The Practice and Theory of Individual Psychology

Summary

Though psychologist Alfred Adler (1870-1937) does not have the wider recognition accorded Freud and Jung, his work and ideas had an enduring effect on the practice and development of psychotherapy in the 20th century. This collection of 28 lectures and essays, published under the title The Practice and Theory of Individual Psychology (published in 1924), brings together many of his main ideas.
Adler was initially best known for his interest in the inferiority complex and its effect on the personality and subsequent behaviour of individuals. But his focus became increasingly concerned with the particular observation that it was the social environment of individuals that had a more fundamental influence on behavioural patterns than over-arching theories on sex, symbolism, archetypes and the like. He has been described as the first ‘community psychologist.' This contributed considerably to the growth of schools of psychotherapy in the second half of the 20th century and their proliferation in the 21st. In fact, one historian has commented, “It would not be easy to find another author from which so much has been borrowed on all sides without acknowledgement than Alfred Adler.'
The topics covered in this collection are varied and date from the pre- and post World War I period. It opens with Individual Psychology, its Assumptions and its Results (1914) and includes Individual-Psychological Treatment of Neuroses (1913), The Study of Child Psychology and Neurosis (1913), Nervous Insomnia (1914), Compulsion Neurosis (1918), Dreams and Dream-Interpretation (1912), and Demoralized Children (1920).
His range is wide: Among them are essays such as Neurotic Hunger Strike and New Viewpoint of War Neuroses, both concerns that regularly feature in newspapers and public discussion today. As a contrast, he offers interesting observations on the writing of Dostoyevsky, and one particular case of the suicide of a prominent 19th century Austrian politician.
This recording also contains (Chapter XIV) the 1918 lecture Homo-sexuality which Adler gave to the Jurististisch-Medizinische Gesellschaft of Zurich. It represents views widely held by the society of the time, which are now unacceptable. The chapter is nevertheless included here for historical purposes.