Freud VS Adler

My take on Freud VS Adler psychology.

With Freud… everything is about your childhood, parents and repressed trauma. You’re “broken” because of what happened TO you. Healing means going back and unpacking every last moment.

With Adler… our past matters, but our beliefs, goals and our sense of MEANING matter more. Adler believed healing came from taking responsibility, building good social connection and finding purpose in “the now.”

Freud’s model makes it possible to keep people in therapy for years. The problem with that is Freud’s model makes people feel like they are healing when they are typically just talking.

When you stay stuck in self-analysis, you can now “explain” your patterns but nothing actually changes.

Adler’s alternative is that he believed people aren’t broken. They are just possibly discouraged and they don’t need years of regression therapy, rather they need the tools to feel capable, connected and clear about what they are working towards.

Here’s the reality.

If therapy had followed Adler’s path and focused on forward movement (instead of backwards blame) we might not be in a mental health crisis.

We’d be in a mental health revolution.

Healing doesn’t mean becoming obsessed with your wounds and considering everything to be trauma, rather it means learning from experiences and building something better from here.

For yourself… and your family.