Adler for Beginners

Writers & Readers Documentary Comic Book #72

by Anne Hooper, Jeremy Holford, Kathryn Hyatt (Illustrator)

Discusses the life and work of the psychologist and his theories on human behavior

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction

192 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1998

About the author

Anne is an author, journalist, broadcaster, partner – and mother to three grown sons. She gave up the struggle to decide which of these roles is most important and relaxed into acceptance that all are important. Her priorities are: partner and three sons in equal measure. She writes to earn a living.

“Writing is not just about the joy of earning money. Writing, of any sort, offers such a spark of creativity that it compensates for the tough things in life. And of course life has been both tough and joyful," she says.

Reviews

[Patrick Cook]

This is really a rather odd book. I was not familiar with this series ('Writers and Readers Documentary Comic Books'), but the idea is certainly interesting and they seem to have a large number of titles. I suppose it's not entirely counterintuitive. As a child, I gathered my first inklings of academic philosophy from Jeremy Weate's illustrated 'Young Person's Guide to Philosophy'. Indeed, it may still be the only philosophical book I've ever really understood. Today, I love 'Existential Comics'. Clearly, I like my philosophy in easily-digested comic book form. Why not learn about psychology in the same way?

One difference, of course, is that Weate's book was aimed at children and 'Existential Comics' is overtly comedic. 'Adler for Beginners' is neither. There are occasionally bizarre tonal shifts, with words like 'gemeinschaftsgefuhl' appearing next to jaunty cartoons and references to Freud as 'Big Sig'.

Despite or because of its eccentric layout, this is by far the most accessible account of Adler's work that I have come across. I have to admit that I learned a lot from it.

[Vijay]

Five stars for Doctor Alfred Adler and four stars for the book. Very happy to have got to know the man himself and his immense meaningful contributions to Psychology. Thanks Austin! To think democratic while the times were autocratic, and to develop democratic psychology against the popular autocratic psychology, with a vision and courage as advanced as this commands great appreciation.