A summary of the theory of Individual Psychology might well be helpful to the reader as an initial orientation to the work of Alfred Adler. To serve this purpose we submit the following set of propositions which have suggested themselves to us.

1)There is one basic dynamic force behind all human activity, a striving from a felt minus situation towards a plus situation, from a feeling of inferiority towards superiority, perfection, totality.

2) The striving receives its specific direction from an individually unique goal or self-ideal, which though influenced by biological and environmental factors is ultimately the creation of the individual. Because it is an ideal, the goal is a fiction.

3) The goal is only "dimly envisaged" by the individual, which means that it is largely unknown to him and not understood by him. This is Adler's definition of the unconscious: the unknown part of the goal.

4) The goal becomes the final cause, the ultimate independent variable. To the extent that the goal provides the key for understanding the individual, it is a working hypothesis on the part of the psychologist.

5) All psychological processes form a self-consistent organization from the point of view of the goal, like a drama which is constructed from the beginning with the finale in view (1912a, p. 46) . This self-consistent personality structure is what Adler calls the style of life. It becomes firmly established at an early age, from which time on behavior that is (p 1) apparently contradictory is only the adaptation of different means to the same end.

6) All apparent psychological categories, such as different drives or the contrast between conscious and unconscious, are only aspects of a unified relational system ( 1926b, p. 402) and do not represent discrete entities and quantities.

7) All objective determiners, such as biological factors and past history, become relative to the goal idea; they do not function as direct causes but provide probabilities only. The individual uses all objective factors in accordance with his sty1e of life. "Their significance and effectiveness is developed only in the intermediary psychological metabolism( so to speak" ( 1926b, p. 402) .

8) The individual's opinion of himself and the world, his "apperceptive schema," his interpretations, all as aspects of the style of life, influence every psychological process. Omnia ex opinione suspensa sunt was the motto for the book in which Adler presented Individual Psychology for the first time (1912a, p. 1) .

9) The individual cannot be considered apart from his social situation. "Individual Psychology regards and examines the individual as socially embedded. We refuse to recognize and examine an isolated human being" (1926a, p. ix).

10) All important life problems, including certain drive satisfactions, become social problems. All values become social values.

11) The socialization of the individual is not achieved at the cost of repression, but is afforded through an innate human ability, which, however, needs to be developed. It is this ability which Adler calls social feeling or social interest. Because the individual is embedded in a social situation, social interest becomes crucial for his adjustment.

12) Maladjustment is characterized by increased inferiority feelings, underdeveloped social interest, and an exaggerated uncooperative goal of personal superiority. Accordingly, problems are solved in a self-centered "private sense" rather than a task-centered "common sense" fashion. In the neurotic this leads to the experience of failure because he still accepts the social validity of his actions as his ultimate criterion. The psychotic, on the other hand, while objectively also a failure, that is, in the eyes of common sense, does not experience failure because he does not accept the ultimate criterion of social validity. 

CHAPTER 6

For the understanding and treatment of difficult children. Compiled and annotated by the International Society for Individual Psychology.

I. How long have the troubles lasted? In what situation was the child, materially and mentally, when the failings became noticeable?

(The following are important: changes in surroundings, starting school, change of school, change of teacher , birth of younger members of the family, setbacks at school, new friendships, illnesses of the child or of the parents, etc. )

2. Was there anything unusual about the child previously? Due to bodily or mental weakness? Cowardice? Carelessness? Desire to be alone? Clumsiness? Jealousy? Dependence on others at meals, in dressing, washing, going to bed? Is he afraid of being left alone? Afraid of darkness? Has he a clear idea of his sex? Any primary, secondary, and tertiary sexual characteristics? How does he regard the other sex? How far has his instruction in (p 299) sexual questions proceeded? Step-child? Illegitimate? Boarded out? What were his foster-parents like? Is he still in touch with them? Has he learned to walk and speak at the normal time? Does he do this without mistakes? Was the teething normal? Had he any noticeable difficulties in learning to write, calculate, draw, sing, swim? Has he had any special attachment to any one mother, father, grandparents, nurse? (Care should be taken to discover the establishment of a hostile attitude to life, anything that might rouse feelings of inferiority, tendencies to exclude difficulties and persons, traits of egotism, irritability, impatience, heightened emotion, activity, eagerness, caution.)

3. Has the child caused much trouble? What things or persons does he fear most? Does he cry out at night? Does he wet his bed? Does he want to domineer? Over strong, or only over weak persons? Has he Shown a particular fondness for lying in the bed of one of his parents? Is he awkward? Intelligent? Was he much teased and laughed at? Does he shows excessive vanity about his hair, clothing, shoes? Does he pick his nose? Bite his nails? Is he greedy at table? Has he stolen anything?

Has he difficulties at the stool? (This will show clearly whether he has given evidence of more or less activity in striving for pre-eminence. Further, whether obstinacy has prevented the cultivation of his instinctive activity. )

4. Did he make friends easily, or was he unsociable, and did he torment people and animals? Docs he attach himself to younger persons, older, girls (boys)? Is he (p 300) inclined to take the lead? Or does he stand aside? Does he collect things? Is he niggardly? Fond of money? (This will show his ability to make contact with other persons, and the extent to which he is discouraged.)

5. How does the child conduct himself at present in all these relationships? How does he behave at school? Does he attend willingly? Does he arrive too late? Is he agitated before going to school; does he hurry? Does he lose his books, satchel, and papers? Does he get excited about school tasks and examinations? Does he forget or refuse to do his home-lessons? Does he waste his time? Is he grubby? Indolent? Has he much or little concentration? Does he disturb the lessons? Attitude to his teacher? Critical? Arrogant? Indifferent? Does he seek help from others in his work, or does he always wait for them to make the offer? Is he keen about gymnastics and sport? Does he consider himself partly or entirely devoid of talent? Does he read a great deal? What sort of reading does he prefer? Is he backward in every subject? (These questions will give an insight into the child's preparation for school life and into the results of experiments at school on the child. They will also show his attitude towards difficulties.)

