The Collected Clinical Works of Alfred Adler, Volume 4 - Journal Articles 1914-1920

252 Pages·2002·1.14 MB·English

by  Adler

The Collected Clinical Works of Alfred Adler Volume 4
Journal Articles: 1914-1920
Expanding the Horizons of Child Guidance Neurosis &
Psychosis
Alfred Adler
New Translations by Gerald L. Liebenau Edited by Henry T.
Stein, Ph.D.
Classical Adlerian Translation Project
© 2003 by Henry T. Stein, Ph.D.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright
Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or
any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing
from the editor. All inquiries should be sent to Henry T. Stein, Ph.D., Classical
Adlerian Translation Project, 3320 Sussex Drive, Bellingham, WA 98226. Tel
[phone] or e-mail to [email protected] .
Published 2003 by The Classical Adlerian Translation Project.
Printed in the United States of America
ISBN 0-9715645-4-X
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Editor’s Preface
2003.............................................................................................. ii Chapter I:
Chapter II: Chapter III: Chapter IV: Chapter V: Chapter VI: Chapter VII:
Chapter VIII:
Chapter IX:
Chapter X: Chapter XI:
Chapter XII:
Chapter XIII: Chapter XIV: Chapter XV: Chapter XVI: Chapter XVII:
Dostoyevsky [1918] ..................................................................115 Chapter
XVIII: Individual Psychology on Upbringing [1918] ..........................123
Chapter XIX: Chapter XX: Chapter XXI: Melancholia and Paranoia [1914]
.................................................1 The Social Impact on Childhood [1914]
....................................15 Individual Psychology: Its Presumptions and Results
[1914] ....26 Child Psychology and Neurosis Research [1914] ......................37
The Problem of Distancing Onself [1914] .................................51 Neurotic
Hunger Strike [1914] ...................................................58 The Life-Lie and
Responsibility in Neurosis
and Psychosis [1914] ..................................................................60 Book Review
of Theophil Becker's
On Diagnosing Paranoid Conditions [1914] .............................68 Book Review
of Wladimir Astrow’s
Petersburg Dreams [1914] .........................................................70 Nervous
Insomnia [1914] ...........................................................72 Minutes of Meetings of
the Organization for
Individual Psychology [1914] ....................................................78 Minutes of
Meetings of the Individual
Psychology Organization [1914] ................................................80 The Woman:
Raising and Educating Children [1916] ...............84 The Child's Inner Life and
Social Feeling [1917] ......................90 On Homosexuality [1918]
..........................................................96 Compulsion Neurosis [1918]
....................................................107
Bolshevism and Psychology [1918] .........................................130
New Aspects on War Neurosis [1918] ....................................137
The Other Side: A Mass-Psychological Study
of a Nation’s Guilt [1919] ........................................................149
Chapter XXII: Concerning Female Neurotics and the
Masculine Attitude [1920] ........................................................158 Chapter
XXIII: The Individual Psychology of Prostitution [1920] ...................183
Chapter XXIV: Neglected Children [1920]
.......................................................192
Index .........................................................................................201
Appendix: “Basic Principles of
Classical Adlerian Psychology” ...............................................223
i
Editor’s Preface - 2003
Editor’s Preface - 2003
As Adler gradually expanded the horizons of Individual Psychology, he
addressed a multitude of topics in the twenty-four articles published between
1914 and 1920. He focused predominantly on the dynamics of neurosis and
psychosis, but he began exploring the positive and negative influences of the
home and school on the development of the young child, devoting five articles
during this period to child guidance. Adler also contributed several book reviews
to psychology journals; two have been included in this volume.
The political and military issues of his time prompted passionate,
persuasive arguments from his keen, analytical mind. His article, “Bolshevism
and Psychology,” is a classic exposé of the abuse of power and the inevitable
response of the people. His comments remain timeless.
