What is the Creative Self
Perhaps the most fundamental aspect of Adler’s own optimistic private logic was his assumption that people are creative, responsible and self-determining. He believed in the free will of the individual to respond to genetic and environmental dispositions; that we are fully capable of guiding and planning our thoughts and actions. Accordingly, Adler introduced the concept of the creative self, the sovereign and co-ordinating aspect of the personality to which all other parts are subordinated. Determinism is, thereby, dismantled. Human consciousness is no longer merely the froth floating on the vast ocean of the unconscious.
The creative self is not easy to define since, as with Jung’s archetypes, the effects are more observable than the source. It could be described, broadly, as the “black box” in the arrow between the Behaviourists’ stimulus and response. More specifically, it interprets inferiority, creates the final goal, and aligns life-style and private logic. By definition, the creative self also has the capacity to reinterpret circumstances and reformulate hypotheses, thereby initiating and maintaining change. Ultimately, according to Adler, we are the masters of our own personalities and destinies – creative actors rather than passive reactors
