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An Adlerian Perspective Of Jenny

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An Adlerian Perspective of Jenny

Jenny’s reality, her Lifestyle, seems very grim – that is my first impression of her perceptions. She is only 10 years old, and Early Recollections center around feelings of exclusion, invisibility, and feeling unloved. These feelings could be validated (even if erroneously) by her absent father, her seemingly non-interactive mother (who felt the children needed more attention), and a younger brother that has eclipsed her – first by being born so soon after she, and then by being the ideal child – the ‘angel’ – in Jenny’s words.

To reinforce Jenny’s feelings of invisibility, and inferiority in her Family Constellation, she doesn’t find any sense of belonging in her school setting, either. Jenny makes the Basic Mistake of denying her own self worth. Jenny mistakenly believes she is unlikable and unlovable within her family, so she isn’t likable in a social setting either. She has over generalized that she will always be seen as unlovable. This is a second Basic Mistake. However, Jenny’s feelings of inferiority have intensified to the point of crippling Jenny emotionally and socially. Jenny expects the school setting to make up for her own perceived inadequacies, so labels the school as inferior, and the teachers and students as hostile.

Basically, it seems as if Jenny’s Life Goal at this time is entirely based on a negative, defeatist, faulty foundation. Very few assets or strengths are attributed

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