The Use of Early Recollections for Assessing Life Style and Diagnosing Psychopathology

Early Recollections (ER) were studied within the context of Adlerian theory. ER were obtained from 10 psychotics, 10 neurotics, and 10 normals. Three Adlerian clinicians wrote Life Style (LS) summaries on the basis of these ER. Matching LS summaries to ER records, these three Adlerians plus seven other clinicians (Freudian, eclectic, Adlerian) attained significant matching accuracy, several beyond the .0001 level of significance. LS formulations based on ER are thus shown to be reliably communicable to a wide range of professional workers. However, none of the five clinicians (three Adlerians and two eclectics) who made diagnoses of psychopathology on the. basis of the ER records were able to attain above chance accuracy of diagnosis. Results were interpreted within the framework of Adlerian theory.