Jump to ratings and reviews
Rate this book

Practice and Theory of Individual Psychology

Rate this book

Routledge is now re-issuing this prestigious series of 204 volumes originally published between 1910 and 1965. The titles include works by key figures such asC.G. Jung, Sigmund Freud, Jean Piaget, Otto Rank, James Hillman, Erich Fromm, Karen Horney and Susan Isaacs. Each volume is available on its own, as part of a themed mini-set, or as part of a specially-priced 204-volume set. A brochure listing each title in the International Library of Psychology series is available upon request.

352 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1920

117 people are currently reading
4392 people want to read

About the author

Alfred Adler

372 books870 followers
Austrian psychiatrist Alfred Adler rejected emphasis of Sigmund Freud on sexuality; his theories that personality arises in subconscious efforts and that from overcompensation for perceived inferiority results neurotic behavior and psychological illness base an Adlerian psychological school.

People recognize emphasis of this medical doctor, psychotherapist, and founder of individual on the importance of the complex as isolating an element, which plays a key role in development.

This Viennese of the best-known in the western world held a chair in the United States of America. His special merit made clear the interaction between external influences and internal dispositions. He therefore pioneered a holistic approach.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_...

Ratings & Reviews

What do you think?
Rate this book

Friends & Following

Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!

Community Reviews

5 stars
279 (36%)
4 stars
299 (39%)
3 stars
146 (19%)
2 stars
31 (4%)
1 star
10 (1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 43 reviews
1 review4 followers
October 7, 2016
Definitely one of the best books I've ever read. Though I studied philosophy at the university, I've always been a really avid reader of psychology. I'd known about Alfred Adler for a while, as one of the Big Three founders of psychoanalysis (along with Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung) but I'd never realized the depth and profundity of his thought.

Here's my summary of Alfred Adler's thought (which is the content of the book): For Adler, "to exist is to feel inferior." What he means by this is that, from the moment the human being is able to compare himself to others, he is conscious of his relative feebleness and weakness in the face of massive grownups. An upshot of the huge human brain is our ability to compare our own endowments and abilities with those of others, and this ability develops very early. In this way, we all learn to be insecure (to at least some degree).

We attempt to compensate for these feelings of inferiority by striving for superiority, in his language. This is rooted in Adler's appropriation of Nietzsche's concept of the will to power. Contrary, to the Darwinians of his day, Nietzsche maintained that evolution is driven, mostly fundamentally, by a kind of upward striving force known as will to power, rather than merely to survival. Instead, survival is merely an instance of a more fundamental will to power.

This will to power in humans seeks, above all, to alleviate inferiority feelings. Adler distinguishes between socially useful and socially useless forms of compensating for these feelings. Socially useless forms involve compensating for feelings of inferiority by harming others in order to make oneself feel more powerful. The remedy for mental illness, for Adler, involves adopting socially useful styles of life, which involve serving others and being a part of something larger than oneself.

When the individual's will to power goes astray, it can manifest itself in symptoms of what Adler calls neurosis (an obsolete and horrible word). Unlike Freud, however, Adler believed that neurosis is caused by socially useless attempts to compensate for inferiority feelings. An example of something like this might involve someone wanting to become a dictator so he can dominate other people, with this desire being rooted in a deep rooted sense of inferiority because he was abused by his father. Instead, the individual should compensate by using as a standard one's usefulness in contributing to the welfare in others. Adler acknowledges that one's psychological system is necessarily going to be an expression of their life-philosophy, and he is quite open about his presuppositions in this respect.

In biology, compensation is understood as an increase in activity or size of a specific part of either an organ or organism which makes up for dysfunction or loss of another. A woman feels unattractive because of what she thinks is a big nose and so she may obsessively engage in accentuating other parts of her body in order to draw attention away from the supposedly malformed organ, and toward something which will give her feelings of superiority and alleviate painful feelings of inferiority.

Whether physiological or psychical or both, life proceeds by way of compensation, one chemical increasing or decreasing to make up for an increase or decrease elsewhere, metabolism slowing down during starvation to compensate for low amounts of food intake and a need to conserve calories. On all levels of granularity, the entire organism is complicit in ensuring that the relevant differentials are such as to maintain the stability, homeostasis or equilibrium of a open, emergent system.

