Coaching with the Brain in Mind

CHAPTER 10

Bedrock—Psychotherapy

Ishi’s treatment by anthropologists from 1911 to 1916 was at least kindly. Not so for the treatment of soldiers traumatized by their World War I experiences. Medical doctors practiced what can only be described as torture in order to force “shell-shocked” men back to fight at the front. Alfred Adler was drafted to serve in the Austrian army as a physician during the war, just as he was on the verge of establishing a new approach to treating mental illness after he split from the Freudian circle in 1911. Adler’s new approach took into account people’s uniqueness, creativity, and social connections. But the war and his military service put an end to professional conferences, speeches, writing, and organizing a new therapeutic endeavor.

Always an excellent and humane observer, what did Adler make of the terrors and tragedy of the war? He wrote precious little about it, but it is clear from his subsequent behavior that something had changed for him. After the war, as if on a mission, Adler dedicated himself to activities that he hoped would lead to a different future for humankind than was indicated by its war-torn past: setting up child guidance clinics in Viennese schools to help children and their parents live cooperatively; mentoring teacher educators from around the world in his techniques; extending psychotherapy to families and groups; speaking in public on the principles of his commonsense approach to mental health; writing books in what today ...