Adler believed that it was impossible to understand a person without understanding that person s fictional finalism. Psychologists before him, including Freud, discussed how different parts of a person s personality are at war with each other. Adler believed the conscious and unconscious worked in union with one another towards the fictional finalism. Both had the same goal. Adler claimed that each person has a unique style of life, which not only includes the common goal but also how the goal is going to be achieved and the person s concept of one s self and the world.
Styles of life can be either positive or negative.
Adler hated lumping large groups of people into broad categories but felt that describing basic lifestyles would make the concept easier to understand. His types are only intended to be rough estimates of the infinitely large number of personalities. Three of the four groups are negative styles of life. These mistaken styles include the ruling types, the getting types and the avoiding types. The ruling types seek to control others.