For Adler, the goal is not to not compensate, since compensation is an essential component of what maintains the stability of equilibria, but rather, to compensate well. As open, emergent systems dependent upon a robust but delicate equilibrium, continually deluged with one shock after another, compensation is a regular fact of life. So compensation doesn't have a negative connotation at all in Adler's system. It's how emergent systems like us are even able to function. This is true, he argued, on both a physiological and psychological level (indeed, his early work had much more to do with feelings of inferiority resulting from faulty organs, whereas he reversed the order in his later work).

Compensating well, for Adler, involves cultivating what he refers to as "social feeling" or "social interest," and involves taking one's focus off of one's own inferiority and instead throwing oneself into contributing to the welfare of others. Adler himself was a Social Democrat and his political interests long preceded his career as a psychoanalyst, but he later abandoned these views, and the notion that humans are social creatures and require interpersonally meaningful relationships to maintain mental health is hardly a distinctly Marxist insight.

Indeed, Adler's psychology is essentially a social psychology. The human person develops in continual interaction with other individuals. Increasing feelings of superiority and decreasing feelings of inferiority are centered around how we believe we are perceived by other people. Compensating for these feelings by

As much as I love Adler, I've never really liked his writing style. On the one hand, I definitely appreciate his insistence on the importance of communicating ideas clearly so that the individual of ordinary intelligence can understand his teachings. (really more of an Anglo-American virtue than a Germanic one). I'm the other hand, he is oftentimes so terse that his message ends up kind of vague, and certainly inelegant. I'd also really like to see his ideas articulated within a more rigorously systematic framework. Whether this is necessarily a fault of the translation or of his own style, I'm not sure. Be that as it may, it is really not enough to warrant the omission of a star.

Though Adler appreciated the inferiority complex like no one before him (except perhaps Nietzsche and Dostoevsky -- the only psychologist, according to Nietzche's testimony, from whom he had ever learned anything) he could be really crassly reductionistic in a way not dissimilar to Freud, to the point of being almost archaic. That is, he considers basically all forms of mental illness to be the result of lack of social feeling or social interest, and "socially useless" attempts at attempting to compensate for inferiority feelings. This is true, he thought, for schizophrenia, for example, which is obviously absurd. Schizophrenia is now known to be highly (though not entirely) heritable.

I think his comments on homosexuality may be of more than historical interest. as with other psychodynamic complexes, he attributes "inversion" or homosexuality to attempts to avoid inferiority feelings by defaulting to the same sex. So he basically sees it as a kind of cop out or failure of nerve on the part of the homosexual. While this stereotype is pretty widely known with respect to women, Adler argues that men and women both exhibit "psychic hermaphroditism" and switch to attraction to the opposite sex out of insecurity. As a Christian, I do see homosexuality as sinful, but even non-Christian scientists understand that sexual orientation is only modestly heritable.

Why not explore a largely (or at least partially) psychodynamics of such an orientation? I'll admit I kind of chuckled at the effusively apologetic footnotes, which stressed that Adler's views on homosexuality were presented only for historical accuracy but that Neo-Adlerians reject Adler on this. Even in the absence, this is, interestingly enough, the spirit of the age. Homosexuality was actually not removed from the DSM until 1973.

But I digress -- Returning to the theme of the early experience of inferiority feelings, the child may begin to cultivate socially useless behavioral patterns if he lacks the the courage to face head-on what Alfred Adler reviews to as the three great problems of life: friendship, love and occupation. Adler believed that failure in any of these areas produced neurosis and that failure in all of them produced psychosis (which, as we have said, has been refuted).
Profile Image for Erik Graff.
5,154 reviews1,413 followers
October 26, 2020
I went straight from Grinnell College in Iowa to Union Theological Seminary in New York with the intention of obtaining an M.Div. in psychology, proceeding to clinical training and setting up a practice, preferably through a not-for-profit so I wouldn't be personally involved with charging clients.

During the first semester at UTS I took a course entitled "Theories of Depth Psychology" with Robert Neale. I already knew Jung very well and Freud pretty well, but Alfred Adler was pretty much just a name from the early psychoanalytic movement. This book of excerpts was my introduction to his thinking.

What most impressed me with Adler was his common sense practicality. Both Freud and Jung were grand theorists, albeit in very different ways. Adler was apparently not much of a system builder, which, to me, was a debit as I love the theoretical speculation. Yet for the general reader or psychotherapeutic practitioner his work appears to be immediately accessible and relevant. Indeed, years later I worked for an agency which employed Adlerian techniques with a population of supposedly psychotic adolescent boys and their families. I found it to work very well.

