Alfred Adler

Alfred Adler was born in a suburb of Vienna, Austria in 1870. He became a medical doctor, psychotherapist and, most significantly, the originator of the body of ideas known as individual psychology.

Adler was early afflicted with rickets. He later recalled:

I was reared and watched with the greatest solicitude on account of my sickliness…I must have been forced to put up with a great deal less of this attention when my younger brother was born…I took this apparent loss of attention on the part of my mother very much to heart.  (Bottome, 1939, p. 21)

Many of Adler’s family members were gifted musicians. Adler himself possessed the attributes of a talented singer and dramatic performer, although he seems not to have actualized them, even in later years as a lecturer (Bottome, 1939). He instead chose the sciences. Adler began his medical practice in ophthalmology, shifting later to neurology and psychiatry (Hirsch, 2005). This path no doubt helped lead him to a collegial relationship with Viennese psychiatrist Sigmund Freud, beginning in 1902 when Adler joined Freud’s psychoanalysis discussion group. This group, which came to be known as the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society, also included such prominent thinkers as Carl Jung and Otto Rank (Hopkins, 1939).

Freud nominated Adler as the group’s president in 1910. However, Adler and Freud soon parted company for ideological reasons. Adler then founded the Society for Individual Psychology (Hirsch, 2005); for a thorough exposition of the principles of individual psychology, see Ansbacher and Ansbacher (1956).

Adler had great practical as well as theoretical interest in mental health. He lectured and conducted seminars at great length on prevention of mental disorders. Ansbacher (1992) details Adler’s ideas about prevention and describes the educational counseling centers that Adler established in the Vienna schools.  There were more than 30 such centers in 1934. At that time the changing political conditions in pre-World War II Europe led to the clinics closing, and also to Adler’s emigration to the United States (Ansbacher, 1956). He continued to teach and lecture until his sudden death from a heart attack in 1937 (Bottome, 1939).

Make a Connection

1. Adler put great emphasis on the value of approaching the task of life with courage, once stating that:

What do you first do when you are learning to swim…? You make mistakes, do you not? Well-life is just the same as learning to swim! Do not be afraid of making mistakes, for there is no other way of learning how to live! (Bottome, 1939, p. 27).

How does this way of living speak to you?

2. Another central concept in Adler’s theory is the idea of striving for superiority (Ackerknecht, 1988; Ansbacher, 1978; Ansbacher & Ansbacher, 1956; Hjertaas, 2004). What do you see in the above vignettes from Adler’s early life that may have contributed to the development of this idea?

References

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Ackerknecht, L. K. (1988). Reconsidering some Adlerian concepts. Individual Psychology: The Journal of Adlerian Theory, Research & Practice, 44(4), 453-465. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

Ansbacher, H. L. (1978). The development of Adler’s concept of social interest: A critical study. Journal of Individual Psychology (00221805), 34(2), 118-152. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

Ansbacher, H. L. (1992). Alfred Adler, pioneer in prevention of mental disorders. Individual Psychology: The Journal of Adlerian Theory, Research & Practice, 48(1), 3-34. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

Ansbacher, H. L., & Ansbacher, R. R. (Eds.). (1956). The individual psychology of Alfred Adler. New York: HarperPerennial.

Bottome, P. (1939). Alfred Adler, a biography. Oxford, England: Putnam.

Hirsch, P. (2005). Apostle of freedom: Alfred Adler and his British disciples. History of Education, 34(5), 473-481. doi:10.1080/00467600500220622

Hjertaas, T. (2004). Adler and Binswanger: Individual psychology and existentialism. Journal of Individual Psychology, 60(4), 396-407. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

Hopkins, P. (1939). Sigmund Freud. Character & Personality, 8(2), 163-169. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

Copyright (c) 2011 Leonard Snyder