A short biography of Alfred Adler: Founder of Individual Psychology

The science of the mind can only have for its proper goal the understanding of human nature by every human being, and through its use, brings peace to every human soul.- Alfred Adler

 Alfred Adler born in Suburb in Vienna. He developed theories on personality and development, and an approach to counseling and psychology, that he called Individual Psychology. His main focus was on the feeling of inferiority. He said every individual goes through many life crises during his developmental process that makes them dependent on another person for survival. Hence, face feeling of inferiority also called inferiority complex.

Like Jung, Adler became familiar with Freud Psychology by reading his book “Interpretation of dreams”. Adler wrote a paper defending Freud’s Theory. In 1902, he was invited to join the Wednesday Society met regularly on Wednesday evenings at Freud’s home and that was the beginning of a psychoanalytic movement. This discussion group turned into the famous Vienna Psychoanalytic Society. Adler was an active member of society and became president of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society till next eight years (1910). He remained a member of the society till 1911. Freud assumption that sexual energy or libido makes an individual overall personality but Adler disagreed with his theory. Adler said, life is inherently meaningless and therefore whatever meaning life he must be assigned to it by the individual. Adler called any lifestyle without adequate social interest a mistaken lifestyle. In other words, an individual gets influence by his external factors like his environment, family, self-esteem, courage, ego and many more.

In 1911, Adler resigned from the Psychoanalytic movement and found the society of “Individual Psychology”. In 1919, he organized a child guidance clinic in Vienna and became the first Psychiatrist who taught mental hygiene in the schools. He started working with parents and teachers in school as well as children. This has been the first “family therapy and community psychiatry on record.

The main difference between Adler and Freud’s idea was that Adler’s contention that the social realm (exteriority) is important to psychology as in the internal ream (interiority).

From the year 1921 to 1927, he traveled a lot in different countries like Europe and the United States and gave lectures for the next 25 years on his socially-oriented approach. In the year 1930, Adler converted to Christianity, his Australian clinics started to closed due to his Jewish Heritage. In 1937, Adler died from a heart attack when he was in Scotland for his lecture.