6. Correct information regarding his home conditions, illnesses in the family, alcoholism, criminal tendencies, neurosis, debility, syphilis, epilepsy, standard of living? What deaths have there been? How old at the time? Is the child orphaned? Who rules in the family? Is the upbringing strict, fault-finding, pampering? Are the children (p 301) frightened at life? How are they looked after? Stepfather or mother? (This gives a view of the child in his position in the family and enables an estimate to be made of the influences that have helped to form the child.)

7. What is the place of the child in the family succession? Is he the oldest, second, youngest, or an only child? Any rivalries? Frequent crying? A spiteful laugh? Tendency to depreciate other persons without cause? (Important for characterology; throws light on the child's attitude to other persons.) 8. What kind of ideas has the child at present about his future calling? What does he think about marriage? What are the professions of the other members of the family? What are the marital relations of his parents? (From the answers it is possible to draw conclusions about the child's courage and his hope for the future. )

(This will give important viewpoints for discovering whether the child has lost confidence in himself and is seeking his path in a wrong direction. ) 12. Additional faults: Does he make grimaces? Does he behave himself stupidly, childishly, comically? (Rather uncourageous attempts to draw attention to himself.)

13. Has he defects in speech? Is he ugly? Ungainly? Club-footed? Rickets? Knock-kneed or bow-legged? Badly developed? Abnormally stout, tall, small? Defects in the eyes or the ears? Is he mentally arrested? Left-handed? Does he snore at night? Is he strikingly good-looking? (Here we are dealing with difficulties in life which the child as a rule exaggerates. These may lead to a chronic state of discouragement. A similar mistaken development often occurs in the case of very handsome children. They get the idea that everything must be given them to be retained without effort and in this way they neglect to make the right preparation for living.) (p 303)

14. Does the child speak openly of his lack of ability, of his 'not being gifted enough' for school, for work, for life? Has he thoughts of suicide? Is there any connection in point of time between his want of success and his mistakes? (Neglect, forming gangs.) Does he place too great value on material success? Is he servile? Hypocritical? Rebellious? (These are expressive forms of a deep-seated discouragement. They often occur after vain attempts to excel which have come to grief not only on account of their inherent aimlessness, but also as the result of want of understanding on the part of those round the child. After the failure there comes the search for a substitutive gratification in another field of struggle. ) 15. The child's positive achievements? Type? Visual, acoustic, kinesthetic? (An important finger-post, since possibly the interest, inclination and preparation of the child point in another direction than that formerly taken. )

On the basis of these questions, which should not be put point by point, but conversationally, never mechanically, but always naturally and progressively, there is always formed a picture of the child's personality. By this the child's errors, though they are certainly not justified, will be made quite intelligible. When mistakes are discovered they should always be explained in a friendly manner, patiently and without threats.

In connection with the mistakes of adults I have found (p 304) the following model of examination to be of some value. By adhering to it the expert will gain well within half an hour a penetrating insight into the individual's style of life.

Certainly my own inquiries do not always keep to the rule of the following sequence. The expert will not fail to notice its agreement with a medical questionnaire.

By following it the Individual Psychologist, on account of the system by which he works, will gain from the answers many a hint that would otherwise have remained unnoticed. The following is approximately the sequence:

I. What are your complaints?

2. How were you situated when you noticed your symptoms?

3. How are you situated now?

4. What is the nature of your calling?

5. Describe your parents in relation to their character, health, the illness of which they died, if they are not alive; what was their relation to yourself?

6. How many brothers and sisters have you? How are you placed among them? What is their attitude towards you? How are the others placed in life? Do they also have any illness?

7. Who was your father's or your mother's favorite?

8. Look for signs of pampering in childhood ( timidity, shyness, difficulties in forming friendships, disorderliness, etc.).

9. Illnesses and attitude to illnesses in childhood?

10. Earliest recollections of childhood? (p 305)

11. What do you fear, or what did you fear the most?

12. What are your ideas about the other sex, in childhood or in later years?

13. What ca1ling would have most interested you, and in the event of your not having adopted it, why did you not do so?

14. Ambitious, sensitive, inclined to angry outbursts, pedantic, domineering, shy, impatient?

15. What sort of persons are around you at present?

Impatient? Bad-tempered? Affectionate?

16. How do you sleep?

17. Dreams? (Of falling, flying, recurrent dreams, prophetic, about examinations, missing a train, etc.) 18. Illnesses in the family tree?

I should like at this point to give my readers an important hint. Any one Who has Come thus far and has not completely grasped the significance of these questions ought to begin again from the start and reflect whether he has not read this book with alack of proper attention, or-God forbid !-with a hostile bias. If I had to explain here the meaning of these questions for our knowledge of the formation of the style of life, I should have to repeat the whole book. So this sequence of questions and the children's questionnaire may very well serve as a test, since the result will show whether the reader has gone along with me, that is, whether he has acquired an adequate amount of social feeling. That, indeed, is the most important object of this book. It is meant to (p 306) enable the reader not only to understand other persons, but to grasp the importance of social feelings and to make it living for himself. (p 307)

The following selections on organ inferiority establish Adler as a field theorist from the very beginning of his work. Written by a physician who until a few years earlier had been a general practitioner, they are a contribution to the theory of disease, according to which diseases can no longer be understood as separate entities. A disease afflicts only the inferior organs. But what constitutes an inferior organ? Inferiority is a relative concept, relative to the environmental demands, to the total situation. In this way, outcomes previously understood as due to independent agents are now seen as the result of the interaction of forces. The various aspects of such interaction refer to: the organism and the physical environment, the organism and the social (p 22) environment, the separate organs with one another, and body and mind.

