<P> Metaphysical Adlerians emphasise a spiritual holism in keeping with what Jan Smuts articulated (Smuts coined the term "holism"), that is, the spiritual sense of one - ness that holism usually implies (etymology of holism: from ὅλος holos, a Greek word meaning all, entire, total) Smuts believed that evolution involves a progressive series of lesser wholes integrating into larger ones . Whilst Smuts' text Holism and Evolution is thought to be a work of science, it actually attempts to unify evolution with a higher metaphysical principle (holism). The sense of connection and one - ness revered in various religious traditions (among these, Baha'i, Christianity, Judaism, Islam and Buddhism) finds a strong complement in Adler's thought . </P> <P> The pragmatic and materialist aspects to contextualizing members of communities, the construction of communities and the socio - historical - political forces that shape communities matter a great deal when it comes to understanding an individual's psychological make - up and functioning . This aspect of Adlerian psychology holds a high level of synergy with the field of community psychology, especially given Adler's concern for what he called "the absolute truth and logic of communal life". However, Adlerian psychology, unlike community psychology, is holistically concerned with both prevention and clinical treatment after - the - fact . Hence, Adler can be considered the "first community psychologist", a discourse that formalized in the decades following Adler's death (King & Shelley, 2008). </P> <P> Adlerian psychology, Carl Jung's analytical psychology, Gestalt therapy and Karen Horney's psychodynamic approach are holistic schools of psychology . These discourses eschew a reductive approach to understanding human psychology and psychopathology . </P> <P> Adler developed a scheme of so - called personality types, which were however always to be taken as provisional or heuristic since he did not, in essence, believe in personality types, and at different times proposed different and equally tentative systems . The danger with typology is to lose sight of the individual's uniqueness and to gaze reductively, acts that Adler opposed . Nevertheless, he intended to illustrate patterns that could denote a characteristic governed under the overall style of life . Hence American Adlerians such as Harold Mosak have made use of Adler's typology in this provisional sense: </P>

Austrian psychologist who founded the school of psychodynamic psychology