Alfred Adler: Problems of Neurosis: A Book of Case-Histories

217 Pages·1999·3.55 MB·English

by  Mairet Philippe

The International Library ofPsychology
ALFRED ADLER: PROBLEMS
OF NEUROSIS
Founded by C, K, Ogden
The International Library ofPsychology
INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES
In 21 Volumes
I ThePracticeandTheoryofIndividual
Psychology Adler
II TheNeuroticConstitution Adler
III Duality Bradley
IV ProblemsofPersonality Carnpbelletal
V AnIntroductiontoIndividualPsychology Dreikurs
VI ThePsychologyofAlfredAdlerandthe
DevelopmentoftheChild Ganz
VII Personality Gordon
VIII TheArtofInterrogation Hamilton
IX Appraising Personality Harrower
X PhysiqueandCharacter Kretschmer
XI ThePsychologyofMenofGenius Kretschmer
XII Handreading Laffan
XIII OnShameand theSearchforIdentity Lynd
XIV ABCofAdler's Psychology Mairet
XV Alfred Adler: ProblemsofNeurosis Mairet
XVI Principles ofExperimentalPsychology Pieron
XVII ThePsychologyofCharacter Roback
XVIII TheHandsofChildren Spier
XIX TheNatureofIntelligence Thurstone
XX AlfredAdler: The PatternofLife Wolfe
XXI ThePsychologyofIntelligenceandWill Wyatt
ALFRED ADLER: PROBLEMS
OF NEUROSIS
A Book of Case Histories
Edited by PHILIPPE MAIRET
Prefatory Essay by F G Crookshank
Firstpublished in 1929by
Routledge, Trench, Trubner & Co., Ltd.
Reprinted 1999,2000, 2001 by
Routledge
2ParkSquare,MiltonPark,Abingdon, Oxon, OX144RN
Transferred to Digital Printing2007
Routledgeis an imprintofthe Taylor & Francis Group
© 1929EditorialSelectionand PrefacePhilippeMairet,
ChaptersAlfred Adler
All rightsreserved. Nopartofthis bookmay bereprintedorreproduced
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BritishLibraryCataloguingin PublicationData
ACIPcataloguerecord for this book
isavailablefrom theBritishLibrary
AlfredAdler: ProblemsofNeurosis
ISBN0415-21065-8
IndividualDifferences: 21 Volumes
ISBN0415-21130-1
TheInternationalLibraryofPsychology: 204Volumes
ISBN0415-19132-7
CONTENTS
PAGE
PREFACE byF. G. Crookshank, M.D. vii
CHAPTER I I
The Concealment of the Feelings of Inferiority-Anxiety
Neurosis-The Theory of Heredity-Dream of Anxiety
Neurotic-The Style of Life-Suicidal Impulse-Organic
Effects of Neurotic Tension-A Compulsion-neurosis
Critical Pointin the Developmentof Neurosis-The Dream
asa Rehearsal
CHAPTER II 18
S,chizophreniaand its Preparation-TheThree Problems of
Life-TheFunctionofth~,Mot.her-Psychosis-Melancholia
-Feelings of Guilt-Indirect Treatment ofMelancholia-
ManiC-depressive Insanity
CHAPTER III - 29
The Psychological Standpoint-Character-Social Feeling
andtheMother-Inferiority-OrganicallyDefectiveChildren
-Spoiled and Hated Children-UnsocialTypes-Guiltas a
FormofSuperiority-TheArtofthe Psycho-therapist-The
MasculineProtest
CHAPTER IV - 46
The Prototype in Love and Marriage-Love and Social
Feeling-Evasions of Love-Drunkenness in Marriage-
Drug Habits and theirTreatment-Neurotic Strivingto get
Married- Anger and Headaches- Aversion to Bearing
Children-Loveand the Life-Goal
CHAPTER V 63
Organic Symptoms- Vomiting- Fainting- Stuttering
Left-handedness-Imperfect Sight-Compensatory Activi
ties-The Sexual Role-Sex Equality-Masculine Protest-
Prophet FantasiesinNeurotics-FirstMethodsof Treat
U II
ment-Verification of Diagnosis-"Transference to the
II
Psychologist-True Understandingofa Neurosis-Drunken
ness-Patientswhoneed Supervision-CriterionoftheValue
of Action-The Value of Social Feeling-Neurosis as the
vVeaponoftheWeak-CaseofSuicidallmpulse
CHAPTER VI -
Depressionas a Superiority-device-Guilt Complexes-The
BeggingStyleof Life-Polygamous Desires-Another case
of Begging-The Emotions in Neurosis-Agoraphobia-A
Development towards Homosexuality-Air Swallowing
(Aerophagia)
v
vi CONTENTS
PAGE
CHAPTER VII 96
The Psychology of Family Position-The First Child-Its
Dethronement-A Second Child unable to overtake the
First-The Eldest a Conservative-The Second Child-A
Second Child's Neurosis-Second Child a Revolutionary-
The YoungestChild-YoungestChilda Conquerer in Myth
and Folk-Iore-A Spoiled Youngest Child with Imaginary
Cancer-The Only Child-Its Educational Problem
Development of Homosexuality-Self-Perversion-Dis
astrous Cases-InfluenceofOtherFactorsinHomeEnviron-
ment-Effectof Superstit~onsorFanatical Ideas
CHAPTER VIII 12I
Early Recollections and their Significance-Recollectionof
a Visual Type-Recollections of Movement-Of Danger-
Caseof Erythrophobia
CHAP~ER IX - 128
TheHighest Goals-Goalsin Insanity and Crime-In Per
version-TheMasochistic Attitude-Irritating Behaviour-
The Goal in Day-Dreams- Day-Dreams of Vicarious
Satisfaction-Case of Suicide-Red Hair as Inferiority
Heart-trouble and Aerophagia-Masculine Protest and
Marriagewith a Relative-Jealousy and Superiority-Case
of Jealous Hallucinations-Unconscious Jealousy-Case of
Syphilophobia-Preparation for the Sexual Role-Homo
sexual Tendency-Masochistic Tendency the Reverse of
Submissive
CHAPTER X - 145
TheFearofDeath: In Children: Itstrue Compensations
Desireto become a Physician-Religious Compensations
Choiceof Occupations in General-Vocational Guidance-
