Contents
Childhood and youth
Alfred was the third of six children in a poor Jewish family. Adler stubbornly fought his physical weakness. Whenever possible, young Alfred ran and played with other children, who always gladly accepted him into their company. He seemed to find among his friends that sense of equality and self-respect that he lacked at home. The influence of this experience can be seen in Adler’s subsequent work, when he emphasizes the importance of empathy and shared values, calling it a social interest, through which, in his opinion, an individual can fulfill his potential and become a useful member of society.
As a child, Adler came close to death several times. When Alfred was 3 years old, his younger brother died in the crib where they slept together. In addition, twice Adler was almost killed in street accidents, and at the age of five he suffered from severe pneumonia. The family doctor considered the case hopeless, but another doctor managed to save the boy. After this story, Adler decided to become a doctor.
In his youth, Adler was very fond of reading. Subsequently, a good acquaintance with literature, the Bible, psychology and German classical philosophy brought him popularity in Viennese society, and later worldwide fame as a lecturer.
At 18, Adler entered the University of Vienna in the department of medicine. At the university, he became interested in the ideas of socialism and participated in several political meetings. On one of them he met his future wife Raisa, a Russian student who studied at the university. By the end of his studies, Adler had become a staunch social democrat. In 1895 Adler received his medical degree. He began his practice first as an ophthalmologist, then as a general practitioner. Later, due to his growing interest in nervous system function and adaptation, Adler’s professional aspirations shifted towards neurology and psychiatry.
Participation in the activities of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Association and the conflict with Freud.
In 1901, Adler, a promising young doctor, actively defended Freud’s new book, The Interpretation of Dreams, in print. Although Freud had not previously known Adler, he was deeply moved by Adler’s bold defense of his work and sent him a letter thanking him and inviting him to participate in a newly formed discussion group on psychoanalysis. As a medical practitioner, in 1902 he joined Freud’s circle. Nevertheless, Adler never supported the Freudian thesis about the universal role of childhood sexuality in the development of the human psyche. In 1907, Adler published the book Study of the Inferiority of Organs (Studie ber die Minderwertigkeit von Organen), in which he outlined his views on the formation of the human psyche, which caused a negative reaction from Freud. Adler stated that «psychoanalysis should not be limited to only one way,» in response to which Freud spoke sharply about the «willfulness of individual psychoanalysts.» In 1910 Adler was elected president of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society. Meanwhile, relations between Freud and Adler deteriorated sharply. Freud, who back in November 1910 in his letters to Jung called Adler «a very decent and very intelligent person», by the end of the year declared him «paranoid» and his theories «incomprehensible».
“The crux of the matter — and this really worries me — is that it negates sexual desire, and our opponents will soon be able to talk about an experienced psychoanalyst whose conclusions are radically different from ours. Naturally, in my attitude towards him, I am torn between the conviction that his theories are one-sided and harmful, and the fear of being branded as an intolerant old man who does not allow young people to develop. Freud wrote to Jung.
Freud often referred to his enemies as «paranoids». He believed that repressed homosexual feelings were the cause of paranoia. Freud made a retrospective analysis of his lost friend, Wilhelm Flies, and called Adler «Flies’ little relapse.» He even confessed to Jung that he was so upset by the quarrel with Adler, because «it opens up old wounds in the affair with Flies.»[1] On February 8, 1911, at a regular meeting of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society, Freud sharply criticized Adler’s views. In response, Adler and Vice President Steckler, who was also a supporter of Adler’s views, resigned. In June, Adler left the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society. In October of that year, Adler’s remaining followers were ordered to choose between two camps. In total, ten members of the movement left with Adler, who decided to form their own circle — the Society for Free Psychoanalytic Research, later renamed the Association for Individual Psychology. Freud, in his letter to Jung, wrote about this event: «I am very glad that I finally got rid of the Adler gang.» By Freud’s decision, no contact was allowed between members of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society and the breakaway «Adler Gang».
Future life
In 1912, Adler published On the Nervous Character, which summarized the basic concepts of individual psychology. In the same year, Adler founded the Journal of Individual Psychology, whose publication was soon interrupted by the First World War. For two years, Adler served as a military doctor on the Russian front, and returning to Vienna in 1916, he headed a military hospital. In 1919, with the support of the Austrian government, Adler organized the first children’s rehabilitation clinic. A few years later there were already about thirty such clinics in Vienna, in which Adler’s students worked. The staff of each clinic consisted of a doctor, a psychologist and a social worker. Adler’s activities gained international fame. Similar clinics soon appeared in Holland and Germany, then in the USA, where they still function. In 1922, the publication of the journal, which had been interrupted by the war, was resumed under a new name, the International Journal of Individual Psychology. Since 1935, under the editorship of Adler, a journal has been published in English (since 1957 — «Journal of Individual Psychology»).
In 1926, Adler received an invitation to take up a professorship at Columbia University in New York. In 1928 he traveled to the United States, where he lectured at the New School for Social Research in New York. After becoming an employee of Columbia University, Adler spent only the summer months in Vienna, continuing his teaching activities and treating patients. With the coming to power of the Nazis, Adler’s followers in Germany were subjected to repression and were forced to emigrate. The first and most famous experimental school, which was taught according to the principles of individual psychology, founded in 1931 by Oskar Spiel and F. Birnbaum, was closed after the Anschluss of Austria in 1938. At the same time, the International Journal of Individual Psychology was banned. In 1946, after the end of the Second World War, the experimental school reopened, at the same time the publication of the journal resumed.
In 1932, Adler finally moved to the United States. In the last years of his life, he was actively engaged in lecture activities in many higher educational institutions of the West. On May 28, 1937, having arrived in Aberdeen (Scotland) for a series of lectures, he died unexpectedly of a heart attack at the age of 67.
Two of Adler’s four children, Alexandra and Kurt, became, like their father, psychiatrists.