Biography of ADLER, ALFRED (1870-1937)

Alfred Adler was born in Vienna on February 7, 1870, he was the second of six brothers of Jewish origin. Adler occupies an important position in the history of psychotherapy , along with Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung , constitute what is often called "the big three", the founders of Deep Psychology . Adler was among the supporters of Freud in the early days of psychoanalysis, but then had disagreements with him and started his own school of psychotherapy, called Individual Psychology . In contrast to psychoanalysis, Individual Psychology emphasized the importance of the conscious will and the capacity of each individual to assume his own destiny.

 Before dedicating himself to psychiatry, Adler practiced as a doctor specializing in ophthalmology, and from his attention on patients with vision problems came to formulate the concept of compensation . He noticed that some of these patients became avid readers and attached too much importance to the faculty of vision. Adler had begun to collect material from patients with physical disabilities, studying their organic and psychological reactions. It was in 1902 when finale met was incorporated into Freud's psychoanalysis , he and other thinkers met every Wednesday at the house of Sigmund Freud.

 In 1898, at the age of 28, Adler wrote his first book and five years later, in 1907, Adler published his book on compensation. At that time, the views of Freud and Adler begin to distance and large discrepancies appear, finally Adler leaves the circle of Freud in 1911 along with nine other members of the group and form their own school.

 In 1911, Adler created his own psychoanalytic system based on the importance of compensations (our integration into the environment). The compensations are intended to compensate our complexes. The most studied complex in Europe and in the USA is that of inferiority, which is compensated by creating a psychological superiority complex (in the unconscious domain, feeling superior to others). Both inferiority-superiority mechanisms are usually given together.

 Adler thus creates the Individual Psychology where the important thing is the individual, the person. He is interested in integration, with a Self that controls all facets of personality, to see how a person adapts and integrates into society. For this psychology, the individual must be integrated into society and be as happy as possible.

 An important point here is the environmental situation in which the person moves, in order to know the values ​​where he lives. Progressively, the assessment of his family as a reference was incorporated into psychoanalysis when visiting an individual.

 Another important factor for Individual Psychology that allows the integration of the person, are the goals , the objectives that the person proposes. The proposed goals or objectives should require an effort but should not be very difficult to achieve (it is a kind of psycho physical balance) because if they are not achieved, they provoke frustration (defined as the state resulting from not being able to achieve the illusions and expectations put in place). objective).

 The writings of Fried rich Nietzsche on the subject of the will to power exerted great influence on Adler, defined by the philosopher as an innate impulse towards dominance, competence and superiority over others. Adler was persuaded that the will to power was as important in human affairs as the sex drive, and argued that his frustration generates an inferiority complex, a feeling of inadequacy that is at the root of many disorders. That was one of the several theoretical points in which he disagreed with Freud, Adler argued that Freud had attached excessive importance to the sexual impulse, and Freud, for his part, thought that Adler had exaggerated the importance of the will to power.

 Towards the end of his life. Adler defined the concept of creative self, which is the power within each one of us to face the external forces that shape our personality. It is the ability of the person to create to some extent his own personality. In essence, Adler argued that we are not instruments of destiny and we do not need to assume the role of victims in the game of life. These conceptions of Adler are related to the ideas of existentialism and make it a precursor of humanistic psychology.

 Between the books of Adler fits to mention Practice and theory of the psychology of the individual (1927) and the sense of the life (1932).