Alfred Adler and the Future of Coaching: Ethics, Equality, and Eternity

Social interest as a meta-assumption

In discussing Adler’s theories, coaching faculty members struggled with how social interest, a central concept of Adler’s approach (Adler, 1964/1933; Ansbacher, 1991/1968), relate to coaching concepts. They saw a connection between Adler’s assumptions of “idiography,” or striving for unique personal expression, and that of “social embeddedness.” They came to the conclusion that these two assumptions, taken together, reveal a paradoxical challenge for all human beings, the solution to which has a familiar ring:

We are all caught in a paradoxical tension between being ourselves and being in relationship with others. On the one hand, we are all unique individuals, with a strong need and desire to express our unique selves fully in our life and work. [idiography]

On the other hand, we are embedded in a web of relationships with other individuals, a member of multiple systems, and irretrievably part of humanity. [social embeddedness]

Our creativity in resolving this paradox between self-expression and embeddedness determines, to a significant extent, our level of success and fulfillment. The key to resolving this paradox lies in using our unique selves to make a contribution to others. [social interest]

(Adler Graduate Professional School, 2018, p. 2)

Adlerians will recognize that “using our unique selves to make a contribution to others” is a reference to Adler’s concept of “social interest,” or “Gemeinschaftesgefühl” in German (Adler, 1964/1933). This refers to a feeling of belonging and kinship with one another, to having “…interest in the interests of others” (Ansbacher, 1991/1968, p. 39). Social interest is an inborn potential for all people, but one that must be socially nurtured.

The coaching faculty also recognized social interest as Adler’s criterion for mental health, in that resolving the dilemma determines “our level of success and fulfillment” (Adler, 1956). This integration of basic Adlerian assumptions helps establish social interest as superordinate, a “meta-assumption.”