From the point of view of the psychologist, then, the significance of these selections is, firstly, that they represent an exposition of field theory, albeit in terms of medical material.

The significance of these selections is, secondly, that they present the first formulation of Adler's theory of compensation. It in the organ-environment interaction, the balance threatens to turn against the organism, it responds through attempts at compensation. Through the superstructure of the central nervous system the mind, as part of the entire organism, will play its part in the process of compensation or maintenance of equilibrium. Thus Adler arrived at the concept of psychological compensation. The theory of compensation is similar to that of homeostasis which Walter B. Cannon presented twenty-five years later, and when Cannon's The Wisdom of the Body appeared, Adler wrote an enthusiastic review of it ( 1933d) . This relationship between compensation and homeostasis was recognized in a paper by John M. Fletcher entitled "The Wisdom of the Body," where he states: "I am not sure but that in Adler's mechanism of compensation we have a phenomenon which may be subsumed under what is described by Cannon as homeostasis" (30, p. 14) . In another paper Fletcher explains: "Compensation. . . becomes at once much more intelligible when conceived as hemostatic defense reaction" (29, p. 86). Since compensation, like homeostasis, aims at maintenance of equilibrium, it would as the dominating dynamic principle belong to a relatively static, closed system. Adler’s theory, however, developed into a completely open system of dynamics in which the dominating force was a ceaseless upward striving and in which compensation then assumed a secondary role.

Thirdly Adler's writings on organ inferiority are of significance in that they are an early discussion of the problem of psychosomatic disorders.

In the foreword to a reprint edition of the Study of Organ Inferiority, Nolan D. C. Lewis concludes: "This little book has not only an important historical value but it presents a number of foci for future research. A thorough investigation of organ inferiority concepts should be undertaken and included as a part of the present day trends in psychosomatic medicine" (72,p.ix).

The selections below cover the theoretical essence of the material contained in the Study of Organ Inferiority ( 1907a ), Adler's first major contribution, but are for the most part taken from a summary presented by him in a lecture held the same year. This lecture contains all the (p 23) theoretical points while omitting the detailed medical material which represents the greater part of the original study.

In conclusion of this introduction we should like to point out that the term inferiority feeling, an integral part of Adler's psychology, is not to be found in the Study of Organ Inferiority or its summary . The concept of inferiority feeling did not appear until three )'ears later ( 191oa: see pp. 44-45) . The understandable mistake has frequently been made of assuming that the Study includes the discussion of inferiority feelings. Yet at this time Adler still confined himself to objective terms and was not concerned with anything so subjective as feelings.

As a general remark, we should add that the selections here and throughout this chapter, aside from the aspects which became integrated in Adler's system, tend to be expressed in terms of outdated physiology and deal with drive psychology which Adler subsequently attacked severely.

Despite tendencies pointing toward unity of the personality, the self is still absent from the discussion.

ORGAN INFERIORITY AND ITS OUTCOMES: The inferiority to which I refer applies to an organ which is developmentally retarded, which has been inhibited in its growth or altered, in whole or in part. These inferior organs may include the sense organs, the digestive apparatus, the respiratory tracts, the genito-urinary apparatus, the circulatory organs, and the nervous system. Such inferiority can usually be proved only at birth or often only at the embryonic stage. The innate anomalies of organs range from malformation to slow maturation of otherwise normal organs. Since there is a strong relationship between inferiority and disease, we may expect that an inherited inferiority corresponds to an inherited disease.

The fate of the inferior organs is extremely varied. Development and the external stimuli of life press toward overcoming the expressions of such inferiority . Thus we may find approximately the following outcomes with innumerable intermediate stages: inability to survive, anomaly of form, anomaly of function, lack of resistance and disposition to disease, compensation within the organ, compensation through a second organ, compensation through the psychological superstructure, and organic or psychological overcompensation. We find pure, compensated, and overcompensated inferiorities. (p 24)

THE RELATIVITY OF ORGAN INFERIORITY TO EXTERNAL DEMANDS: One way by which organ inferiority itself is through localization of a disease in that specific organ. This occurs when the inferior organ reacts to pathogenic stimuli from the environment- We wish to replace the obscure concept of "pathological disposition" by the following proposition: Disease is the resultant of organ inferiority and external demands. The latter are limited in duration and to a particular cultural environment. Changes in external demands represent cultural progress, changes of the mode of living, or social improvements. They are the work of the human mind and, in the long run, tend to curb excessive straining of the organs. The external demands are related to the developmental potentialities of the organs and their nervous superstructure, and they condition the relative inferiority of an organ when their requirements exceed a certain measure.

Within these observations chance, as the correcting factor in development, seems to be precluded. A clear example would be Professor Habermann's observation that members of occupations such as blacksmiths and artillery gunners, who are exposed to loud noises, are prone to diseases of the ear. It can easily be seen that not every auditory apparatus is suited for such occupations. But it is also clear that such injuries regularly give cause for technical changes in industrial procedure, that continuous employment in certain occupations changes the affected organs, and that health hazards exist on the path to parity (Vollwertigkeit ) .

In summary, we may say that hygiene and preventive medicine are subject to the conditions of compensation. All therapeutic methods are likewise aimed at the compensation of organ inferiority which has become visible.

