The Psychology of Personal Growth and Better Relationships

Column 1Alfred Adler, the Man

Adler was born in 1870 to a Jewish family in a suburb of Vienna. He was prone to illness as a child and suffered from rickets. He was a small man, only 5 feet tall. As the second of seven children, Adler was heavily influenced by his older brother Sigmund, who was only a year and a half older. Adler was not particularly good at school, even flunking out of elementary school. However, he managed to overcome his disabilities, and with the encouragement of his father, his studies improved and he eventually entered Vienna University's medical school. He received his medical degree at 25, starting out as an ophthalmologist and eventually working as a physician and psychiatrist.

In 1902 when Adler was 32, he became a founding member of the Wednesday Psychology Society (now known as The Vienna Psychoanalytic Society), which was presided over by Freud, and remained a member for nine years. His theories conflicted with Freud's, eventually leading him to leave and branch out into his own field of psychology.

After parting with Freud, he named his field individual psychology. It's quite clear that he influenced many psychologists, including Victor Frankl, famous for his book Man's Search for Meaning; Abraham Maslow, famous for Maslow's hierarchy of needs; Eric Berne, famous for creating the theory of transactional analysis; and Carl Rogers, famous for creating person‐centered therapy. The list is not limited to psychologists, however, and also includes social ...