Major Adlerian Concepts:
5. Private Logic and Common Sense

Private Logic:

Feeling inferior or judging ourselves to be inferior or inadequate or less-than-others makes us vulnerable; this orients us toward ourselves rather than toward the community, turning us inward rather than outward. We use Private Logic (Adler also called this "private intelligence") to excuse and justify behavior which places us ahead of or above others. Such a person may reason, "I can do what I want," or, "I don’t have to follow the rules that others follow." Such reasoning is in the service of the main goal of getting ahead instead of remaining behind, and omits any consideration of working along side others in cooperation. Here's a way Adler explained it:

A robber-murder expresses himself: "This young man had beautiful suits and I had none. That is why I killed him." This is quite intelligent thinking and acting. Since he is not confident that he is able to acquire suits in the generally usual manner, on the generally useful side of life, he can in fact attain beautiful suits only by robbing. To do this he must kill the other person. [These and similar examples] will always find arguments which are completely "intelligent" . . . by which to reach their goals. . . [and are] "intelligent" in respect to the goal of personal superiority on the useless side of life. This private intelligence is to be sharply differentiated from what one must call reason, common sense. We find intelligence in both cases, but we call reason the kind of intelligence which is connected with social interest. (Ansbachers, 1964, p 45.)

So then, one can find ways to justify or excuse just about any activity. The person who lies, cheats, steals, or whatever, all to advance his or her own personal cause (and without regard for the interests of others) is evidence of the universality of Private Logic. Think of the thousands of young men and women who would never, in their wildest dreams, think of taking a gun and shooting a stranger to death. Then think of a formal training program (the military) that wipes away any thoughts of abhorrence of the idea, and replaces those thoughts (perhaps family or religious teachings) with what we are talking about here: Private Logic...the internal, mental reasoning that allows one to do something that would otherwise never even be considered.

Consider terrorism, in which the Private Logic that allows individuals and groups to commit acts of social atrocity are based on religious, political, ideological, or personal "reasoning." Here we have private logic in the extreme, something more than "socially useless" but "socially destructive." Considering the idea that human beings are created by the community...we have to ask if persons who commit such terrible acts against the community can be said to be human beings. Or have they forfeited their right to be thought so, by what they do?

Common Sense:

Individual Psychology contrasts Private Logic with Common Sense, which is the community’s wisdom about ways people should behave among others. The child is exposed to this community wisdom in the words and actions of others, religious teachings, folk sayings, customs, etc. Private Logic justifies socially useless behavior, while Common Sense encourages socially useful behavior. It is, as Adler noted, "thinking which corresponds to the human community" (AA, Ansbachers, 1964, p. 217). He equated common sense with Reason, the ability of the individual to "be intelligent" in socially-useful ways.

Much of the teleoanalytic approach of Adlerian therapy is oriented toward uncovering private logic that supports the individual’s mistaken style of living. This approach to understanding behavior is grounded in the future and in the future purpose of present behavior. "Teleoanalysis" means to uncover the future in the present. Thus Adlerians ask, "What do you intend to get out of what you are doing?" and aren't nearly as concerned with what "caused" the behavior.

The self-oriented thinking of Private Logic is the basis for many of the individual’s problems in life, not only to excuse "socially useless" behaviors, but also to justify maintaining a generally mistaken life style. Adler’s own approach was to "make guesses" about the client. For example, a therapist might say, "I wonder if, when you say that your parents compared you unfavorably to your older sibling, you are really giving yourself an excuse to not try as hard as you could." If the client’s response is a wry smile (as in, "You got me there!"), the therapist suspects he is on target in having revealed a piece of private logic. The purpose is not to play "Gotcha!" (which would merely feed into the client’s sense of inferiority) but to make "public" to the client what has been a private reasoning to justify a style of behavior.