Alfred Adler Biography

Alfred Adler was an Austrian physician and psychiatrist who formed the school of thought known as individual psychology. He is also remembered for his concepts of the inferiority feeling and inferiority complex, which played a big role in Adler's theory of personality formation. Learn more about Adler's life, career, and contributions to psychology.

What Alfred Adler is Best Known For

Adler is known for many thoughts and theories within the field of psychology, but is best known for:

• Founding individual psychology
• His concept of the inferiority complex
• Being a founding member and president of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society (the latter in 1910)
  

Alder was initially a colleague of Sigmund Freud and helped establish psychoanalysis. He looked at the individual as a whole, which is why he referred to his approach as individual psychology.

Adler eventually split from Freud's psychoanalytic circle but went on to have a tremendous impact on the development of psychotherapy. He also had an important influence on many other great thinkers, including Abraham Maslow and Albert Ellis.

Alfred Adler's Life and Career

To best understand who Alfred Adler was and how this contributed to his theory of personality development, it helps to take a look at his life and career.

Early Life

Alfred Adler was born in Vienna, Austria, on February 7, 1870. He suffered rickets as a young child, which prevented him from walking until after the age of 2. Then he got pneumonia at the age of four.

Due to his health problems as a child, Adler decided he would become a physician. After graduating from the University of Vienna in 1895 with a medical degree, he began his career as an ophthalmologist and later switched to general practice.

Mid-Life

In mid-life, Alder turned his interests toward the field of psychiatry. In 1902, Sigmund Freud invited him to join a psychoanalytic discussion group. This group met each Wednesday in Freud's home and would eventually grow to become the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society.

After serving as President of the group for a time, Adler left in part because of his disagreements with some of Freud's theories. While Adler had played a key role in the development of psychoanalysis, he was also one of the first major figures to break away to form his own school of thought.

He was quick to point out that while he had been a colleague of Freud's, he was in no way a disciple of the famous Austrian psychoanalyst. In 1912, Alfred Adler founded the Society of Individual Psychology.

Later Life

Although Adler had converted to Christianity, his Jewish heritage led to the Nazis closing down his clinics during the 1930s. As a result, Adler emigrated to the United States to take a professor position at the Long Island College of Medicine. In 1937, Adler went on a lecture tour and suffered a fatal heart attack in Aberdeen, Scotland, on May 28, 1937.

His family lost track of his cremated remains shortly after his death and the ashes were presumed lost before being discovered in 2007 at a crematorium in Edinburgh, Scotland. In 2011, 74 years after his death, Adler's ashes were returned to Vienna, Austria.

Adler's Theory of Personality

Adler's theory of personality contended that individuals are whole beings. Therefore, their personality is formed based on several key concepts, including:

• Social interest: a sense of community and one's attitude toward others
• Masculine protest: a desire to be "a real man," superior and perfect
• Lifestyle: a pattern of responses to situations
• Goal-directed and purposeful behavior: all behaviors are a result of our goals
• Feelings of inferiority: relying totally on others in early life causes us to feel inferior
• Striving for superiority: an attempt to overcome feelings of inferiority
• Fictional finalism: ideals with no basis in reality, thus cannot be tested or confirmed (i.e., "honesty is the best policy")
• Family constellation: one's family makeup and position within the family
• Birth order: the order in which we are born affects our familial relationships, interactions, and feelings of inferiority

Inferiority Complex

One of the main contributors to Adler's personality theory was the idea that all people develop feelings of inferiority early in life, resulting in an inferiority complex. From childhood, people work toward overcoming this inferiority by "striving for superiority."

Adler believed that this drive was the motivating force behind human behaviors, emotions, and thoughts. An example of Adler's theory would be a child who feels inferior, then misbehaves in an attempt to get their parent to pay more attention to them. Later in life, feeling inferior may cause some individuals to focus on collaboration and contributions to society while others will try to exert power over others.

Alfred Adler's Other Contributions to Psychology

Alfred Adler's theories have played an essential role in many areas of psychology, including therapy and child development. Alder's ideas also influenced other important psychologists and psychoanalysts, including:

• Abraham Maslow
• Carl Rogers
• Karen Horney
• Rollo May
• Erich Fromm
• Albert Ellis

Today, his ideas and concepts are often referred to as Adlerian psychology.