FORMS OF COMPENSATION: As soon as the equilibrium, which must be assumed to govern the economy of the individual organ or the whole organism, appears to be disturbed due to inadequacy of form or function, a certain biological process is initiated in the inferior organs. The unsatisfied demands increase until the deficit is made up through growth of the inferior organ, of the paired organ, or of some other organ which can serve as a substitute, completely or in part. This compensating for the defect through increase (p 25) in growth and function may, under favorable circumstances achieve overcompensation; it will usually also include the central nervous system in its increased development.

If reflex anomalies of the mucous membranes have been definite1y shown to be re1ated to the psyche, then this holds even more for chi1dhood disorders, such as retarded speech development, stammering, blinking, thumb sucking, and eating difficulties. These are the visible expressions of an a1tered functioning of inferior organs and represent striking disturbances in the process of compensation.

Usually, however, the normal grow of the superordinated nerve tracts, that is, simple compensation through growth, seems to be sufficient to bring about normal functioning. In this event the organ anomaly remains the same, and upon closer examination we very often find that unextinguishable remnants last throughout life. In other cases the defect may have been overcome for all normal conditions only. It reappears as soon as psychological tension arises but remains hidden at times of rest. Frequent examples of this are: blinking in bright light, squinting during close work, stammering during excitement, and vomiting during emotion. This confirms our guess that compensation is due to overperformance and increased growth of the brain. This strengthening of the psychologica1 superstructure is shown by the successful outcome; its relation to steady exercise is easily guessed. Thus a1so in the central nervous system the same relationships of inferiority and compensation prevail.

In favorable cases of compensation, the inferior organ has the better developed and psychologically more potent superstructure. The psychological manifestations of such an organ may be more plentiful and better developed as far as drive, sensitivity, attention, memory, apperception, empathy, and consciousness are concerned. In the favorable case, an inferior nutritive apparatus may muster the greater psychological potency in all re1ations to nourishment. But it may also be superior in everything related to the gaining of food, since its superstructure will dominate and draw the other psychological complexes into its orbit. The food drive will dominate to such an extent that it may find expression in all personal and social relations, as in gourmandism, acquisitiveness, parsimony, and avarice. The same holds true for other inferior organs. This may lead to a more extended sensory life and a more carefu1 and correct appraisal of the world as far as it is accessible to the organ in question.

Through this process psychological axes develop according to which the individual is oriented. This a1ways takes p1ace in dependency on one (p 26) or more inferior organs. The striving to gain pleasure for these organs becomes noticeable also in dreams and fantasy, as well as in play and occupational preference and choice, because in the case of an inferior organ, primitive activity of the organ ( drive) is always associated with pleasure. Certain childhood disorders point to this pleasure with such clearness that they are mistaken for sexual activity . If we carry this thought further, we ultimately arrive at the supposition that the psychological superstructure of the organ largely functions as a substitute for the deficiencies of the organ in order to gain its pleasure in relation to the environment.

COMPENSATION AND THE SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT: Since the inferiority of the deviating organs comes from the external environment, changes of the environment, organ inferiority, and corresponding ameliorating brain compensation all take place under mutual influence. This point of view of mutual interaction seems applicable also to the origin of highly cultivated psychomotor achievements, to the origin and development of language and art, to the nature of genius, and to the birth of philosophical systems and world philosophies. I trust that it will prove its worth also in respect to the invention and solution of new problems. This point of view forces us much more clearly than any other to avoid the pitfalls of abstraction and to observe the phenomena in their context and in flux. I have pursued it in the field of medical science;

perhaps my modest suggestion will meet with approval elsewhere as well.

But the picture of the world which is founded in brain compensation cannot develop unlimitedly, for it cannot give free reign either to its drives or to its unconscious component. Rather its expressions are limited by the social environment and by the culture, which, through the drive for self-preservation, permit the expressions of the psyche to unfold only when they can fit themselves into the frame of the culture. Nonetheless the strengthened superstructure of the inferior organ often assumes new and valuable modes of operation. To be sure, these ways may also be pathological ways, as in the neuroses. (p 27)

OUTCOMES OF OVERCOMPENSATION: When overcompensation attempts to assert itself in a cultural manner and in this effort enters into new, although difficult and often inhibited, paths, the very great expressions of the psyche arise which we must attribute to genius. Lombroso in his theory of genius dealt only with the mixed cases and thus arrived at a false conception of the pathological genius. The inferior organ is not a pathological formation, although it represents the basic condition for pathology . Under favorable conditions the impulse toward brain compensation can end in an overcompensation which shows no trace of pathology .

The outcome of overcompensation depends on several conditions; in other words, it is overdetermined. As one of these conditions we have met the limitations of culture. Another determiner is the chaining of the dominant superstructure to other psychological fields. For example, the visual superstructure may be chained to the auditory organs and to the superstructure of the language organs. Only these multiple compensations, their confluences and mutual inhibitions give us an adequate picture of the psyche. The outcome of an overcompensation depends, thirdly, on its stamina. Nature very often fails in the correction of the inferior organ, in these cases creating transitory compensations which easily succumb to attacks. Inability, neurosis, psychological disease, in short, pathological forms may appear in this event. A small sample from the analysis of paranoia may serve as illustration. The overcompensation of the inferior visual apparatus plays an outstanding part, in addition to other apparatus.

The drive to see, for example, has become highly developed in a great part of paranoiacs and has exhausted all visual possibilities in the world. Then an unfavorable constellation sets in and the weakness of the overcompensation expresses itself in hallucinatory fits and visual appearances. The forces constituting reason soon show a similar fallibility, the patient regarding himself as the object of the visual drive of others.

