Olive Schreiner (1855-1920) was a famous South African novelist and
humanitarian. A remarkable and enigmatic woman, her life and work have inspired a
substantial amount of research by Schreiner scholars representing a diversity of academic
disciplines. They continue to speculate about the extent of her contribution to society, the
degree to which she realised her potential as a writer and the nature of her psychological
disturbance.
Olive was chosen as the subject of this research because she was so interesting,
complex and controversial. She has been the subject of numerous biographies. All have
offered interpretations of her life and some have employed formal theories of psychology
to do so. None has utilised explicit or established psychological research designs and
methodologies.
The aim of this study was to conceptualise Oliveâs life in terms of the principles
of Individual Psychology, thereby providing an illuminating account of her life and
offering explanations of her creativity, altruism, psychological difficulties and general
personality development. Individual Psychology is the theory developed by Alfred Adler
(1870-1937). It is a holistic theory, emphasising subjectivism and the creative roles of
individuals in developing their lifestyles. Adlerâs work has had a significant influence on
psychotherapeutic practice although he has received comparatively little recognition for
his contributions to contemporary psychology. The autobiographical nature of the
Adlerian concept of lifestyle and the theoryâs focus on the uniqueness of human beings
means that it is well suited to the study of individual lives.
The study can be described as life history research. It employed a single case,
holistic design and entailed a psychobiographical study of a single subject over an entire
lifespan. The research was explanatory and the method was qualitative. Two strategies
for data extraction and analysis were employed. One entailed the use of theoretical
propositions to identify relevant data, and the other involved the development of a descriptive framework for organising the case material. The combination of these
strategies enabled the researcher to obtain evidence for key theoretical constructs
throughout Oliveâs life. This type of psychobiographical research is useful in
understanding rare or unique phenomena and its application to the lives of enigmatic
individuals facilitates theory development and testing.
The researcher concluded that Individual Psychology was well suited to
conceptualising Oliveâs life, and that it offered a plausible and coherent explanation of
her moral development, creativity and her psychological distress. Oliveâs lifestyle, in
accordance with the tenets of Individual Psychology, was understood to be motivated by
a deep sense of inferiority which she spent her life striving to overcome. To this end, and
in an attempt to protect her fragile sense of self-worth, she employed particular
symptoms. Most obvious were her attempts at safeguarding her self-esteem by distancing
herself from lifeâs challenges. In many respects she displayed evidence of the Adlerian
concept social interest, or a commitment to the welfare of others.
The study of Oliveâs personality provided a positive demonstration of the value of
Adlerâs theory. The validity of the construct social interest as the primary indicator of
mental health was questioned. Suggestions for further research were made.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:ufs/oai:etd.uovs.ac.za:etd-05272013-115722 |
| Date | 27 May 2013 |
| Creators | Perry, Mark James |
| Contributors | Dr SP Walker, Prof JP Fouché, Prof R van Niekerk |
| Publisher | University of the Free State |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | en-uk |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.uovs.ac.za//theses/available/etd-05272013-115722/restricted/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University Free State or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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