Finally, it is noteworthy that Adler differs from Freud and Jung in another way as well. He and his politically active wife were committed democratic socialists and he was substantially responsible for the community mental health movement.
Profile Image for Erjon 7.
76 reviews19 followers
August 20, 2016
I think that "individual psychology" has the best theory of personality,better than Freud and Jung,Adler was much more explenatory clear about things that Freud didn't focused.Well the best theory yes,but not the best therapy.Anyway there is no perfect therapy.
Profile Image for Maria-Alexandra Itu.
99 reviews26 followers
June 14, 2022
Revelația acestui an: ,,Sensul vieții” lui Alfred Adler.

Dacă până acum am aprofundat teoriile freudiene și pe cele ale discipolilor acestuia, la capătul diametral opus se află Adler, care pe bună dreptate dă un nou sens vieții.

Doctrina sa este centrată în jurul sentimentului social și a explicării nevrozei prin prisma sentimentului de inferioritate ca reminiscență a unei copilării răsfățate. Deci, cumva, tot din copilărie pornesc toate și în concepția lui Adler, doar că nu libidoul este vinovatul principal, ci neînțelegerea propriilor trăiri.

,,Cu cât mai profund este trăit sentimentul de inferioritate, cu atât mai presantă va fi goana după efortul de a reuși și cu atât mai puternică agitația emoțiilor.”

Potrivit lui Adler, ,,omul știe mai multe decât înțelege” și fiecare dintre noi percepe realitatea în mod subiectiv, nu așa cum este ea. În momentul în care vom accepta acest lucru, atunci vom găsi și sensul vieții.

Un fel de ,,eu știu că nu știu nimic”, dar în limbajul psihologiei individuale.
101 reviews3 followers
February 10, 2020
Kişinin, hayata karşı nasıl bir tutum alıp, nasıl bir yaşam sürdüğünü; yaşam sorunu karşısında nasıl bir davranış içinde olduğunu; bütünselliğe ulaşmak için nasıl bir çaba harcayarak güçlüklerin altından kalkmaya çalıştığını anlamak gerekir.

Şımarık yetiştirilmiş her çocukta büyük ölçüde aşağılık kompleksi bulunur.

Zayıf kimse, başkalarını küçümser, bunu değersizleştirme eylemiyle sağlar.

Yemek yeme için çıkarılan güçlükler, güçlük çıkarma ihtiyacından kaynaklanır.
Geceyle birlikte oluşan rahatsızlıklar, çocukların gündüz yaşadıkları şımarıklığı, gece de yaşamak için başvurdukları çaredir.
Nevrozlu büyükler de, gece başkalarının uyumasına ateş püskürür.

Çocukların köpekleri sevmesinin nedeni, kendilerinin önemsenmesine köpeklerin yardım etmesidir.
Hayvanlara gösterilen sevginin dip noktasında üstünlük duygusu yer alır. Üstün olma hissi güçlü olan çocuklar köpeklere eğilim besler.

Hayat denilen şey rahatsızlıktır.

Çocuk sokakta büyümezse, insanı tanıma konusunda bilgi sahibi olma ve hazırcevaplığın gelişimini sağlayacak fırsatlar geçmez eline.

Sokakta, başka hiç bir yerde olamayacak bir yaşantı zenginliği ele geçirilir. Karşılıklı rekabet ve başkalarıyla olan ilişkiler içinde etkin olmaya çalışmak toplumsal yaşamın temel şeklidir.

İnsan ruhu, insanın daha sanatsal bir şekil vermek için üzerinde çalışıp durduğu bir birlik ve bütünlük içerir.
İnsanı yücelten yükseklere yerleştirdiği amaçlarıdır.
Çocukların, daha çok şey görüp yaşamak için, çok şey görüp yaşamış görünmeleri sık karşılaştığımız olaydır.

Nevrozdaki mantık; gücünü, hastanın bir şeyi yapması gerektiğine, ortada o şeyi yapmasını gerektirecek bir neden olmamasına rağmen inanmasından alır.
“Evet, ama...” ifadesi nevrozun en iyi tanımlanmasıdır.
Haklı olup olmamak önemli değildir, önemli olan, hayatı eskisi gibi ileriye taşımak, kendini başkaları için yararlı yapmaktır.

