Lesson 3

• Alfred Adler was neither a terrorist nor a person driven mad by ambition.
• Adler's individual psychology presents an optimistic view of people while resting heavily on the notion of social interest, that is, a feeling of oneness with all humankind.
• Alfred Adler was born on February 7, 1870, in Rudolfsheim, Austria, a village near Vienna.
• Adler's mother is Pauline Beer, while his father is Leopold Adler.
• Adler's poor health was in sharp contrast to the health of his older brother Sigmund.
• As a young boy, Adler was weak and sickly, and at age 5, he nearly died of pneumonia.
• Adler was a Hungarian citizen and was thus obliged to serve a tour of military duty in the Hungarian army.
• Adler fulfilled his military obligation immediately after receiving his medical degree and then returned to Vienna for postgraduate study.
• Adler insisted that early recollections are always consistent with people’s present style of life and that their subjective account of these experiences yields clues to understanding both their final goal and their present style of life.
• Adler believed that early recollections are a valid indicator of a person’s style of life.
• Youngest children, according to Adler, are often pampered and run a high risk of being problem children due to their strong feelings of inferiority and lack of independence.
• Adler believed that the recalled memories yield clues for understanding patients’ style of life, but did not consider these memories to have a causal effect.
• Adler believed that the early childhood experiences do not cause the man’s current distrust of women, but rather that his current distrustful style of life shapes and colors his early recollections.
• Adler believed that highly anxious patients often project their current style of life onto their memory of childhood experiences by recalling fearful and anxiety-producing events, such as being in a motor vehicle crash, losing parents either temporarily or permanently, or being bullied by other children.
• Self-confident people tend to recall memories that include pleasant relations with other people.
• In either case, the early experience does not determine the style of life.
• Adler’s early recollection reveals that he must have seen himself as an underdog, competing valiantly against a powerful foe, but also indicates that he believed he had the help of others.
• Adler began private practice as an eye specialist, but gave up that specialization and turned to psychiatry and general medicine.
• Alfred Adler married a fiercely independent Russian woman, Raissa Epstein, in December 1897.
• Raissa and Alfred had four children: Alexandra and Kurt, who became psychiatrists and continued their father’s work; Vali, who died as a political prisoner of the Soviet Union in about 1942; and Cornelia (Nelly), who aspired to be an actress.
• Research has confirmed this finding in U.S. Supreme Court judges: firstborn U.S. judges are more rule-bound and conservative compared to laterborn judges (McGuire, 2015).
• Sulloway proposed that firstborns are likely to be achievement-oriented, anxious, and conformist, whereas laterborns tend to be more adventurous, open to experience, innovative, and rejecting of the status quo.
• Adler believed that career choices reflect a person’s personality.
• Jon Kasler and Ofra Nevo (2005) gathered earliest memories from 130 participants and classified these recollections using Holland’s (1973) vocational interest types, namely, Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional.
• Research finds little effect of birth order on the five main dimensions of personality.
• In broad terms, birth order appears to be most related to intellectual and educational/career outcomes and less to personality traits (except rebelliousness).
• Adler's theory suggests that laterborn children should be more socially interested or pro-social.
• Research supports the general conclusion that birth order seems to matter in some outcomes more than others and in some personality traits more than others.
• In 1996, Frank Sulloway published Born to Rebel: Birth Order, Family Dynamics and Creative Lives, in which he presented an evolutionary argument for birth order effects on personality.
• Paulhus et al. (1999) reported significant relationships with more specific aspects of personality, most notably rebelliousness.
• Sulloway's historical analysis found that laterborn scientists were much more likely to accept radical and revolutionary new theories than firstborn scientists.
• Researchers inspired by Adler therefore predicted that the kind of career one chooses as an adult is often reflected in one’s earliest recollections.
• Alfred Adler’s favorite relaxation was music, but he also maintained an active interest in art and literature.
• Heredity and environment provide the building material of personality, but people’s creative power is responsible for their style of life.
• The three major problems of life: neighborly love, work, and sexual love, can only be solved through social interest.
• People who see themselves as having more than their share of physical deficiencies or who experience a pampered or neglected style of life overcompensate for these deficiencies and are likely to have exaggerated feelings of inferiority, strive for personal gain, and set unrealistically high goals.
• Adlerian therapy uses birth order, early recollections, and dreams to foster courage, self-esteem, and social interest.
• Social interest, or a deep concern for the welfare of other people, is the sole criterion by which human actions should be judged.
• People with normal feelings of inferiority compensate for these feelings by cooperating with others and developing a high level of social interest.
• The masculine protest, the belief that men are superior to women, is a fiction that lies at the root of many neuroses, both for men and for women.