The positive counterpart may be shown in a small aspect of the psyche of the poet Schiller for which I am indebted to the Viennese writer Rank, who is familiar with my views. I should like to preface this example by stating that I must attribute especially to the dramatic poet a particular and unique overcompensation of the visual organ. In such overcompensation is founded his scenic power, the selection and elaboration of his material. In the drama of the marksman William Tell, Schiller reveals a large (p 28) number of allusions to the overcompensation of the visual organ, phrases which concern the eye and its functions. I wish furthermore to point out the blinding of Melchthal and the hymn to the light of the eyes in William Tell. Schiller himself had weak eyes, suffered from inflammation of the eyes, and, until adulthood, from the childhood disorder of blinking. He was much interested in hunting. Weltrich relates that the family of Schiller received its name on account of strabismus ( schielen ) . This would be of interest for the study of heredity . I mention this to call attention to the relationship of the poet to the inferior organ.

Signs of an inferior visual apparatus playa large part in the development of painters ( see also Reich, J ., "Kunst und Auge." Oesterreichische Rundschau, Vienna, 1908) . Guercino da Centa, 15th century, was given his name because he squinted. Piero de la Francesca, who is particularly credited with the art of perspective, became blind in old age, according to Vasaris. Among the more modern painters Lenbach had only one eye. Mateyko was extremely myopic. Manet suffered from astigmatism. Among art students, approximately seventy per cent have been found to suffer from some optical anomalies.

Among orators, actors, and singers, I have also very often found signs of organ inferiority. The Bible reports about Moses that he had a heavy tongue, whereas his brother Aaron had the talent of talking. Demosthenes, became the greatest orator of Greece. Camille Demoulin who usually stuttered is reported by his contemporaries to have been very fluent when he made a speech.

Musicians quite frequently suffer from ear afflictions. Beethoven and Robert Franz, both of whom became deaf, are well-known examples. Klara Schumann reports hearing and speech difficulties in childhood.

Myths have also, since time immemorial, taken hold of the phenomenon of the inferior organ and its overcompensation. The myth of the blind marksman who always hits the target is related to the William Tell saga.

The following quotation from Grimm's German Mythology bears witness to how closely our conception of compensation and overcompensation of the inferior organ corresponds to the popular feeling: "We find want of limbs in the heroes as well as in the Gods. Orin is one-eyed, Tyr - one-handed, Loki - lame, Hoeder - blind, Vidar - dumb, Hagano also one-eyed, Walkeri - one-handed, Gunther and Wieland are lame; and there are a goodly number of blind and dumb heroes." (Tyr likeness)

Far from offering those details as complete proof, the example are intended only to direct the (p 29) theory of organ inferiority and its relation to philosophy, psychology, and aesthetics.

Confluence and Transformation of Drives (1908): COMMENTS: It was in fact dealt with already in the preceding part, for both interaction of forces and compensation imply the unity of the organism. Adler's next contribution, presented below, was more specifically concerned with unity, which he conceived in the form of a "confluence of drives." At this time, Adler was still a member of the Freudian circle and still subscribed to drive psychology and hedonism; he still had the natural-science approach, seeking to explain mental life as caused by physiological processes.

In the same paper, he also described the "transformation of drives," an idea which came to be of the greatest importance in Freud but which in Adler merely foreshadowed his later view that all causal factors, including drives, are relative to the individual's ultimate goal and style of life.

CHAPTER 8: FICTIONALISM AND FINALISM: FROM THE INDIVIDUAL PSYCHOLOGY OF ALFRED ADLER: HEINZ L. ANSBACHER, PH.D. AND ROWENA R. ANSBACHER, PH.D.

When Adler separated from Freud, he had developed away from a biologically oriented, elementaristic, objective drive psychology and toward a socially oriented, subjectivistic, holistic psychology attitudes. The present chapter will show the part which Hans Vaihinger' s fictionalism, "idealistic positivism," played in Adler's further development in this direction.

Vaihinger' s work appeared in 1911, the same year in the beginning of which Adler withdrew from the psychoanalytic circle. When Adler presented in the following year, 1912, his "Comparative Individual Psychology" in The Neurotic Character, his most important book, this was replete with evidence of Vaihinger' s influence and contained several sincere acknowledgments of this, such as: "It was good fortune which made me acquainted with Vaihinger' s ingenious Philosophy of "As If" (Berlin, 1911) , a work in which I found the thoughts familiar to me from the neurosis presented as valid for scientific thinking in general" ( 1912a, p. 22).

In our experience, it is impossible to gain a complete understanding of Adler's theory, especially with respect to his important concept of j the "fictional goal," without 3 knowledge of Vaihinger's fictionalism. Accordingly, we will deal with brief presentations of Vaihinger through selections from his book, and secondly, with Adler's own fictional finalism. (p 76)

A. Fictionalism By Hans Vaihinger: Fictions, according to Vaihinger, are ideas, including un-yet serve the useful function of enabling us to deal with it better than we could otherwise. This statement, "All men are created equal" would be an example of a fiction. The statement is in contradiction to realize; yet, as an ideal, it is of great practical value in everyday life. This sort of fiction comes close to a working hypothesis which is adopted as a basis for action because it works in practice, although its truth is dubious. Such fiction can better be understood by comparing it to hypothesis; while the hypothesis submits its reality to the test and demands verification, the fiction is a mere auxiliary construct, a scaffolding to be demolished if no longer needed. As distinguished from both fiction and hypothesis, dogma refers to an idea which is considered definitely established. Another aspect of the fiction, helpful in understanding the concept, is its subjective character. According to Vaihinger the subjective is fictional.

The main influence of Vaihinger on Adler was to provide him with a philosophic foundation for his developing subjective finalism, as will be shown in the selections from Adler in the second part of this chapter. Beyond this, however, Adler adapted a number of concepts from Vaihinger to his theory of personality and abnormal psychology; this will be shown in the comments after some of the selections from Vaihinger which follow.

