A Brief Biography of Alfred Adler
A Critic of Freud and Leader of Psychoanalysis
Although Sigmund Freud is often thought of as an icon for the study of psychology and is regarded as the father of psychoanalysis, his work did not solely establish the field. In the history of psychology, Alfred Adler offered important criticisms of Freud and helped refine some psychoanalytical theory, including the development of inferiority complex theory.
Alfred Adler’s Childhood
On February 7, 1870, Alfred was born to Leopold and Pauline Adler in a small village not far from Vienna, Austria. An important component of Adler’s childhood that led to his later appreciation of social relationships in the formation of personality was his interaction with friends and siblings.
The second-born child in his family, Alfred found a significant relationship with his older brother, Sigmund. While Alfred was weak and fell ill often in his first five months, Sigmund enjoyed tremendous health. A presage of his “inferiority complex” theory to come, Alfred spent a great deal of time comparing himself to his superior older brother.
Alfred’s experience with his younger brother, Rudolf, also left a definite impact on him. When Alfred was only four-years-old, he awoke to find Rudolf dead in the adjoining bed. While he could have reacted with fear or guilt, Adler instead chose to view this event as a personal challenge to triumph over death. Thus, Adler made the precocious decision to become a physician.
Adler’s Education and Early Career
After completing his elementary and secondary education, Adler enrolled in the Vienna Medical School and completed his medical degree in 1895.
After serving briefly in the Hungarian military, Adler completed post-graduate studies and became an ophthalmologist. More interested in the complete person, he instead pursued work in general medicine. He thought that illness could be the result of several physical, psychological, and social factors.
The Relationship Between Adler and Freud
Adler met Sigmund Freud in 1899 when he sought Freud’s assistance with a female patient. Soon thereafter, Adler became one of the first members of what became the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society, a group of intellectuals led by Freud. Despite their association with one another, neither found the other’s company particularly pleasant.
Adler took issue with Freud’s beliefs in biological and sexual motivations underlying personality; Adler instead thought social factors were most important in personality development. In 1911, he was the president of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society, but he resigned in October, leaving with nine like-minded psychologists to found the Society for Free Psychoanalytic Study. The group’s name soon became the “Society for Individual Psychology,” in an effort to distance itself further from Freud’s ideas.
Even after their split, the tension between Freud and Adler never eased. Instead, the two continued their work independently, and when Adler died in 1937, Freud expressed immense pleasure at having outlived his competitor.
Adler’s Later Work
After leaving Freud’s group, Adler published his most influential work, The Neurotic Constitution. Although he never achieved his goal of becoming a permanent lecturer at the University of Vienna, Adler ventured to the United States after the conclusion of World War I. There he became a Visiting Professor for Medical Psychology for the Long Island College of Medicine.
He became a U.S. citizen in 1932, and despite having married Russian feminist Raissa Epstein in 1897, he lived in New York while she stayed in Vienna. Not until the final few months of Adler’s life did Epstein move to the U.S. to be with him.
Despite his poor health as a child, Adler enjoyed vastly superior health throughout the rest of his life. While in the Netherlands on a lecture tour, however, Adler began to feel chest pains. He continued on to Aberdeen, Scotland where he died of a heart attack on May 28, 1937.
For information on Alfred Adler's work in psychology, please see "The Personality Theory of Alfred Adler."
Sources:
- Feist, J., & Feist, G. (2002). Theories of personality. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
- Goodwin, C. J. (1999). A history of modern psychology. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Alfred Adler Helped Develop Personality Psychology
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