Family constellation and Fictional Finalism: next in a series of articles on Alfred Adler's counseling theories.

Adler stressed that the birth order was an important determiner of personality. In spite of common heritage, siblings are usually very different from each other. It is not the child's position in the birth order that influences character, but the situation into which one is born and the way one interprets it. For instance: if two siblings are born much later than the earlier children, the older of the two may develop like a first-born and the younger one as a second child.

The first-born is given a great deal of attention until the second child is born and then the first is dethroned from the favored position. This dethroning experience may cause him to protect himself against reversals, be conservative and insecure or it may cause him to strive to protect others and be a helper. If the parents have allowed the first-born to feel sure of their affection, if he knows that his position is secure, and above all, if he is prepared for the arrival of the younger child and has been trained to cooperate in its care, the crisis will pass without ill effects.

The second child is in a different situation. He shares attention with another child and is more likely to cooperate than the oldest child. He has an older sibling ahead of him so the second child strives to catch up. Adler used the Biblical account of Jacob and Esau as an example for the second child's striving to surpass the older sibling. The second child may continue his exaggerated struggle for equality with the older child or his ambition may result in worthwhile achievement.

All other children may be dethroned except the youngest, who is always the baby of the family and often spoiled. As the youngest has no followers but many pacemakers, he may strive to overcome them all. Again Adler uses the Bible to illustrate his point as he refers to Joseph and Benjamin. He includes Joseph because he was 17 years old when his younger brother, Benjamin, was born. Adler believed that the oldest child would most likely become a problem child and a neurotic, maladjusted adult with the youngest following closely behind. The second child is by and large better adjusted than older or younger siblings.

The Only Child has problems of his own for the mother often pampers him. Afraid of losing him, she spoils him as a result of over-protectiveness. Having no siblings, his feelings of competition are often directed against his father or a girl against her mother. The only child may have difficulties in later years, when no longer the center of attention.

FICTIONAL FINALISM: Adler was influenced by the philosopher Hans Vaihinger whose book, The Psychology of the "As If" was published in 1911. Vaihinger proposed that people live by many fictional ideals that have no relation to reality. These are ideas that cannot be tested and confirmed. Some of these are all men are created equal, honesty is the best policy, and the end justifies the means. These fictions may help people deal more effectively with reality or may hinder one's efforts to accept reality. Adler took this idea and concluded that people are motivated more by their expectations of the future than they are by the past. If a person believes that there is heaven for those who are good and hell for those who are bad, it will probably affect how that person lives. An ideal or absolute is a fiction.

Adler's Fictional Finalism is an interesting idea for hypnotherapists. Fictional Finalism simply states that people act as much from the as if as they do from reality. One of my understandings of the subconscious mind is that whatever the subconscious mind accepts as true, it acts as if it is true whether it is or not. When one imagines tasting a lemon, the mouth waters and often one tastes the lemon as if there really was a lemon to lick.

Ansbacher states that there are five points to Adler's understanding of Fictional Finalism: 1) The fictional final goal for Adler became the principle for internal, subjective causation of psychological events, 2) The goal represented a creation of the individual and was largely subconscious, 3) It also became the principle of unity and self-consistency of the personality structure: from the point of the view of the subject, the fictional goal was taken 4) as the basis for orientation in the world and 5) as one aspect of compensation for felt inferiority.

* For fluidity, the term HE or SHE will be used in place of the inclusive HE/SHE. This is implied by the singular reference.

Chaplain Paul G. Durbin, PhD is President of IMDHA and the retired Director of Clinical Hypnotherapy MHSF affiliated with Methodist Hospital, New Orleans, LA. www.durbinhypnosis.com