THE MEANING OF FICTIONS: The mind is not merely appropriative, it is also assimilative and constructive. In the course of its growth, it creates its organs of its own accord in virtue of its adaptable constitution, but only when stimulated from without, and adapts them to external circumstances. Such organs are, for example, forms of perception and thought, and certain concepts and other logical constructs.

Our subject is the fictive activity of the logical functions; the products of this activity-fictions. The fictive activity of the mind is an expression of the fundamental psychical forces; fictions are mental structures. The (p 77) psyche weaves this aid to thought out of itself for the mind is inventive.

Fictio means, in the first place, an activity of fingere, that is to say, of f constructing, forming, giving shape, elaborating, presenting, artistically fashioning, conceiving, thinking, imagining, assuming, planning, devising, inventing. Secondly, it refers to the product of these activities, the fictional assumption, fabrication, creation, the imagined case. Its most conspicuous character is that of unhampered and free expression.

The organic function of thought is carried on for the most part unconsciously. Should the product finally enter consciousness also, this light only penetrates to the shallows, and the actual fundamental processes are carried on in the darkness of the unconscious.

Nominalism naturally declared all general ideas to be ficta, fictiones, without, however, attaching to fiction the positive meaning which it has for us. The negative sense of the fiction we call the assumption, for instance, that general ideas are expressions for something unreal, that is, definitely invented and fabricated; whereas by its positive sense we mean the realization that these fictions have nevertheless great practical value, that they serve as the means for acquiring knowledge.

For us the essential element in a fiction is not the fact of its being a conscious deviation from reality, a mere piece of imagination-but we stress the useful nature of this deviation. If we simply say, "The whole world is our idea and all forms are subjective," we get an untenable subjectivism. But if we say: "Conceptual forms and fictions are expedient psychical constructs," then these are closely related to "cosmic agencies and constituents" ( Lass) , for it is they that call these expedient forms into existence in the organic being.

The ''as if" world, which is formed in this manner, the world of the "unreal" is just as important as the world of the so-called real or actual ( in the ordinary sense of the word) ; indeed it is far more important for ethics and aesthetics. This aesthetic and ethical world of ''as if," the world of the unreal, becomes finally for us a world of values which particularly in the form of religion, must be sharply distinguished in our mind from the world of becoming.

It is senseless to question the meaning of the universe, and this is the idea expressed in Schiller's words: "Know this, a mind sublime puts greatness into life, yet seeks it not therein" (Huldigung del Kiinste, 1805). This is positivist idealism. (p 78)

The Fictional Final Goal: Freud's biologica11y oriented system tacitly accepted a mechanistic, reductionistic positivism; it looked for ultimate causes in the past and in objective events. As we have seen, Freud held that "in the psychological field the biological factor is rea11y the rock-bottom" ( see Fp. 51-52) , and he anticipated that we may reach " a (p 87) position to replace the psychological terms by physiological or chemical ones" ( see pp. 60-61).

Adler’s subjectivism, where values, goals, and secondary motives had replaced drives and primary motives in importance, was not a physiological reductionism. If mental events cannot be reduced to physiological events, systematization is possible only by establishing a hierarchy of these mental events, that is, a hierarchy of values and goals. This leads to the philosophical position of teleology and finalism, the determination by final causes. But in this position there lay the danger of parting from the scientific basis and approaching theology. It was in Vaihinger s idealistic positivism that Adler now found for his subjectivistic and finalistic psychology a philosophical foundation which was acceptable, encouraging, and stimulating.

The influence of Vaihinger on Adler finds its most obvious expression in his term fictional. Three attributes of Vaihinger’s term are important for the understanding of Adler’s use of it.

1) From the psychological, not logical point of view, Vaihinger s concept of fiction comes very close to what one would today call the subjective or the personal frame of reference or the phenomenal field. Vaihinger say's that the fictional includes the subjective, "subjective is fictional" (see p. 83) .

2) Fictions are not reducible to objective causes. According to Vaihinger Fictions are mental structures. The psyche weaves this aid to thought out of itself; for the mind is inventive" ( see pp. 77-78) . Fictional structures are thus creations of the individual.

3) Thought processes, including the fictional activity, are fundamentally "carried on in the darkness of the unconscious" ( see p. 78) .

When Adler combined the concept of the fiction with that of the goal, as in fictional goal or the guiding fiction, he implied that his view of causality was subjectivistic, that it was deterministic only in a restricted sense, and that it took unconscious processes into account. These three points may be expanded as follows.

1) Adler had already taken the observable forward orientation of the individual and his concern with the future as the center of his dynamic psychology. By now describing goals and the future as fictional, he expressed in effect that this future was not the objective future but a subjective future as experienced in the present. Thus he avoided the teleological dilemma of the determination of present events by something which remains in the future. This solution is, of course, the one generally (p 88) accepted today in one form or another. Wolfgang Kohler stated it most succinctly from the point of view of Gestalt psychology when he said: "It is not the actual future, the future as such, toward which we are directed in our planning, and in which we perceive our goals; it is that part of an actually present phenomenal field which we call the 'future' " (62, p. 380) . Adler's fictional or subjective finalism or teleology does not violate Kurt Lewin's principle of the contemporaneity of motivation (68, p. 34) . Adler's fictional (subjective) goal is a present one; it derives its great importance from the postulate that it is an ever-present goal ( 1930a, p. 5), although it is not necessarily present in consciousness. "We can comprehend every single life phenomenon, as if the past, the present, and the future together with a superordinated, guiding idea were present in it in traces" (1912a, p. iii). If we translate "as if" into "subjective" we find that this sentence refers to the subjective past, present, and future as being present in the phenomenological field in trance.

