402 Introduction to Adlerian Psychology & Psychopathology

Students learn the theoretical principles of Individual Psychology as a basis for understanding the development of the individual's creation of a unique style of living in the context of his/her original family constellation and socio-economic setting. It further emphasizes the contextual setting of pathological development of the style of life within families and society. The course addresses cognitive, affective, socio-cultural dimensions of learning in the individual's training and self-training; the selectivity of perception in the formation of the world view; the purposive nature of behavior; creativity, self-determination, and the indivisibility of the person as well as the maladaptive manifestation of these as the psychodynamics of psychopathology. Attention is paid to the recursive influence, both adaptive and maladaptive, of society on the individual and the individual on society. (3 credits)