Biography Alfred Adler

• Alfred Adler


  Second of six children, father Leopold Adler was a grain merchant from Bergenland, mother from Moravia
• Graduated from the University of Vienna medical school

  1895
• Wrote his first book, indicating health hazards to which tailors were exposed


  1898
• Adler's approach


  • Holistic, considering human beings in relation to their total environment
• Adler's chief interest was the study of psychopathological symptoms within the field of general medicine


  Around 1900
• Wrote a review of Freud's book on dream interpretation, Freud invited him to join his discussion circle


  1902
• Adler did not agree with Freud's theory that early sexual trauma caused mental disease


  Persistently opposed Freud's method of dream interpretation
• Published his study of organ inferiority and its psychical compensation


  1911
• Differences between Adler and Freud became more marked

  Adler and nine of his followers left Freud's circle and developed their own school of thought
• Adler named his system 'individual psychology' and published 'The Neurotic Constitution'


  1912
• Published 'Understanding Human Nature', considered a classic and on required reading lists


  1927
• Adler opened the first Child Guidance Clinic in Vienna, soon there were about 30 such clinics


  After World War I
• Clinics ordered closed by the fascist regime

  1934
• Appointed visiting professor at Columbia University in New York

  1926
• Also began teaching at the Long Island College of Medicine


  1932
• Adler was an excellent lecturer, establishing contact with his audience easily in English or German
• Collapsed on the street and died of heart failure while giving lectures at the University of Aberdeen


  1937
• Adler's wife


  Racetimo Phi abna Epstein, married in 1897
• Adler's children


  Daughter Alexandra and son Kurt are psychiatrists