The Collected Clinical Works of Alfred Adler, Volume 12: The General System of Individual Psychology by Adler Alfred

Author:Adler, Alfred [Adler, Alfred]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: The Alfred Adler Institute of Northwestern Washington
Published: 2008-04-27T05:00:00+00:00

The Shock Result

Another opportunity for understanding the unity of the personality is to look at the shock result which occurs when someone lacking social interest faces a life problem that requires it. Life presents a multitude of problems, but they all demand social interest. In looking, listening, speaking, and acting, in every form of expression, we meet social problems, and if someone does not have enough social interest, then he will have either an acute or a chronic shock result. We are more confronted by the chronic shock results because we treat the failures of life, and these failures are chronic failures. They last for a long time or forever. Problems of social behavior include friendship, interest in a city, interest in a country, in a nation, a race, etc. Someone who faces such a problem and is shocked by it, does not have enough social interest in his style of life, so he proceeds like a person who does not have enough money and yet he must pay. Although he does not have enough money, he travels on. Or he may stop entirely and give up.

Sometimes we find odd people with such a small sphere of activity that they do not move at all. But this is rare because the goal of superiority drags each person along. Each individual is pulled, he has to move, he has to do something, and life constantly challenges him. Therefore, we find movement. But his movement is characterized by hesitation; he hesitates, goes later, or goes more slowly. Or we find his hesitating attitude in expressions of the body, in trembling, in blushing, etc. He may hesitate forever, but if he wants to hesitate forever he must justify it, because otherwise he will lose his claim for superiority; he will appear inferior and nobody wants to appear inferior. He must look for an alibi for not moving forward.

The greatest number of alibis fight the symptoms of the shock result. For instance, if someone trembles, and this trembling of course originates because he is shocked, he says, “I cannot go on because I am trembling.” This is how people always fight their symptoms; they do not see that this is the best means for their not going on, for not overcoming the symptoms. Therefore, we need to lead their attention toward the right point, toward the problem demanding social interest, to help them forget themselves and instead devote themselves to the task which must be done for the common good.

We find this hesitating attitude illustrated best in cases of neurosis. Why? Because neuroses do not involve much activity. If we see any activity at all in neurotics, it is in a detour. They go ahead, they are active, they do something, but they escape the problem demanding social interest. Let us say such a person faces the problem of occupation. He might treat others like an object, his sweetheart, for instance, or he might want to rob strangers. Such people do not solve the problem of occupation, but instead may turn to crime.

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