3) Finally the fictitiousness of the goal also implies its unconscious nature. Adler's goal concept is characterized particularly by the fact that the individual is largely unaware of his goal, that it is a hidden or unconscious goal, a goal which the individual does not understand. It is the true nature of the individual's hidden goal which constitutes, according to Adler, the essential content of the unconscious. (p 89)

As the five sections within this part will show: (1) the fictional final goal became for Adler the principle of internal, subjective causation of psychological events, similar to Jaspers' concept of the schema: (2) the goal represented a creation of the individual and was largely unconscious: (3) it also became the principle of unity and self-consistency of the personality structure; from the point of view of the subject, the fictional goal was taken as the basis for orientation in the world; and (5), as one aspect of compensation for felt inferiorities.

One more characteristic of fictional which played a part in Adler's use of the word should be mentioned. This characteristic, which belongs to the logical, not to the psychological, properties, is that a fiction can also be a working hypothesis, as in the case of the "heuristic fiction" (see p. 80). Accordingly, the fictional goal was at first used by Adler also as a heurisbc concept in that he regarded the individual ''as it" he were striving toward a final goal. Several years later, Adler dropped this last, logical connotation troll his use of the word fictional. "Our experience and our impressions strengthen in us the conviction that this heuristic method represents more than an auxiliary method of research, and that it fundamentally coincide to the largest extent with real events of psychological development, which are partly consciously experienced and partly deducible from the unconscious. The goal-striving of the psyche is consequently not only our view but also a basic tact" ( 1927a, pp.56-57).

Eventually Adler relinquished the term fictional altogether when speaking of the goal. However, the three psychological meaning of the term fictional, as subjective created and unconscious, remained the most essential components of Adler’s goal concept. (p 90)

CHAPTER 9: STRIVING FOR SUPERIORITY AND STYLE OF LIFE: FROM THE INDIVIDUAL PSYCHOLOGY OF ALFRED ADLER: HEINZ L. ANSBACHER, PH.D. AND ROWENA R. ANSBACHER, PH.D.

We have seen that Adler tended from the beginning toward a theory of the unity and self-consistency of the personality. I Such a theory would need a prepotent dynamic force. This was at first ) described as the aggression drive, the outcome of a confluence of drives. After Adler had abandoned drive psychology, it became the "wanting to be a real man" of the masculine protest. With Adler's full commitment to fictional finalism in 1912, the fictional goal became the principle of unity of the personality and the striving toward this goal the prepotent dynamic force.

While in the preceding chapter our selections were concentrated on the theoretical significance of the goal, its origin, and its functions for the subject, and we omitted as much as possible discussion of the content of the goal and the goal striving itself, still it became evident that the goal is one of superiority, that consequently the striving is toward I superiority, and finally that the striving is compensatory, originating in a feeling of inferiority .

From then on and throughout the years of Adler's writings the general description of the governing dynamic force as one of striving from inferiority to superiority, from "below" to "above" remained the same. But the meaning of superiority, or above, that is, the specific goal point, underwent an important change.

At first, above meant being a real man, power, self-esteem, security; all these goal points were expressed in terms of the individual. But in these early days, Adler as a psychiatrist, wrote in terms of the neurotic patient; it was the neurotic whom Adler showed as striving for enhancement of his self-esteem or for the safeguarding of it. When he generalized from the neurotic, he described the normal individual as behaving in the same way, only less clearly so and to a lesser degree. The neurotic was the frame of reference, the standard of comparison so to speak. (p 101)

Later, above came to mean perfection, completion, or overcoming, goal points which are no longer fully expressed in terms of the self but which can be applied to outside objects also. While overcoming may refer to internal obstacles, it usually refers to external ones; completion usually, refers to a task; and perfection to an achievement or a product. When Adler wrote in these terms, the frame of reference was no longer the neurotic, but man in general, the mentally healthy individual. When he now generalized, it was from the normal to the abnormal; the abnormal also strives for perfection, although it may hardly recognized as such.

What brought about this change in frame of reference from the abnormal to the normal? Originally Adler had drawn his inferences from his patients; regarding normal individuals, he only knew that they must be similarly motivated. The difference between the two was one of degree, the normal showing a less accentuated, less dogmatized, goal of superiority and less urgency in leaching it than the abnormal. The greater motivation of the neurotic came from his greater inferiority feeling. But Adler had not answered the question: In what respect, if any, is the normal more motivated than the neurotic? This question would certainly need to be answered since the normal would seem to strive as much as the abnormal, certainly at least in many instances.

The change and the answer were made possible by the fact that Adler developed a criterion for normality, during the period roughly from 1920-1930. Once he had such a criterion, he could rewrite his motivational theory in terms of the normal. Adler’s ultimate concept of social interest becomes this criterion. The ideally normal individual has an ideal amount of social interest. Thus, while the neurotic is more concerned with his self-esteem, and has a personal goal of superiority, the normal individual, due to his greater social interest, is more concerned with gaining satisfaction by overcoming difficulties which are appreciated as such by others as well. He has a goal of superiority which includes the welfare of others. The difference in motivation between the normal and abnormal then became primarily one of kind of instead of degree. While the abnormal is more motivated in the direction of a private intelligence and is more self-centered in his striving, the normal is more motivated in the direction of common sense that is, he is more task-centered in his striving.

When Adler replaced the earlier formations of the meaning of superiority by striving for perfection, he did not leave the earlier out of account; they were given a subordinate position in his system, just as he (p 102) had given the drives and heredity and environment a subordinate place.

Our reason for beginning the presentation of the selections on the striving for superiority with Adler’s late writings is that thereby we can best present the entire picture, with all the parts organized according to their relative significance.

