Pampering education

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The concept of pampering goes back to the Viennese doctor and founder of individual psychology, Alfred Adler . He used it to describe a style of upbringing that is characterized by the tendency of educators to relieve children of even simple tasks with protective intent and to fulfill every wish.

Pampering upbringing according to Adler

A style of upbringing of "pampering" and "pampering" and its effects in middle-class families were first described by Alfred Adler in 1904, although the term "style of upbringing" did not exist at that time. Adler, who rejected authoritarian upbringing and punishment, counted not only physical deficiencies and unkind, authoritarian or cold treatment of the child, but also pampering as one of the damaging factors through which children “easily lose the best support for their spiritual growth”, namely “trust into one's own strength. ”He viewed the pampering or pampering upbringing as a variant of a neglectful upbringing and pointed out its discouraging effect on the child, who thereby loses drive and motivation to make an effort to achieve his goals. In the sense of overprotective care, pampering should be understood as "acting for the child" in situations in which the child's independence and willingness to cooperate with others are important and the child should actually be encouraged and stimulated to cope with the task in his own way to gain experience and develop self-confidence. Adler sees the danger of a pampering upbringing in the loss of social interest and the ability to cope with the corresponding life tasks. The child is “accustomed to an imaginary world that is not ours, in which everything is done by others for the spoiled child. A relatively short period of time is enough to induce the child to always see himself in the center of the action and to perceive all other situations and people as hostile. "

Within his depth psychological approach, Adler viewed pampering as an acquired relationship pattern between the individual and the community. Such patterns would be shaped in early childhood by the attitude and emotional disposition of the educator in interaction with the individual, creative response of the child and, according to Adler, can be perpetuated and continued in later life in the form of possibly harmful character structures. In contrast to Sigmund Freud , Alfred Adler did not regard the Oedipus conflict as a normal, universal stage of psychological development that every person goes through, but at most as the result of a wrong upbringing of a child. Such spiritual dead ends do not arise from the child's spontaneous instinctual needs, but from parental pampering and the contrast between the parenting attitudes of the mother and the father. For the neo-psychoanalyst Karen Horney , too , the Oedipus complex represented a kind of further development of negative relationship patterns that only occurs in a previously spoiled child.

Adler's pupil Erwin Wexberg 1922 mentions as clues for a pampering upbringing : “Overflowing with tenderness, exuberant admiration for every achievement, being immeasurably conceited about one's beauty and intelligence, letting the child notice all this and making it the focus of the family, every wish read from the eyes, obey the child and let himself be dominated and tyrannized by him, take everything from the child and at the same time take away every opportunity for his own development. "

Reception and recent developments

In today's pedagogy , terms such as permissive-pampering parenting style and overprotection have prevailed, and different concepts of education for independence , character education and education for resilience have been developed in response to the perceived or real problems identified with them .

literature

  • Alfred Adler : The pattern of life. Cosmopolitan Book Co., New York NY 1930 (German: Kindererbildung. Fischer Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main 2001, ISBN 3-596-26311-5 ).
  • Heinz L. Ansbacher, Rowena R. Ansbacher (Hrsg.): Alfred Adlers Individualpsychologie. A systematic presentation of his teaching in excerpts from his writings. 3rd, supplemented edition. Ernst Reinhardt, Munich et al. 1982, ISBN 3-497-00979-2 .
  • Barbara Oehler: The influence of pampering and caressing upbringing on the healthy and sick development of the human personality. An investigation into individual psychology. Central Office of the Student Union, Zurich 1977 (dissertation, University of Zurich , 1977).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Alfred Adler: The doctor as an educator . In: Ärztliche Standeszeitung, Vol. 3, No. 13–15, 1904.
  2. ↑ Almuth Bruder-Bezzel: The history of individual psychology. 2. edit again Ed., Göttingen 1999, p. 21.
  3. ^ Alfred Adler: Advantages and disadvantages of the feeling of inferiority (1933, p. 40); quoted from: Marianne Roehl-Schlott and Rüdiger Schlott: Humanity as a central factor in Alfred Adler's individual psychology , in: Gerald Mackenthun (Ed.): Understanding and Compassion: Lectures and essays on depth psychological cultural analysis and psychosomatics. Königshausen & Neumann: Würzburg 2000, p. 77 ( limited online preview ).
  4. ^ Joseph Rattner : Alfred Adler - a biographical sketch. In: Katharina Kaminski, Gerald Mackenthun (ed.): Individual psychology on new paths. Basic concepts - individual psychology as applied ethics - psychotherapy - character studies. Königshausen & Neumann: Würzburg 1997, ISBN 3-8260-1324-7 ( online publication ).
  5. ^ This is how Henri F. Ellenberger explains in his introduction to depth psychology, dt. The discovery of the unconscious: history and development of dynamic psychiatry from the beginnings to Janet, Freud, Adler and Jung . Huber Verlag, Bern, Stuttgart, Vienna 1973, new edition: diogenes, Zurich 2005, ISBN 3-257-06503-5 , 1226 pages.
  6. ↑ Erwin Wexberg: spoiled children , In: Alfred Adler: healing and education. A book of Waldorf education for doctors and educators. Munich 1922 (Newly edited by Wolfgang Metzger, Fischer: Frankfurt am Main, 1973)
  7. ^ Sylva Liebenwein and Sabine Weiss: Educational styles. In: Uwe Sandfuchs, Wolfgang Melzer, Bernd Dühlmeier and Adly Rausch: Handbook Education. UTB: Stuttgart 2012, pp. 160–168 (here: p. 163; 166 f.).