PRINCIPLES OF ADLERIAN THEORY APPLIED TO THE VILLAGE TEST. SPATIAL SYMBOLISM AND PSYCHODYNAMICS IN INDIVIDUAL PSYCHOLOGY AND IN THE EVOLU TIVE-ELEMENTAL MODEL

Abstract

The paper aims to read the Village Test through the Adlerian theoretical model, integrating it with the Evolutive-Elemental analysis method. The starting point are the spatial antitheses “above/below” and “high/low” (representing the “masculine/feminine” and “paternal/maternal” symbolism), and “left/right” (respectively representing the history of the subject, his childhood, the relationship with parental figures and images; and that towards which it is teleologically oriented, maturity, vital tasks, the adult world, society). Through these concepts the lifestyle of the individual is read, in its articulation between inferiority feeling (bottom-left), compensations, will to power (top-left), social feeling (right), in a process that follows a line spiral. To give the model greater evocative and explanatory power, the symbolism of the four Elements is used that characterize the spaces of the construction table, giving the quadripartite scheme a particular meaning, which will then be found in some characteristics of the village and of the subject that has built. The observation that is drawn from clinical work is that the subjects who, in their life path, ideally move along this spiral guideline, tend towards an ultimate goal well articulated with social feeling, towards maturity and bio-psycho-social well-being. Those, however, who fail to follow it, can continue a journey upward through overcompensation and goals of domination, in an excess of elevation that can become a superiority complex; or they can get stuck down in an inferiority complex. Some “discard” from the bottom-left to the right, without going from the top-left, trying to pursue their goals, without having contacted the will to power, and therefore not really able to assert themselves in the world.
The various examples illustrate how the theoretical model of Individual Psychology, in particular its spatial symbolism, is particularly suitable for analyzing the Village Test and the stories that are told about it