Alfred Adler

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Lore & Background

Adler was born on February 7, 1870 at Mariahilfer Straße 208 in Rudolfsheim, a village on the western fringes of Vienna. He was second of the seven children of an Austrian-Jewish couple, Pauline (Beer) and Leopold Adler. Leopold was a grain merchant from an Hungarian-Jewish family. Alfred's younger brother died in the bed next to him when Alfred was only three years old, and throughout his childhood he maintained a rivalry with his older brother. Early on he developed rickets, which kept Alfred from walking until he was four years old. At the age of four, he developed pneumonia and heard a doctor say to his father, "Your boy is lost." Along with being run over twice and witnessing his younger brother's death, this sickness contributed to his overall fear of death. At that point, he decided to be a physician. After graduating from the University of Vienna in 1895, he specialized as an eye doctor, and later in neurology and psychiatry. Adler began his medical career as an ophthalmologist, but he soon switched to general practice, establishing his surgery in a less affluent part of Vienna across from the Prater. His clients included circus people, and it has been suggested that the unusual strengths and weaknesses of the performers led to his insights into "organ inferiorities" and compensation. In 1902, after writing an article in defense of Sigmund Freud's theory, Adler received an invitation from Freud to join a small discussion group, the "Wednesday Society" (Mittwochsgesellschaft), which met regularly at Freud's home and was the beginning of the psychoanalytic movement. In 1908, Adler presented his paper "The aggressive instinct in life and in neurosis", proposing that the sexual and aggressive drives were "two originally separate instincts which merge later on." Freud initially disagreed. Adler became president of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society in 1910, but in 1911 he and a group of his supporters formally disengaged from Freud's circle, the first of the great dissenters from orthodox psychoanalysis. Adler founded the Society for Individual Psychology in 1912 after his break.

Reader's Guide

Alfred Adler's significance lies in founding the school of individual psychology, which emphasized the whole individual and the social context of personality development. He coined the term "inferiority complex" and argued that feelings of inferiority play a key role in personality development. Adler was the first to emphasize the importance of the social element in the re-adjustment process of the individual and to carry psychiatry into the community. After his break from Freud, he founded the Society for Individual Psychology in 1912. In 1919, he started the first Child Guidance clinic in Vienna. With the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Social Democratic Party of Austria came to power and supported welfare programs focused on childhood educational reform. This climate enabled Adler and his associates to establish 28 child guidance clinics, and Vienna became the first city in the world to provide schoolchildren with free educational therapy. From 1921 onwards, Adler was a frequent lecturer in Europe and then the United States in 1926, becoming a visiting professor at Columbia University in 1927. His clinical treatment methods for adults were aimed at uncovering the hidden purpose of symptoms using the therapeutic functions of insight and meaning. Adler was one of the first psychotherapists to discard the analytic couch in favor of two chairs, allowing clinician and patient to sit together as equals. A Review of General Psychology survey, published in 2002, ranked Adler as the 67th most eminent psychologist of the 20th century.

Did You Know?

• Adler was the second of seven children of an Austrian-Jewish couple; his younger brother died in the bed next to him when Adler was only three years old.
• At age four, Adler developed pneumonia and heard a doctor say to his father, 'Your boy is lost.'
• Adler's clients as a general practitioner included circus people, which led to his insights into 'organ inferiorities' and compensation.
• Adler was one of the first psychotherapists to discard the analytic couch in favor of two chairs, allowing clinician and patient to sit together as equals.
• A 2002 survey ranked Adler as the 67th most eminent psychologist of the 20th century.