Bio: (1870-1937) Austrian psychiatrist and psychologist. Adler graduated from the medical school at the University of Vienna. He joined the group of psychologists that later became the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society. Adler later become president and the editor of the group’s journal. Although he initially collaborated with Freud and helped establish the psychoanalytic movement, In 1911 he broke ties with Freud over theoretical disagreements. Adler created his own approach called individual psychology, and Adler and his followers left the Psychoanalytic Society to form a new group, The Society of Individual Psychology. 1932 he left Austria due to growing anti-Semitism and moved to the USA.

Alder first presented his approach in the book  The Neurotic Constitution (in German 1912) and elaborated on it in Understanding Human Nature (in German 1927). Individual psychology argues that the majority of people are motivated by and are striving to achieve „superiority“. This superiority can manifest itself in goals like self-realization, completeness, or perfection. People who strive for superiority can become frustrated by feelings of, inadequacy, inferiority, or incompleteness that stem from low social status, physical disability or problems, over neglect or overcare during childhood, etc. People can compensate for their feelings of inferiority in a positive or in a negative way. The positive way is to develop skills and abilities; the negative way is to develop an inferiority complex that will dominate behavior or overcompensate and develop egocentric, self-aggrandizing, and power-hungry behavior.  

Every person develops his or her individual personality, or what Adler termed „lifestyle “. Lifestyle is formed in early childhood and is impacted by specific way inferiority affected some people during that period of life. If individuals develop the "inferiority complex", that can lead to major psychological problems Motivation for superiority is not the only one, because there is also a „social interest“, a motivation to cooperate with others for the common good. The mentally healthy person possesses reason, social interest, and “self-transcendence”; while the mentally unhealthy person exhibits inferiority, self-centredness, and a feeling of superiority. The aim of psychotherapist, in individual psychology, is to point to the patient to his specific unsuccessful attempts to cope with feelings of inferiority and to point him or her to more realistic goals and beneficial types of behavior. Adler was an advocate of feminism and studied the dynamics of male-female relationships.

Main works

The Neurotic Constitution (in German 1912);

Individual Psychology (1920);

Understanding Human Nature (in German 1927);

The Practice and Theory of Individual Psychology (1927);

The Pattern of Life (1930);

The Science of Living (1930);

The Problems of Neurosis (1930); 

What Life Should Mean to You (1931).