Nevrozluların sık başvurduğu bir yöntem olarak yıkanma; hayatlarının bir şey beklemedikleri, kendilerini güvende hissetmedikleri bölümünü devre dışı bırakmalarını sağlar.

Başkaları ile boy ölçüşecek güce sahip olmadığından, yok etmek hissi ile onları değersiz kılma eğilimi vardır.

Bir yenilgiyle yüz yüze gelmemek için, sosyal sorunları arka plana iterek, daha önce yüklendiği görevlerden serbest duruma gelir ve artık zamanını hayatın yararsız tarafında uğraşmakla geçirir.

Şımartılmış çocuklar, yeni durumların ortaya çıkmasına direnir. Başarıya ulaşacağına ne kadar az güven duyarsa, direniş o kadar güçlü olur. Diğer yandan, eski konumunda kalmaya ve üstünlük amacına ulaşmaya yönelik çabası o denli güçlenir.

Şımartılmış çocuk, hayatın ikinci sorunu olan meslek hayatına atılmaya da hazır olamayacak ve kendini geriye çekip, kaçacaktır.

Zarar vermek isteği, sevgiye duyduğu nefretten; oyunbozanlık eğilimi ise ilgi merkezinde olamamaktan kaynaklanır.
Zorba yöneticiler hep korkak ve zayıf kişilerdir.

Ölme özlemi, sevgi sorununda karşılaşılmaktan korkulan başarısızlığı telafi etmek içindir.
Çözüme giden yolların kapalı olması durumunda beliren, devre dışı bırakma eğilimidir.
Güçlükleri yaratıcı bir güç ve topluma yararlı bir yolla aşmak ve sosyal ilgi alanları edinerek aşağılık durumdan kurtulmak yerine; kendini toplumdan çözüp almak, toplumu ve onun sunduklarını lanetlemek, karşılaştığı engellerden intikam almak ve böylece kendi yaşamı ve ölümünde söz sahibi olmak ister.
Bu zayıf ve umarsız kişilerin izlediği yoldur. Şımartılmış çocuklarda görülen, ucuz yoldan üstünlüğü ele geçirmek üzere bilinç dışı harcanan çabadır.

Böyle bir ruhsal gerilim durumunda, bütün bir yaşamı ele alarak, toplumsallık duygusunu güçlendirmek gerekir. Bu duygu arttıkça, sağ duyu anlamında kişisel zeka güçlenir, kişi kendini güvende hisseder, hayatın getirdiği sorunlarla uzlaşır. Hayatın yararlı tarafında bulunacağından, değerli kişi gözüyle bakar kendine, aşağılık duygusu azalarak yararlı işlere başvurabileceği noktaya kadar geriler.
Profile Image for Shelby M. (Read and Find Out).
730 reviews133 followers
March 14, 2018
This took me forever to get through. Though I'm still in love with most of the basic Adlerian ideas and principles, there were definitely some dated ideas in this book (mainly when Adler was making comparisons with Freud). It seems fitting though that I finished this the day after the Adlerian Play Therapy workshop that I went to. I'm pretty sure that when I finish my program next year, I will still basically be an Adlerian at heart.
Profile Image for Illiterate.
2,674 reviews48 followers
July 13, 2025
Linked essays. Psychoanalysis based on family dynamics, individual paths, feelings of inferiority.
Profile Image for Gediminas Tumėnas.
Author 1 book60 followers
September 28, 2021
Skaitant į lietuvių kalbą išverstas paties Adlerio knygas labai sunku (jeigu apskritai įmanoma) sulipdyti vienalytį Individualiosios Psichologijos teorijos paveikslą. Kartais galima netgi pamiršti, jog autorius kalba tam tikros psichologinės asmenybės teorijos rėmuose, o ne tiesiog dalina šiais laikais pop-psich literatūroje nuvalkiotus gyvenimiškus, buitinius patarimus. Tad įspūdis apie šią teoriją išlieka daugiaprasmis.
Ansbacherių pora atliko nuostabų darbą, imdamiesi Adlerio tekstus išdėstyti nuosekliai, struktūruotai. Tie patys to paties autoriaus žodžiai įgauna visai kitokį atspalvį ir nuosekliai skaitant šią knygą kaip mozaika susiklijuoja tolygus ir vientisas individualiosios psichologijos teorijos paveikslas su visais jo intakais, ištakomis bei sąsajomis su tuometinėmis psichologinėmis pažiūromis.
Tiems, kas paklausti "kas yra IP teorija?" arba "kas yra Alfredas Adleris?" norėtų atsakyti į šiuos klausimus, rekomenduoju pasiryžti šiai knygai. 10/10
Profile Image for Barışcan Bozkurt.
75 reviews12 followers
June 6, 2017
Say yayınlarından okudum. Türkçeye çevirilirken ne yazık ki her iki yayınevinde de kısaltılmış.

