Adler’s Three Safeguarding Tendencies
A major contributor to our understanding of psychology, Alfred Adler advanced the concept of three safeguarding behaviors. In addition, he set forth the idea that six safeguarding techniques are used by people to protect themselves from any threats to the three safeguarding behaviors, i.e. protecting one’s self from physical harm, protecting one’s reputation with others, and any blow to our self-esteem (Miller, 2016). The six safeguarding techniques include distance seeking, aggression, symptoms, anxiety, exclusion tendency, and excuses (Miller, 2016). One of Adler’s safeguarding techniques, aggression, can be found throughout Scripture, but could have been avoided in each instance by not using this safeguarding technique.
For example, Cain and Abel mark the first Scriptural murder. Cain murdered Abel out of jealousy. Thus, he was protecting his self-esteem. Aggression was the manner he chose to protect his self-esteem from further erosion. Therefore, Cain murdered his younger brother, Abel. This horrific tragedy could have been prevented if Cain had not suffered from enormous pride, vanity, jealousy, and anger. He coped with these negative emotions, and took out his anger against his brother in the form of murderous vengeance. However, had Cain not resorted to violence, the outcome for the brothers could have been a harmonious one. Moreover, Cain did not follow God’s example of mercy and love. Instead, his ego spun out of control, and he viewed himself as having the right to make “God-like” decisions, such as taking a life.
Heeding a direct order is also a powerful tool that can be used to avoid a negative safeguarding technique, such as aggression. One of the most deep-seated, and long-lasting instances of aggression was the Egyptian Pharaoh’s enslavement of the Jews, including Moses. If the Pharaoh had listened to Moses and God, the Ten Plagues of Egypt would have never occurred. If, for example, the Pharaoh had chosen to free Moses’s people, Egypt would not have been destroyed by the Creator. However, he did not heed, and suffered the consequences, when a simple act of obedience would have spared the Kingdom of Egypt. However, the Pharaoh viewed obedience to someone more powerful than himself as a threat to his self-esteem, and his reputation.
There are many more instances of aggression found throughout Scripture. Even more, these instances of aggression could have been simply avoided if people had not resorted to this particular Adlerian safeguarding technique. To conclude, modern-day aggression can also be averted through proactive peace-seeking, having love for our enemies, as well as “turning the other cheek” – the way in which Christ asked humanity to live.
References
Miller, D.J. (2016). Safeguarding techniques. PsychTrader. Retrieved 17 Jun. 2016 from
http://www.psychtrader.com/psychology/safeguarding-techniques/