The outstanding exception to his generally insightful view of human nature
is his article “On Homosexuality.” Adler’s view of homosexuality in this article
reflects the rather common bias of his time and culture. Although he transcended
the widespread misconceptions about women and children at the turn of the
century, his view of homosexuality represents a historical limitation and
apparent contradiction of his general perspective. In the interests of scholarship
and historical accuracy, the controversial article has been included in this
volume. The current Classical Adlerian view of sexuality promotes cooperation
between partners, and attempts to correct domination or depreciation within all
sexual orientations. This contemporary stance is more congruent with Adler’s
central posture of equality, respect, and acceptance.
For readers unfamiliar with Adler’s ideas, a brief overview, titled “Basic
Principles of Classical Adlerian Psychology,” is included in the appendix. More
comprehensive articles, titled “Classical Adlerian Theory and Practice” and “A
Psychology of Democracy” have been published in Volumes 1 & 2 of The
Collected Clinical Works of Alfred Adler.
I encourage the reader to patiently follow Adler’s early efforts to articulate
his full theory. It is a fascinating journey of positing, correcting, and refining his
insights into the mystery of human nature.
ii
Chapter I
Melancholia and Paranoia1 2 [1914]
Individual Psychological findings derived from a study of psychoses
Preface
The driving forces of neuroses and psychoses that I have described as
childhood feelings of inferiority--safeguarding tendencies, striving to
compensate
-forged in childhood and then acted teleologically as a fictitious goal for
superiority; the tried and practiced methods, character traits, feelings, emotions,
symptoms and attitudes to thwart demands made in a social context that become
the means for a fictitious raising of personality feelings with regard to the
individual’s environment; the searching for detours and the distancing to dodge
the expectations of society and to escape a realistic self-evaluation as well as
personal responsibility; the neurotic perspectives and the tendentious devaluation
of reality that range to the point of insanity; the exclusion of almost all chances
for establishing relationships and for cooperation,--all these have led me and
other authorities to establish an interpretive principle that has proven to be
broadly valuable and imperative for an understanding of neuroses and
psychoses.3 The mechanisms that were described above can be found in detail in
the author’s articles “Über den nervösen Charakter,” and “Studie über
Minderwertigkeit von Organen” that can be found in the Internationale
Zeitschrift für Individualpsychologie (Leipzig), in Menschenkenntnis, and in this
volume.4
My further studies concerning the mechanism of psychosis have reached a
preliminary conclusion with the following findings. The three essential
conditions for mania are:
1) The anticipation and hallucinatory portrayals of desires or fears for
safeguarding purposes;
2) a tendentious devaluing of reality;
1 First published in Praxis und Theorie, pages 171-182, 1920. Translated
into English as chapter XXI in The Practice and Theory of Individual
Psychology, 1925.
2 New translation by Gerald L. Liebenau, 2003.
3 Bleuler, surprisingly, addresses this concept disparagingly by stating that “with
this viewpoint everything could be explained.” It would seem to me, and to
others, to be of particular value for just that reason. Another writer, who shall
remain unnamed, calls me a “shyster” (incompetent lawyer). In his ignorance he
believes that the tricks of the neurotic, that I have uncovered, were none other
than my own.
4 (Praxis und Theorie).
3) a resulting raising of personality feelings accompanied by an inability to
cooperate;
4) the struggle with anyone who is near or far and the demeaning of that person;
and
5) the transference of a patient’s activities away from his primary problem to
some secondary arena.
As can easily be seen, all five conditions for mania relate logically and
psychologically. In the following paper, which was submitted in 1914 to the
aborted Congress of Psychology and Psychiatry (in Bern) in almost the same
form, we attempt to present the psychological structure of melancholia and
paranoia in light of the above findings.
A. Melancholia
The attitude and life plan of those disposed toward melancholia; The
outbreak of the illness, and a struggle with the environment; Being successful on
secondary issues for fear of having to make decisions
that could lead to humiliation.
1. Melancholia affects those individuals who since early childhood have
depended on the actions and on the support of others to maintain their lifestyle.
