Alfred Adler: An Introduction to His Psychology

by Lewis Way

An introduction to life and thought of Alfred Adler. Part of the Pelican Psychology Series.

252 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 1956

Reviews

[Michael Kulyk · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lewis way was a brilliant expositor of Alfred Adler's Individual Psychology. In this book the author makes Adler's ideas clear and accessible.
This is a wonderful introductory text for anyone interested in going deeper into Adler's ideas, it's a great preparation for reading Adler's own works such as found in Heinz and Rowena Ansbacher's comprehensive collection of Adler's writings.

[Patrick Cook · Rating 4 out of 5]

Adler was a founding member and the first president of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society, which also included Freud and Jung. Yet it can safely be said that he is not nearly as well known to the lay public as those two. Despite this, most of us reference Adler unknowingly when we speak of inferiority complexes. Adler probably suffers from being too mainstream. 'Inferiority complex' doesn't have the exotic distinction of 'penis envy' or 'collective unconscious'. In a review of this volume by a critic infinitely more qualified than myself, writes that 'the fundamental conceptions of Adler's psychological teaching have passed into our everyday mode of thinking to such an extent that our indebtedness to Adler has remained unacknowledged for many years' (that's the psychiatrist E.B. Strauss writing, perhaps somewhat implausibly, in the Dominican journal Blackfriars ).

I really about as far from being an expert on the history of psychology as it's possible to be, so the Pelican series from the 1950s is a real godsend. Aimed at the educated non-specialist and written in an accessible but never patronising style (German is quoted but always translated), I found this book very easy to follow.

Like any good introduction, it left me wanting to read more about the subject. I was particularly interested in Adler's view that physical limitations (e.g. disability, illness, or even nearsightedness of lefthandedness) in childhood are often defining features in the psychological makeup of adults.