Accordingly, the first part of the present chapter will deal with the striving for superiority in terms of perfection, and the second part in terms of self-enhancement. This will be followed by the discussion of the inferiority feeling, the origin of all the striving, according to Adler , while the last section will deal with his further views on the position of drives in human dynamics. (p 103)

Man as an everstriving being cannot be like God. God who is eternally complete, who directs the stars, who masters fates, who elevates man from lowliness to Himself, who speaks from the cosmos to every single human soul, is the most brilliant manifestation of the goal of perfection to date. In God’s nature, religious mankind perceives the way to height. His call it hears again the innate voice of life which must have its direction towards the goal of perfection, toward overcoming the felling of lowliness and transitoriness of the existence here below. The human soul, as part of the movement of life, is endowed with the ability to participate in the uplift, elevation, perfection, and completion. (p 107)

THE THREE GENERAL SOCIAL TIES: One of Adler's favorite devices for teaching and preaching the "absolute truth" of social embeddedness and the resulting necessity of a well-developed social interest was to point out that all the main problems in life are problems of human cooperation. Although Adler does not say so, he implies that in present society the satisfaction of almost all conceivable needs depends on the solution of these problems of cooperation. These problems represent the ties of the individual to social life and are somewhat loosely classified into problems of occupation, social relations in general, and love and marriage.

At this point Individual Psychology comes into contact with sociology. For a long time now I have been convinced that all the questions of life can be subordinated to the three major problems - the problem of communal life, of work, and of love. These three arise from the inseparable bond that of necessity links men together for association, for the provision of livelihood, and the care of offsprings.

These three ties in which human beings are bound set the three problems of life, but none of these problems can be solved separately. Each of them demands a successful approach to the other two.

a. Occupation: The first tie sets the problem of occupation. We are living on the surface of this planet, with only the resources of this planet, with the fertility of its soil, with its mineral wealth, and with its climate and atmosphere. It has always been the task of mankind to find the right answer to the problem these conditions set us, and even today we cannot think that we have found a sufficient answer. In every age, mankind has arrived at a certain level of solution, but it has always been necessary to strive for improvement and further accomplishments.

When somebody makes shoes, he makes himself useful to someone else, and he has the right to a sufficient livelihood, to all the advantages (p 131) of hygiene, and to a good education of his children. The fact that he receives payment for this is the recognition of his usefulness in an age of developed trade. In this way, he arrives at a feeling of his worth to society, the only possible means of mitigating the universal human feeling of inferiority. The person who performs useful work lives in the midst of the developing human society and helps to advance it.

b. Society: The second tie by which men are bound is their membership in the human race and their association with others of their kind. The attitude and behavior of a human being would be altogether different if he were the only one of his kind alive on earth. We have always to reckon with others, to adapt ourselves to others, and to interest ourselves in them. This problem is best solved by friendship, social feeling, and cooperation. With the solution of this problem, we have made an incalculable advance towards the solution of the first. It was only because men learned to cooperate that the great discovery of the division of labor was made, a discovery which is the chief security for the welfare of mankind. Through the division of labor we can use the results of many different kinds of training and organize many different abilities, so that all of them contribute to the common welfare and guarantee relief from insecurity and increased opportunity for all the members of society.

Some people attempt to evade the problem of occupation, to do no work, or to occupy themselves outside of common human interests. We shall always find, however, that if they dodge this problem, they will in fact be claiming support from their fellows. In one way or another, they will be living on the labor of others without making a contribution of their own.

c. Love: The third tie of a human being is that he is a member of one of the two sexes and not of the other. On his approach to the other sex and on the fulfillment of his sexual role depends his part in the continuance of mankind. This relationship between the two sexes also sets a problem. It, too, is a problem which cannot be solved apart from the other two problems. For a successful sol1,tion of the problem of love and marriage, an occupation contributing to the division of labor is necessary, as well as a good and friendly contact with other human beings. In our own day, the highest solution for this problem, the solution most coherent with the demands of society and of the division of labor, is monogamy. In the way in which an individual answers this problem the degree of his cooperation can always be seen.

These three problems are never found apart, for they all throw (p 132) cross-lights in on another. A solution of one help toward the solution of the others, and indeed we can say that they are all aspects of the same situation and the same problem - the necessity for a human being to preserve life and to further life in the environment in which he finds himself. (p 133)

STYLE OF LIFE: Style of life is variously equated with the self or ego (1931b, p. 4: 1935a, p. 7), a man’s own personality (1931a, p. 200), the unity of personality (1935a, p. 7), individuality (1931b, p.4), individual form of creative activity (1935a, p. 8), the method of facing problems (1933a, p 16), the whole attitude to life (1920c, p. 135) and others.

Although in Adler's earlier writings the emphasis was on the goal, he had from the beginning used several terms foreshadowing the style of lite. When he was still mechanistically and biologically oriented and attempted to express the unity of the individual through the concept of the confluence of drives, he was also aware of the uniqueness of the individual and of the need to give this idea an expression. This he did at first with the term psychological main axis. In 1912, in The Neurotic Character, the main axis became the guiding idea which provides the approach to the fictional goal through the life plan: "We may look upon every single manifestation of life as it in its past, present, and future there were contained traces of a superordinated guiding idea. . . Comparative Individual Psychology sees in every psychological process the imprint, a symbol so to speak, of the se1t-consistently oriented life plan" ( 1912a, p. iii) . In 1927 we find schema of life (Lebens-Schablone) and line of movement used synonymously with style of life ( 1927a, p. 3) . Finally, in 1933 Adler proposed the individual's law of movement as underlying the style of life (see pp. 195-196).

Unity and So