Jessica Kuper - Key Thinkers, Past and Present (RLE Social Theory)

ROUTLEDGE LIBRARY EDITIONS:
SOCIAL THEORY

Volume 35

KEY THINKERS, PAST AND PRESENT

KEY THINKERS, PAST AND PRESENT

Edited by

JESSICA KUPER

First published in 1987

This edition first published in 2015
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN

and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017

1987 Jessica Kuper

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ISBN: 978-0-415-72731-0 (Set)
eISBN: 978-1-315-76997-4 (Set)
ISBN: 978-1-138-78614-1 (Volume 35)
eISBN: 978-1-315-76356-9 (Volume 35)

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Key Thinkers,
Past and Present

Edited by Jessica Kuper

LONDON AND NEW YORK

Key Thinkers, Past and Present: the entries

Social scientists typically associate particular theories with individual thinkers, yet in various ways it goes against the grain to do so. Almost by definition, social scientists are averse to any great man theory of history, and as a tribe they are suspicious of claims to unique insight. And certainly, it is true that on inspection virtually any theory, however apparently revolutionary, falls into place once its contemporary context is understood. That being said, individuals have been extremely important in all the social sciences, their political convictions, life experiences, personal fortunes sometimes playing a crucial part in the formulation or dissemination of particular intellectual traditions. Even experts in the field may find it hard to separate a particular explanation from the influential person who first propagated it. The informal history of each discipline is replete with more or less reliable biographical information, and quite rightly so. Intellectual biographies can never be a substitute for a serious history of the social sciences, but they are never irrelevant, and they can provide a valuable orientation. The present volume offers a personalized, sometimes admittedly idiosyncratic view of the history of the social sciences, but at the same time it serves as a stimulating introduction to a great variety of theories, hypotheses, and ways of thinking about the individual in society.

Born in Vienna in 1870, Alfred Adler trained as an ophthalmologist and first practised general medicine before becoming a psychiatrist and a charter member of Freuds inner circle. An energetic, articulate man and a prolific writer, Adler was soon made the titular president of the first Psychoanalytic Society. Unlike Freud, Adler was a political and social activist; in retrospect it seems that at least some of their conflicts were due to this basic difference. Adler is best known for originating the concept of the inferiority complex and of understanding personality in terms of the compensatory struggle to achieve superiority. Although Adler did in fact formulate these reductionistic and mechanistic theories, he also had other, much more subtle, ideas about human nature.

Adler disagreed with Freuds emphasis on biological and sexual factors; instead he gave primary importance to social, interpersonal, and hierarchical relationships. Adler believed that man is motivated by his expectations of the future: The final goal alone can explain mans behaviour. Human behaviour is not determined by childhood experiences themselves, but by the perspective in which these [experiences] are regarded. The final goal of the individual determines the perspective in which he views these important early experiences. This conception of behaviour, motivated by a particular perspective and by ideas about the future, is described as idealistic positivism. It is compatible with, if not identical to, many strands of contemporary psychological, philosophical and social theory (for example, existential theories). Idealistic positivism de-emphasizes the importance of the unconscious and transforms Freuds conception of psychic determinism.

Adler rejected the idea that a human being is simply a product of environment and heredity. He posited a creative self, which makes something of hereditary abilities and interprets environmental impressions, thus constituting a unique individual personality and life-style. While Adler, the first defector from Freuds circle, is today ignored by most psychologists and psychiatrists, in his Individual Psychology can be found the beginnings of contemporary humanistic psychology. Adlers views suggested the great importance of methods of childrearing and education. According to Adler, physical infirmity, rejection, and pampering were the factors most likely to result in a pathological style of life. He helped establish child-guidance clinics in association with the Viennese school system, and became a major advocate of the child-guidance movement.

Alan A. Stone
Harvard University

Adler, A. (1924 [1920]), The Practice and Theory of Individual Psychology, London. (Original German edn, Praxis und Theorie der Individual-Psychologie, Munich.)