Adler'ı Freud'dan daha haklı bulduğumu söyleyebilirim.
Profile Image for Michael Kraitsberg.
59 reviews2 followers
March 13, 2019
Old school psychology. The Viennese doctor is blissfully ignorant of political correctness while writing about women, children, homosexuals and especially the poor neurotics.
Profile Image for Uğur.
472 reviews
January 30, 2023
Alfred Adler's book, which formed the basis of the theory of psychology. With this book, Adler considers man under the view of a "social being" and analyzes the psychology of the individual, which changes and is shaped according to their position in the current system. Since he evaluates the individual under the phenomenon of sociality, the concepts he has put forward are also in the state of a refreshment of social reflections. In these individuals, superiority and inferiority complexes, character typology, hermafroditist person, masculine, and the name of the girl childhood care and examination conditions in the period of only one of them describes in detail.

Freud set himself a mission outside of his psychoanalysis and raised his theory on childhood social relations. In other words, he is not interested in what are the innate characteristics of a person, but in the application of these characteristics.

However, I have observed an extreme generalization situation in Adler. A completely subjective point of view prevails, perhaps if there were some more objective evaluations, he could put forward a much more advanced work.

My favorite part of his theory was the claim that man is a being who sets goals that will be beneficial to his social environment by nature. As a social being, a person should also have a positive nature in the sense of sociality. It is also possible to support the validity of this claim with the criticism of the patriarchal society structure. Because he developed the theory of social psychology on the character and psychological structure of a person as a social being that deteriorates under the patriarchal structure of society.

Claiming that willpower and social interest are a more valuable experience than sexuality, he both departs from Freud and approaches Nietzsche. Because the exhaustion of willpower and social interest caused frustration in the individual and became the source of many complexes. In this sense, Nietzsche's correct evaluation of man, surpassing Schopenhauer, whom he was influenced by in his first period, in terms of sexuality, is really tremendous. It is also possible to see this in the theory of Adler and social psychology.

I have writing as I write. It was a very beautiful book. Of course, there are topics to criticize and discuss Adler, but the theory he has come up with is a solution to many of today's problems and an answer to many questions.

I wish you a pleasant reading.
6 reviews
June 15, 2023
Excellent overview of each aspect of Adlerian theory with care taken to fully explore each tenet sufficiently. Beautifully structured, this book is both comprehensive and to the point.
22 reviews1 follower
December 18, 2012
…objective determiners, such as biological factors and past history, become relative to the goal idea; they do not function as direct causes but provide probabilities only. The individual uses all objective factors in accordance with his sty1e of life. "Their significance and effectiveness is developed only in the intermediary psychological metabolism so to speak"


1) Adler had already taken the observable forward orientation of the individual and his concern with the future as the center of his dynamic psychology. By now describing goals and the future as fictional, he expressed in effect that this future was not the objective future but a subjective future as experienced in the present. Thus he avoided the teleological dilemma of the determination of present events by something which remains in the future. This solution is, of course, the one generally (p 88) accepted today in one form or another. Wolfgang Kohler stated it most succinctly from the point of view of Gestalt psychology when he said: "It is not the actual future, the future as such, toward which we are directed in our planning, and in which we perceive our goals; it is that part of an actually present phenomenal field which we call the 'future' " (62, p. 380). Adler's fictional or subjective finalism or teleology does not violate Kurt Lewin's principle of the contemporaneity of motivation (68, p. 34). Adler's fictional (subjective) goal is a present one; it derives its great importance from the postulate that it is an ever-present goal (1930a, p. 5), although it is not necessarily present in consciousness. "We can comprehend every single life phenomenon, as if the past, the present, and the future together with a superordinated, guiding idea were present in it in traces" (1912a, p. iii). If we translate "as if" into "subjective" we find that this sentence refers to the subjective past, present, and future as being present in the phenomenological field in trance.