Their life is dominated by easily achieved successes that require little activity,
which by nature lack masculinity. In their contacts they limit themselves to their
families or to a small stable circle of friends, always looking for someone to lean
on. These are people who are not beyond forcing others into supporting them
and, by pointedly exaggerating their inadequacies, make others conform or be
obedient to them. Where they are in positions of power, they use it ruthlessly,
often veiled by ethical exigencies. That they often profit very quickly from their
limitless egoism in these times of excessive advantage-seeking does not argue
against our thesis. When confronted by the principal challenges in their own
lives, making progress in their self-development, or perhaps only maintaining
their own effectiveness, they will either avoid them as soon as problems arise, or
at best will deal with them only hesitatingly. To the contrary, the manic
depressive type can generally be identified by his enthusiasm in approaching
every problem, only to have his enthusiasm wane soon afterwards. This
characteristic rhythm, a behavior and attitude that does not differ much on days
when he feels well, during the course of the illness and upon experiencing
defeat, will be intensified and solidified with purposeful and demonstrative
maniacal ideas. Periodic melancholia lies between these two types. It will break
out regularly whenever the patient’s vacillating self-doubt compels the repulsion
of any of life’s demands (marriage, job, society).
2. The way of life of the “melancholic type” is recognizable by a
deepseated attitude which assumes, at the very outset, a melancholic perspective
stemming from childhood which sees life as a difficult and enormous gamble.
Their world is one in which the majority of the people they encounter seem
hostile. It is also a world filled with distressing obstacles. We recognize in this
attitude, which runs counter to social feeling and cooperation, a strong feeling of
inferiority and one that is replete with artifices that we have described as
fundamentally characteristic of neurotics. Such people feel better prepared to
meet life’s demands with unique character traits, emotions, anticipations, and
facilities (crying) that are transformed into aggressive tendencies. When feeling
“well,” they will seek out a small circle of friends among whom they can assert
themselves, and among whom a series of minor successes at the outset will give
them a feeling of greater security. Transforming their feelings of inferiority into
concrete form, they will demand, as they did as children, either openly or
secretly, that they be given greater deference as “handicapped,” that others
submit to them, or make sacrifices on their behalf.
3. Since childhood, their sense of self-worth has consequently been low,
which becomes apparent from their constant attempts to gain great prestige.
Nevertheless, they frequently emphasize--often providing hidden clues that
characterize their psychological kinship with paranoia--their lost opportunities
for exceptional development, mostly because of poor family conditions. They
also at times betray with their melancholic manic ideas an unshakable
assumption that they are super-beings, even endowed with divine powers. Such,
and nothing else, lies at the source of complaints, hidden behind a fixation of
greatness, that bemoans a horrible fate befalling on them as well as their
families, or when they find blame in themselves for the world coming to an end,
or for the outbreak of a world war, or for the downfall and death of another. Not
infrequently there rests in these forced complaints about their own inadequacies
a threatening hint of very real physical or moral dangers to which their families
and friends will be exposed. All this is accompanied by the strongest possible
promotion of their own personal importance. Such are the goals of the
melancholic and toward such ends these individuals will openly accuse
themselves of being inferior in all kinds of ways, and demonstratively blame
themselves for all mistakes and failures. The result of such behavior, at a
minimum, is that they gain more than heretofore the focus of everyone’s
attention in their limited circle, and spur those persons dedicated to them to a
maximum of effort, to making real sacrifices on their behalf, and to becoming
most accommodating. In following such a course they also free themselves of
even the most minor social obligations and commitments. This greatly suits their
egocentric guiding ideal, which rejects conforming or committing oneself to the
rights of others, and which they regard as an intolerable coercion and a serious
loss of personal worth.
Besides accusing and reproaching themselves, melancholics always provide
hints pointing to heredity, to a faulty upbringing, and a willful lack of
consideration from family members or supervisors, except that this accusing of
others--again a paranoia related phenomenon--results from the initial
melancholia. An example would be the outbreak of melancholia in a younger
daughter after her mother had decided to travel with an older sister, or when a
businessman falls ill after he had been overruled on a number of occasions by
colleagues, and was then forced to carry out some task against his will. Pointing
to inadequacies, heredity, physical anomalies, etc., also serves to support the
notion that the individual is suffering from an unalterable and incurable disease
which itself is, thereby, significantly enhanced in value.
