Adler also postulated that emotional difficulties come about when you are convinced that you simply cannot solve the problems of life in a way that is compatible with a need to be superior in some way. Certain attempts to compensate for feelings of inferiority can lead to emotional problems later. They include seeking a feeling of superiority by requiring attention from others, striving for power over others, taking revenge, and giving up--declaring that you cannot cope because of personal deficiencies and weakness. Children from families where there is distrust, domination, abuse, or neglect tend to choose these paths. Another facet of Adler's approach is that individuals who {159} cannot compensate for feelings of inferiority are inclined to make a number of "basic mistakes" in perceiving the world. They will overgeneralize ("Nobody cares about me."), depreciate their worth ("I'm just a housewife."), set unrealistic goals ("I should please everyone."), distort ("You have to lie to get ahead."), and hold faulty values ("Win, even if you have to climb over others."). Finally, Adler felt that, over the course of their lives, many people strengthen these basic mistakes while in pursuit of the ultimately unsatisfying desires for attention, power, revenge, or escape. Their styles of living may lead to depression, chronic anxiety, crime, alcoholism, drug abuse, and other problems. WHAT ADLERIAN THERAPY IS LIKE Adlerian therapists try to help people change unfulfilling patterns of living in several ways. First, and perhaps most important, is the belief that therapy should do more than help clients with immediate problems. It should help them develop an adequate philosophy of life, encourage them to cultivate an approach to living that is self-sustaining, positive, and inherently _social_ in focus. The paradox of inferiority and low self-esteem is that the suffering they cause disappears once people can forget themselves and begin living to some extent for others. Adler would remind his clients to "consider from time to time how you can give another person pleasure."[6] Adlerian therapy stresses the importance of social goals. For Adler, we are foremost social creatures; our individual identities can be developed and our problems resolved only in a social context. [6] Alfred Adler, _Problems of Neurosis_ (New York: Harper and Row, 1964), p. 101. Since Adler believed that most emotional difficulties we experience result from feelings of inferiority that have led to discouragement, the second goal of Adlerian therapists is to offer _encouragement_. They are as much concerned with mirroring clients' strengths as they are with analyzing their problems. Adlerian therapists will devote a good deal of attention to identifying and encouraging the personal assets of each client. Adler suggested several techniques that have also come to be used by other schools of psychotherapy: {160} _Acting "As If"_