Psychology

Alfred Adler Adler was born in Vienna in 1879, the second of seven children. After a severe bout of pneumonia at the age of 5 and the death of a younger brother, he committed himself to becoming a doctor. He ... [full story]

Goal-striving beings A central idea in Adlerian psychology is that individuals are always striving toward a goal. Whereas Freud saw us as driven by what was in our past, Adler had a teleological view—that we are driven by our goals, ... [full story]

Enemies of society Adler noted that vain or prideful people usually try to keep their outlook hidden, saying that they are simply “ambitious,” or even more mildly “energetic.” They may camouflage their true feelings in ingenious ways: To show that ... [full story]

Compensating for weakness Like Freud, Adler believed that the human psyche is shaped in early childhood, and that patterns of behavior remain remarkably constant into maturity. But while Freud focused on infantile sexuality, Adler was more interested in how children ... [full story]

Alfred Adler In 1902 a group of men, mostly doctors and all Jewish, began meeting every Wednesday in an apartment in Vienna. Sigmund Freud’s “Wednesday Society” would eventually become the Vienna Psychoanalytical Society, and its first president was Alfred Adler. ... [full story]