Vaihinger Fictions are mental structures. The psyche weaves this aid to thought out of itself; for the mind is inventive" ( see pp. 77-78) . Fictional structures are thus creations of the individual. It is the true nature of the individual's hidden goal which constitutes, according to Adler, the essential content of the unconscious. The term fictional goal also expressed Adler's conviction that the origin of the goal is, in the last analysis, not reducible to objective determiners. Although the objective factors of heredity and environment, organ inferiorities, and past experiences are utilized by the individual in the process of forming his final goal, the latter is still a fiction, a fabrication, the individual's own creation. Such causality corresponds to "soft" determinism, that is, "determinism from the inner nature of life," as contrasted to "hard" determinism "from external pressures alone" (William James, according to Murphy, 84, pp. 644-645) .  Adler was not aware of the term "soft" determinism, nor of Jaspers' distinction between external, objective causation and internal, subjective causation ( see pp. 13-14) . When Adler rejects causality without qualification, he is in fact rejecting "hard" determinism or external causation.  Thus each time the word cause or any of its derivatives is found below, the reader should understand it to signify external, objective causation, the old causa efficiens. It is only this which Adler rejected and not internal causation or the old causa finalis.
Adler developed a theory of personality based upon: (1) inferiority feelings and inferiority complex, (2) striving for superiority, (3) style of life, (4) social interest, (5) birth order, (6) fictional finalism, (7) the creative self, (8) masculine protest, (9) the interpretation of dreams, and (10) theory of psychotherapy. 
Profile Image for Esther.
Author 3 books49 followers
February 24, 2014
Ein Fachbuch zu bewerten, von dessen Fachrichtung ich wenig Hintergrundwissen besitze, steht mir kaum zu. Vor allem wenn dieses Buch seit rund 100 Jahren einen der Grundpfeiler auf dem Gebiet der Psychologie (zumindest in Deutschland) bildet.

Überrascht war ich von der relativ einfach nachvollziehbaren Argumentation Adlers und der Klarheit, mit der er seine Theorien beschreibt. Obwohl die einzelnen Texte aus den Jahren 1910 bis 1920 stammen, scheinen mir viele Ansätze noch heute einen großen Wahrheitsgehalt zu besitzen.
Dass ein Minderwertigkeitskomplex, bedingt durch Krankheiten, Fehlbildungen oder auch falscher Erziehung oder einfach einer subjektiveren Sichtweise des Kindes, zu einem überproportional großen Überlegenheitswunsch führen kann, dass diese Überlegenheit in den Augen des Betroffenen nicht auf regulärem Weg erreicht werden kann, da er sich zu minderwertig dazu fühlt und somit Neurosen und/ oder Psychosen entwickelt, die ihm entweder als Ausrede für sein Versagen und/ oder als Scheinbild einer selbst konstruierten Wirklichkeit dienen, ist in meinen Augen logisch nachvollziehbar, greifbar, realitätsnah. Dass die Weichen für diese Entwicklung in der frühestens Kindheit gestellt werden, scheint mir wichtig und beachtenswert.
Auch wie Patienten und Kinder in Adlers Theorie behandelt und angesehen werden, fand ich überzeugend und durchaus noch aktuell.

Wo bei mir die Zustimmung gründlich aufhörte und ich das Buch als überholt und fehlleitend mit nur noch drei Sternen bewerten möchte, sind die Aussagen über und das regelrechte Herumreiten auf dem Mann-Sein-Wollen, dem Geschlechterkampf und den „perversen Krankheiten“ wie der Homosexualität, die Menschen entwickeln, die sich diesem Kampf in ungesunder Weise verpflichten.
Auch viele der hier beschriebenen Traumdeutungen fand ich ziemlich weit hergeholt.
Profile Image for Readius Maximus.
283 reviews4 followers
July 10, 2021
Freud thinks everything is sexual. Adler believes everything is due to an inferiority complex and a life line that starts with a sense of inferiority and sets it's teleological goal on being superior. Freud was easy to dismiss because it's very easy to see that a great many things are sexual but maybe not everything. Adler is a bit harder for me. It's very easy to interpret everything as a will to power and an attempt to be superior.

Neuroses and psychosis originate as an attempt by the inferior feeling psyche to avoid the responsibility of life. You can't fail if you never try and better yet to have an excuse to why you failed means you could have done some truly great things if you were healthy. This has been a very convicting line of thinking for me as I am dealing with my chronic health issues.

