Alfred Adler
On the 7th of February 1870, a boy named Alfred Adler was born in Rudolfsheim, a village on the western edge of Vienna. He was the second child of Pauline and Leopold Adler, a Jewish couple who ran a grain business. His early years were marked by physical struggle. At age two, he developed rickets, a bone disease that left him unable to walk until he turned four. This delay made him feel small and weak compared to other children.
At age four, pneumonia struck again. A doctor told his father, "Your boy is lost." The words haunted young Alfred. He survived, but the fear of death took root. Later, he was run over twice by a carriage while playing outside. These events shaped his worldview. He decided then to become a physician. He wanted to conquer death itself.
His family life added another layer of complexity. His younger brother died in the bed next to him when Alfred was only three. Throughout his childhood, he felt a rivalry with his older brother, Sigmund. He believed his mother preferred his brother over him. Despite having a good relationship with his father, he struggled with feelings of inferiority toward his mother. These early experiences planted seeds for his later theories about human motivation.
In 1902, an invitation changed everything. Sigmund Freud asked Adler to join an informal discussion group known as the Wednesday Society. They met every Wednesday evening at Freud's home. Members included Wilhelm Stekel, Otto Rank, Max Eitingon, Karl Abraham, Hanns Sachs, Fritz Wittels, Max Graf, and Sandor Ferenczi. Each week, a member presented a paper followed by coffee, cakes, and debate.
Adler became president of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society eight years after joining, in 1910. Yet tensions grew. In 1908, he presented a paper titled "The aggressive instinct in life and in neurosis." Freud believed early sexual development determined character. Adler argued that sexual and aggressive drives were originally separate instincts that merged later. Freud disagreed sharply.
By 1911, the break was final. Adler and his supporters formally disengaged from Freud's circle. They never saw each other again. Freud continued to dislike Adler even after the separation. He once told a colleague, "I don't understand your sympathy for Adler. For a Jewish boy out of a Viennese suburb a death in Aberdeen is an unheard of career in itself." Adler showed a reporter a faded postcard Freud had sent him in 1902. He wanted to prove he was never a disciple but rather someone Freud sought out to share ideas.
In 1912, Adler founded the Society for Individual Psychology. His group initially included some orthodox Nietzschean adherents who believed his ideas on power and inferiority aligned more with Nietzsche than Freud. Despite their differences, Adler retained admiration for Freud's work on dreams. He credited Freud with creating a scientific approach to clinical utilization.
After World War I ended, Adler's influence grew rapidly. In 1919, he started the first Child Guidance clinic in Vienna. The Social Democratic Party of Austria came to power following the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. They supported welfare programs focusing on childhood educational reform. This climate allowed Adler and his associates to establish twenty-eight child guidance clinics. Vienna became the first city in the world to provide schoolchildren with free educational therapy.
From 1921 onwards, Adler lectured frequently across Europe and the United States. He served as a visiting professor at Columbia University in 1927. His methods aimed to uncover hidden purposes behind symptoms using insight and meaning. He discarded the traditional analytic couch in favor of two chairs. This setup let clinician and patient sit together as equals.
Adler developed a theory centered on feelings of inferiority. Early on, he studied organ inferiority, where one body part was weaker than others. He postulated that other organs compensated for this weakness. Sometimes compensation turned into strength. An example included an individual with a weak leg becoming a great runner later in life.
As his theory evolved, organ inferiority gave way to psychological feelings of inferiority. He coined the term "inferiority complex" to describe an isolating element playing a key role in personality development. Human personality could be explained teleologically. Parts of the unconscious self worked to convert feelings of inferiority into superiority or completeness.
If corrective factors were ignored, overcompensation occurred. This fostered danger of the individual becoming egocentric, power-hungry, and aggressive. Adler argued that human psychology is guided by goals fueled by a creative force. These fictive goals serve a persecutory function yet remain ever-present in subjectivity. The end goal might be fictive since it can never be fully achieved.
Adler emphasized birth order as influencing style of life and psychological makeup. Birth order refers to sibling placement within a family. He distinguished between psychological and ordinal birth order. A second child might behave like a firstborn, making them an ordinal secondborn but a psychological firstborn.
The oldest child enjoyed full parental attention until a second child arrived. That arrival caused dethronement feelings for the firstborn. Youngest children tended to be overindulged, leading to poor social empathy. Middle children experienced neither dethronement nor overindulgence. They were most likely to develop into successful individuals yet also rebel and feel squeezed out.
In early writings from 1908, Adler suggested the oldest child suffered neuroticism and substance addiction due to excessive responsibility loss. He did not produce scientific support for these interpretations. The value lay in extending importance beyond Freud's limited emphasis on parents. Children do not grow up in shared environments. Position in the family constellation explains personality differences.
Adler focused heavily on prevention strategies alongside treatment. Prevention included encouraging social interest, belonging, and cultural shifts within families and communities. These efforts aimed at eradicating pampering, neglect, and corporal punishment. His methods extended beyond treating problems after they occurred.
He trained teachers, nurses, social workers, and parents in democratic approaches allowing children to exercise power through reasoned decision-making while cooperating with others. When a child felt unequal or enacted upon through abuse via pampering or neglect, inferiority complexes developed. These strategies exacted social tolls by seeding higher divorce rates, family breakdown, criminal tendencies, and subjective suffering.
Adlerian-based practices promoted parent education groups influenced by Rudolf Dreikurs. Responsibility for optimal child development extended beyond mothers and fathers to include society broadly. Teachers required training to complement family work in fostering democratic character. This approach addressed what were now termed personality disorders or neurotic conditions like depression and anxiety.
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Common questions
When and where was Alfred Adler born?
Alfred Adler was born on the 7th of February 1870 in Rudolfsheim, a village on the western edge of Vienna. He was the second child of Pauline and Leopold Adler, who ran a grain business.
Why did Alfred Adler decide to become a physician?
Alfred Adler decided to become a physician after surviving rickets at age two and pneumonia at age four which made him feel small and weak. These early physical struggles and the fear of death shaped his worldview and motivated him to conquer death itself.
How did Alfred Adler split from Sigmund Freud?
Alfred Adler and his supporters formally disengaged from Freud's circle by 1911 after tensions grew over their differing views on sexual and aggressive drives. They never saw each other again following this final break.
What major clinics did Alfred Adler establish after World War I?
Alfred Adler started the first Child Guidance clinic in Vienna in 1919 and helped establish twenty-eight child guidance clinics with support from the Social Democratic Party of Austria. This effort made Vienna the first city in the world to provide schoolchildren with free educational therapy.
What is the theory of inferiority complex developed by Alfred Adler?
Alfred Adler coined the term inferiority complex to describe an isolating element playing a key role in personality development through feelings of inferiority. He postulated that human psychology is guided by goals fueled by a creative force that converts these feelings into superiority or completeness.