Dr. Marina Bluvshtein is the recipient of the 2021 Dr. Rudolf Dreikurs Visiting Scholar Fellowship at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE). Dr. Bluvshtein oversees the program direction of the Center for Adlerian Practice and Scholarship at Adler University in Chicago. The Center provides research trainings and archives management, presents findings, and represents Adler University on the national and international scale.

In addition to serving as the Director of the Center for Adlerian Practice and Scholarship, Dr. Bluvshtein is a faculty member at all three of Adler University’s campuses. She is also the President of the International Association of Individual Psychology – the oldest Adlerian organization in the world. Dr. Bluvshtein is also a licensed psychologist and licensed marriage and family therapist.

The Dr. Rudolf Dreikurs Visiting Scholar Fellowship began in the fall of 2018 by the family of Dr. Rudolf Dreikurs, who further developed Alfred Adler’s theories of psychology, and then went on to found Adler University. Dreikurs’s daughter, Dr. Eva Dreikurs Ferguson, is a professor in the SIUE School of Education, Health and Human Behavior’s Department of Psychology and supports visiting scholars.

The fellowship involves various activities including a signature lecture as well as student and faculty visits across SIUE’s campus including psychology, counseling, social work and art therapy classes. During these visits, Dr. Bluvshtein offered students the opportunity to ask questions and dive deeper into Adlerian readings, including research of her own. Dr. Bluvshtein delivered her lecture on October 1, 2021.

Dr. Bluvshtein’s lecture, titled “Belongingness as a Goal of Personality Development and Social Evolution,” explores the role of belongingness or lack thereof in various dynamics including parenting, couples, labor or class relationships. Bluvshtein’s lecture aimed to address the origins and the development of belongingness and its implications on mental health and the role it plays for individuals and society as a whole. Dr. Bluvshtein says that Adlerian psychology is directly related to the heart; “We do believe that we are moved by the movement of our heart. Our biggest muscle is our heart…Adlerian psychology encourages people to exercise that muscle…The most wonderful things we do, we do when the heart has been moved.” She hopes that this fellowship will continue the work of both Alfred Adler and Rudolf Dreikurs. Her fellowship is seen as an investment into the future of Adlerian Psychology.

“I want this next generation to be passionate. I want this next generation to be believers… to see the world around them and engage in the tasks of communal survival,” says Dr. Marina Bluvshtein.