, the Freudian branch would show up as a single branch, while the Adlerian branch would show vigorous growth and branching, bearing fruit that continues to sprout effective new therapies up into the postmodern era. The time as come for psychology to embrace Adler as the true father of living psychology.

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