Adler is thinking in teleological terms and emphasis the end goal. An event in itself is meaningless without the context. If you can establish the Individual psychology of the person and their end goal then you can interpret every event correctly.

Trying to be superior causes further isolation and creates a positive feedback loop leading to a greater sense of inferiority.

It's interesting that Nietzsche said the answer was a will to power. Then Adler comes along and says that's how you develop mental illness.

I think Adler is very insightful. However, I am not a fan of his ideas when applied to children. Attempt at correcting a child's behavior and never damage their self esteem or lead to isolation since this will lead to mental illness and a life of crime. This seems to be the or a source for the behavior today of parents who are afraid to trample on the free and creative spirit of their children.
Profile Image for Nehir Ak.
16 reviews3 followers
February 18, 2018
After "Understanding Human Nature", this is the second book of Adler I read. In this book, I have learned that Adler is the founder of the school of individual psychology which is a kind of criticising of psychoanalysis of Freud in some points. Although Adler had studied with Freud for some years, then he started to be suspicious with psychoanalysis and broke with Freud. Freud was very popular and mostly accepted by science world in those years (actually like now). Thus, Adler lived many problems, but again he persisted in his theory. Anyway, this book became a good preliminary at the point of knowing Adler and his theory. Now, I will try to learn "individual psychology" deeply, which provide a new insight apart from the common known of Freudian thought.
***One important point that I want to warn you, please choose a different publisher! It had many mistakes.
Profile Image for Richard.
259 reviews75 followers
January 20, 2009
This had potential to be a good book - I rather think Adler's main thesis - that of inferiority complex being the chief motivator - has some merit - that coupled with Freud can really, I think, cover most of the neurosis in the world. I don't really dig much of how he says it - and he always comes back to the same thing. So it gets boring. Not my favorite psyche work.
10 reviews1 follower
February 27, 2020
A good book. Not great. A bit outdated. Brings up new and interesting concepts, but also promotes old and outdated concepts. Interesting reading.
Profile Image for Gaudi.
18 reviews
August 29, 2025
Alfred Adler’s individual psychology is such a beautifully crafted system that, so far, I believe that it is (sometimes) able to reach Freud’s level of insight, and subsequently allows for a proper scrutiny of the Freudian viewpoint.

When I was first introduced to Adler’s thought, my first connection was “Nietzsche as psychoanalyst”, but I was surprised to see a system that seemed to lack an ideology, or at least such a passionate one. I would not say that it is without motive, though, that his views are so innovative; Both him and Jung were compelled by the same desire: that of distinguishing themselves as thinkers, and not simply followers of Freud. That much is evident by their necessity to create names for their systems that differed from Freud’s (Individual psychology, analytical psychology). Luckily for Adler, his ability matched his ambition and he truly developed interesting insight on top of the already impressive results from psychoanalysis.

Among his theories laid out in this collection of essays, some of his most personally interesting are that of “godlikeness” with its capability to create neuroses and psychoses, “organ inferiority”, an outstanding examination of the origin and impact of insecurities, Adler’s alternative theory of dreams, and his alternative theory of neuroses. His teleological perspective on psychical disorders is fascinating, and must be among the great contributions to psychoanalysis as a whole.

Similarly to Freud, his writing style is clear while maintaining complexity, which furnishes a variety of well worded citations. He also is clearly well read, with multiple in depth references to Schopenhauer, Kant, and Dostoevsky, dedicating an entire chapter to the latter.