Thus melancholia, like every neurosis and psychosis, serves the striving for
the greater social worth, advances one’s predilections, and enhances one’s
personality, at least in one’s own opinion. The compulsory nature of this
phenomenon in persons with a childlike nature as described at the outset, is
formed under pressure of a deeply felt dissatisfaction and feelings of inferiority,
not objectively justified. The fact that such individuals pay what would seem to
us an unbelievable price in terms of difficulties encountered in their lives as the
consequences of an attitude, is seen above all in the deception they practice, and
is explained by the enormous tension under which they deal with life. Their
sensitive ambition by which they chase obtrusively, albeit with hidden timidity,
after superiority, can also compel them to retreat from, or approach only
falteringly, any social obligations. This systematic self-limiting attitude
sidetracks them into a strictly confined social circle, and lets them engage in
only limited tasks which they perform until threatened by what seems to them a
difficult situation. At that point appears their unaltered, untested pattern created
in childhood, which is to belittle themselves so that they can assert their will
through weakness and illness, and, thereby, avoid all responsibilities.
4. The most effective weapon deployed by the melancholic, stemming from
his childhood days, entails complaints, tears, and a sad disposition. The
individual will demonstrate in the most agonizing ways his weakness and the
necessity for what he desires so that others will be forced to serve him.
5. Melancholics also in their own ways assume, and seem convinced, that
they are not responsible for their failures in life because they constantly appeal
to their weakness, and to a lack of outside assistance. Unmistakable is the
psychological connection with phobia and hypochondria. Except that in cases of
melancholia, because of the greater intensity of the attack, and because of a
stronger feeling of inferiority, the rationale for illness disappears and every
criticism of maniacal ideas is excluded by the anticipation of an unavoidable
calamity, and a determination to empathize with that threatening danger. The
categorical imperative of the melancholic, therefore, is as follows: “ Act, think,
and feel as if that terrible fate, which you foresee, already has occurred, or at
least is unavoidable.” The primary assumption of melancholia mania is: the
victim’s divine-like prophetic vision.
The connection with neurosis and psychosis becomes clear when these
findings are pursued further, and when measured against the common bond with
the pessimistic perspective. A simple example is a case such as noctural enuresis
where the categorical imperative would be: “ Act as if you were sitting on the
toilet!” In pavor nocturna it would be: “Act as if you were in great danger!”
When there are conditions, such as neurasthenia, hysterical sensations, a
weakened condition, paralysis, dizziness, nausea, etc.: “Think that your head is
in a vise, that something was stuck in your throat, that you were close to fainting,
you could not walk, that everything is turning around, you had eaten some bad
food,” etc.
It is always a matter of what effect it has on one’s environment. The same
applies, as I had always emphasized, to “epilepsy” where, possibly always in
pantomime, death, rage, signs of being poisoned, defending oneself and being
subjugated manifest themselves. The way these manifestations occur is the result
of the possibilities afforded by the organism, often originating as innate
manifestations of inferiority (See Studie über die Minderwertigkeit der Organe).
They begin to play a role as soon as they are capable of advancing and
enhancing the neurotic’s higher goals.5 In every case, however, the symptom or
the attack to which the patient succumbs means that he has been transported
from the present (by means of anticipation), and from reality (by empathizing
with a role). This transporting away is probably most pronounced in cases of
epilepsy. A frequent case of this type of illness is seen in a youngest child (at
times followed by a late-comer), and shows an asymmetric lower shifting of the
right side of the face, and an increase in the protuberance of the parietal bone, as
well as traces of left-handedness. I have frequently also found outbursts of anger
by one of the parents.
The psychosis shows that depending on the closed-off attitude of the
patient, who is about to give up making any effort toward honest striving, there
exists a strong tendency towards withdrawal, extensive devaluing, and a constant
distorting of reality.