Goal of the Working Life-Fantastic Choices-Bodily
PosturesinWakingandSleeping-AllPosturesarePurposive
CHAPTER XI - 154
Cases inwhich Treatment is resisted-Anxiety Neurosis
Compulsion-Neurosis-Organ-Jargon-Dialectofthe Sexual
Organs-FreeSex-relationsas Revenge-ResistancetoMar-
riage expressed by Dream: By Melancholy-Relation of
Sleepingto\Vaking-Hypnotism-LimitationsofHypnotic
Treatment-Dream Interpretation-Absence of Dreams
Dream expressing Conflict in l\Iarriage-Self-Deception of
Dreams also observablein WakingLife
BIBLIOGRAPHY 169
INDEX I71
PREFACE
BY
F. G. CROOKSHANK
INDIVIDUAL PSYCHOLOGY:
A RETROSPECT (AND A VALUATION)
'fHE science of Individual Psychology teaches us that the
leit-motiJofall neurosis and conflictis a sense of discourage
4
ment and inferiority. But the key-note of the practice of
Individual Psychology is that (('benevolent comradeship
II
which Adler tells us should characterise the attitude ofthe
physician towardshis patient.
The sincerity of this utterance, and its full significance,
canhardlybebetterknown thanbythe Pupil, whohasbeen
asked,bythe Teacher,towritesomeforeword to the latter's
own work. Perhaps in such case the Pupil may be thought
to fulfil his duty best in attempting to set out somethinghe
has learned, which others may wish to know.
I
INDIVIDUAL PSYCHOLOGY AND GENERAL MEDICINE
We are, of course, living in an age of paradox, for, as'
thinking people have always found, without paradox there
is nocomprehensiveviewoflife. Theexplanation,likethat
vii
viii PROBLEMS -OF NEUROSIS
of most paradoxes, even the most strange, is very simple
Reality is not that which is flashed instantaneously on the
screen of experience as the film of events slips by the slot,
but the mentally continuous picture of that which was, of
that \vhichnowis, and of that which, coming, will presently
be past. Onlythose whosee the now as the veryknife-edge
separating the futttre from the past are aware of things as
theyreally are. Thatiswhy, inthephilosophyofmedicine,
true diagnosis-in Galen's phrase, the thorough under
II
standing of things present "-comprehends and implies the
right understanding of etiology (or what has been) and of
prognosis (orwhat will be). But academies, whether of art,
ofliterature, or ofscience, vainly attempt to fix, to crystal
lise, not merely that which flows, but that which is
of the very essence of being-the flux, or change itself.
And academies of medicine form no exception to the
rule.
It has been said recently by Biot, of Lyon, that there
are only two orthodox Schools of medical thought-the
Necrological and the Veterinary! Of these, the first, which
we may call the Post-Mortem, or Mortuary School, is
now a little demode. It arose first in France more than a
century and a quarter ago, and owed its juvenile activity
to the opportunities afforded by "Var and the Guillotine
during theAge of Reason and Liberty. It was fostered in
France byLaennecandhis pupils,includingAndral, in spite
of the jeers of Broussais; in England, a little later,
several London hospitals became, as it were, chapels-of
ease for the propagation of the new and lugubrious creed,
being directed to this end by severa] eminent necrologists
whose names we still commemorate in the " diseases" that
they invented.
PREFACE ix
Medicine everywhere ambles a generation in the rear of
the philosophic zeitgeist, though in France the lag" is less
ct
evident, and less pronounced, than in England. This
mortuary school of medicine, whose devotees are not yet
extinct, corresponds, philosophically and logically, to the
eighteenth-century funerary school of art, religion and
thought: to the era of cypresses, willows, wreaths, vaults,
sermons, Night Thoughts and Miditations sur la mort.
But, just as to the divines of the urn and cypress period
life was a mere preparation for death, so, to the doctors
of the mortuary school disease was, and is, a mere prelude
to the diagnostic autopsy, and therapeutic effort as dis
credited as the attempt to gain Heaven by good works.
These doctors have always sought the living amongst the
dead, andto-dayreservewhat they deem the sterllreproach
of metaphysician" for him who considers the art of
ct
medicine to have concern with living, willing, feeling and
thinking individuals.
On the other hand, physicians of the Veterinary or
AnalogicalSchool-thesecond of the t\VO orthodoxies, and
that most in present favour-though frankly hoping to
explain life away in terms of some chemical or physical
formula, do nevertheless admit the advisability of study
ing it in living objects. But, holding all things sub
It
jective," and therefore contemptible, that are not revealed
at the scalpel's point or by the scratching of a needle on a
smoked drum, they are not prepared to allow "what the
patient says" to be heardinevidence. They ,viTI not allow
that the making of a statement-whether true or false-by
anypatientisadatumatleastas" objective"andasworthy
ofinterpretation, asthe makingofa noise-whethersystolic
or diastolic-by any heart! On the contrary, they choose