Social interest (Adler)
A felt sense of belonging to and caring about the human community, shown as contribution. Adler made it the yardstick of mental health: problems arise when striving serves personal superiority rather than the common good.
What drives it
It explains why some high achievers stay well and others don't: the direction of the striving. With social interest, achievement connects the person to others; without it, every gain isolates them further.
How it shows
Work
Shares credit without being asked, mentors, and talks about the customer's and the team's success as well as their own. Ambition is phrased as 'we'. Low social interest shows as treating colleagues as audiences or obstacles and running on private logic: 'rules are for other people'.
Relationships
Contributes without keeping score, can compromise, and is interested in the partner's friends and family. Lets others help them as well as helping.
Self
Ask who benefits when you succeed, and whether you feel more or less connected after a win.
What tells it apart
Altruism (as a defence): Altruism as a defence serves the helper's own feelings and fades when unthanked; social interest persists without recognition and includes letting others give to them.
People-pleasing: People-pleasers give to avoid disapproval and resent it; social interest includes saying no and disagreeing openly when that serves the group.
Communal narcissism: Communal narcissists claim to be the most helpful and need it known; real social interest is quiet about itself.
A test
Watch what they do when a contribution will go unseen and uncredited.
Questions to carry
- When a contribution will go unseen and uncredited, what does the person do?
- Which of my achievements brings me closer to people, and which leaves me more alone?
How strong the research is
clinical. Social interest scales since the 1970s correlate modestly with wellbeing and prosocial behaviour, but the research base is small and dated; the idea is better supported by later work on belonging and prosocial motivation than by Adlerian studies themselves.
Where it comes from
Alfred Adler, from about 1918; Social Interest: A Challenge to Mankind, 1938 in English (German, 1933)
On the family tree: Alfred Adler
Sources
- Alfred Adler, Understanding Human Nature (Menschenkenntnis) (1927)