Throughout childhood, air and nature seemed to have a healing effect on him. It is as though he became such an outdoors person by trying to compensate for the time spent in bed when ill. It was his way of reaching out and defining himself in some way. Adler calls this striving for superiority. "A person can compensate for a weakness either by concentrating on its development or by emphasizing other functions that make up for the weakness."9 Through this striving a life style is developed. Adler feels this is in place usually by the age of 4 or 5. This life style develops early as a means of overcoming inferiority or as a "striving for perfection." As infants and young children, we are all dependent upon others for our being, we are all inferior at that time. The natural progression is this striving for superiority through individual channels. No two persons will ever experience the exact same situation or work toward the exact ultimate goal. The development of this progression depends on the individual's environment and situations.
Going off to school was a similarly difficult transition. Ansel was much too restless sitting in a restrained classroom setting., changing and attending many different schools, unable to handle the schooling requirement in a traditional manner (probably instigating his father's education via exposition). He would sit and peer out the window and not pay attention, his high energy level directed to the outdoors. He really does not mention any friends or peers or acquaintances. At school he does not develop relationships with same sex chums(Sullivan), he does not even appear to have made any acquaintances. The generic psychological view stipulates that personality development is influenced in a major way by the school setting. Just the act of going to school, the child begins to perceive himself differently.
"Graduating from the eighth grade at the Wilkins school signaled the end of my formal academic career....I trace who I am and the direction of my development to those years of growing up in our house on the dunes."10
