Alfred Adler

 

Adler, Alfred (1870-1937) Born in Vienna, the 2nd of six kids, Alfred Adler has an unhappy childhood. Suffering from rickets, and having been injured in two accidents, Adler was frail and unathletic. Although he was pampered by his parents (a wealthy grain merchant), he resented Alfred resented his older brother (his mother’s favorite).

Adler stressed the inherently social nature of man, and the importance of future goals. Like Freud, Adler stressed the importance of birth order, and a child’s early environment. He did not stress the unconscious but maintained that it was not a problem until thoughts became conscious. Adler thought Freud overemphasized sex as a motivating force, so he stressed compensation, individuality, masculine protest, the striving for power, superiority, and social interest.

Adler suggested that people compensate for their feelings of inferiority. He believed that a person’s style of life was set by the age of 5, and that early childhood memories are the best indicators of which style has been selected.

For more on the subject, here is video I made about Adler.

Key Words: birth order, compensation, individualtiy, social interest, masculine protest, superiority, inferiority, style of life