Adlerian Therapy

An Adlerian approach to the case of B.A., the 14-year-old Guatemalan-American boy whose case was described by Layla, should primarily focus on B.A.'s feelings of inferiority and his sense of community and social being. Adlerian therapy generally concentrates on these two areas, and it is worth examining each specifically for B.A.

We can probably act from the assumption that B.A.'s feelings of inferiority are largely related to his family environment. Alfred Adler held that early childhood contains a lot of clues for how to interpret subsequent behavior -- in Corey's words, the Adlerian view is that "at around 6 years of age our fictional vision of ourselves as perfect or complete begins to form into a life goal." (Corey 99). In the case of B.A., he has had no physical contact with his mother from the age of five months -- too young to have any memories at...
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