His vision of a striving for superiority as the driving force for much of action, including neurosis, presents another blow to humanity’s pride, but it is one that we must contend with, in search of a more authentic and harmonious expression of individual and collective life. Finally, I find him a deeply interesting thinker, and find his lack of books regrettable, but thankfully one can always find good secondary literature.
Profile Image for Socrate.
6,743 reviews260 followers
November 26, 2021
O privire de ansamblu asupra concepţiilor și teoriilor majorităţii psihologilor ne arată o stranie limitare atunci când este vorba de domeniul ei de cercetare și de mijloacele cunoașterii. S-ar părea că sunt excluse experienţa și cunoașterea umană cu intenţii mai profunde, iar concepţiei și intuiţiei artistice, creatoare li s-ar contesta orice valabilitate. În timp ce psihologii experimentali adună sau produc fenomene pentru a deduce modurile de reacţie, așadar, practică, de fapt, fiziologia vieţii
afective, alţii înscriu toate formele de expresie și manifestare în sisteme tradiţionale vechi sau doar puţin modificate. Astfel, vor regăsi, desigur, în mișcările individuale acele dependenţe și conexiuni pe care le plasaseră din capul locului în schema lor afectivă.
Sau se încearcă să se construiască din fenomene individuale mici, pe cât posibil măsurabile, de tip fiziologic, stări sufletești și gândirea, punându-le laolaltă. Faptul că, în felul acesta, gândirea subiectivă și empatia cercetătorului par deconectate, dar în realitate controlează perfect conexiunea, este considerat de acești cercetători drept avantajul concepţiei lor psihologice. Metodica acestor orientări amintește, și prin semnificaţia ei ca școală pregătitoare a spiritului uman, de mai vechile știinţe ale naturii, acum depășite, cu sistemele lor rigide, înlocuite astăzi, în general, de concepţii, care, din punct de vedere biologic, dar și filosofic și psihologic, caută să conceapă viaţa în conexiune cu variantele ei. Tot astfel și acea direcţie din psihologie, pe care eu am numit-o „psihologia individuală comparată“. Ea încearcă să obţină imaginea personalităţii unitare ca variantă, din manifestările de viaţă și formele de exprimare individuale, presupunând unitatea individualităţii. Acum, diferitele caracteristici vor fi comparate între ele, aduse la o linie comună și îmbinate individualizant într-un portret de ansamblu
Profile Image for Yinxue.
196 reviews5 followers
April 5, 2021
As of now, I identify my own psychological stance with the Adlerian persuasion. Freud and Jung's theorization appear fragmentary, though undoubtedly significant and valuable, in comparison. The idea of one's story of life, and their lifetime striving towards it, in reference to a central force of social interests, is simply too convincing, too fitting of so many psychological phenomena, to refute. On the receiving end, however, as a neurotic for example, Adler almost seems a bit too harsh. Still, I suspect all truth in his insights.
44 reviews
April 8, 2021

Routledge is now re-issuing this prestigious series of 204 volumes originally published between 1910 and 1965. The titles include works by key figures such asC.G. Jung, Sigmund Freud, Jean Piaget, Otto Rank, James Hillman, Erich Fromm, Karen Horney and Susan Isaacs. Each volume is available on its own, as part of a themed mini-set, or as part of a specially-priced 204-volume set. A brochure listing each title in the International Library of Psychology series is available upon request.

31 reviews1 follower
December 21, 2019
Good read for anyone interested in psychology.
Some basic level of psychological knowledge is a plus.
For layperson I would recommend to read first few chapters to grasp general idea of Adlerian approach and then to read only chapters that seem relevant or interesting as those basic principles are just being shown in different areas of life.

Like all other authors of that type and era Adler also falls into trap of trying to explain everything with single idea or concept.
Profile Image for Chetan Desai.
Author 2 books12 followers
April 22, 2018
Gives gist of theories from Adler, arguably one of the top 3 clinical psychologists ever born. Must read for those researching the question- what is the basic need of man?
Profile Image for Amy.
10 reviews
February 24, 2019
I think I devoured this book--for the second time :-)
Profile Image for Esra Çiftçi.
3 reviews1 follower
October 7, 2020
Açıkçası bu kitabı alırken biraz psikoloji alanında ders kitabı niteliğinde olmasını beklemiştim. Sandığımdan çok daha az olmakla birilikte bu tarz bölümler yer alsa da çoğunlukla kitap herkesin okuduğunda anlayabileceği tarzda yazılmıştı. Adler'in okuduğum ilk kitabı ve hemen öncesinde Freud okuması yapmış biri olarak onunla tanıştığım için mutluyum. İnsan doğasına karşı iyimser bakış açısı, bireyin karakter gelişimi esnasında bilinçdışı unsurlardan çok, toplumsal ilgi ve hayat beklentilerine verdiği önem dikkat çekici.
1 review
Read
March 13, 2021
I cant red this book
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Georgia Ko.
61 reviews37 followers
October 20, 2021
Smarter and more objective approaches than freud. Still in many ways his views were old-fashioned (left-handedness and being a redhead as abnormal lol) but overall his input is v perceptive
Displaying 1 - 30 of 43 reviews

Can't find what you're looking for?

Get help and learn more about the design.