Adler - Understanding Human Nature

Psychology Revivals

Understanding Human Nature

Originally published in 1928 this book was an attempt to acquaint the general public with the fundamentals of Individual Psychology. At the same time it is a demonstration of the practical application of these principles to the conduct of everyday relationships, and the organization of our personal life. Based upon a years' lectures to audiences at the People's Institute in Vienna, the purpose of the book was to point out how the mistaken behaviour of the individual affects harmony of our social and communal life; to teach the individual to recognize their own mistakes; and finally, to show them how they may effect a harmonious adjustment to the communal life. Adler felt that mistakes in business or in science were costly and deplorable, but mistakes in the conduct of life are usually dangerous to life itself. This book is dedicated by the author in his preface to the task of illuminating man's progress toward a better understanding of human nature.

Understanding Human Nature

Alfred Adler

First published in 1928
by George Allen & Unwin Ltd

This edition first published in 2013 by Routledge
27 Church Road, Hove, BN3 2FA

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Publisher's Note
The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint but points out that some imperfections in the original copies may be apparent.

Disclaimer
The publisher has made every effort to trace copyright holders and welcomes correspondence from those they have been unable to contact.

ISBN: 978-0-415-81680-9 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-203-43883-1 (ebk)

UNDERSTANDING
HUMAN NATURE

By the same author

WHAT LIFE SHOULD MEAN TO YOU

THE CASE OF MISS R: THE INTERPRETATION OF A LIFE STORY

THE SCIENCE OF LIVING

THE EDUCATION OF CHILDREN

By Alfred Adler and Associates

GUIDING THE CHILD ON THE PRINCIPLES OF INDIVIDUAL PSYCHOLOGY

UNDERSTANDING
HUMAN NATURE

BY

ALFRED ADLER

TRANSLATED BY

WALTER
BRAN WOLFE

LONDON
GEORGE ALLEN & UNWIN LTD
MUSEUM STREET

First Published in Great Britain 1928
Second Impression 1930
Third Impression 1932
Fourth Impression 1937
Fifth Impression 1942
Sixth Impression 1946

Printed in Great Britain by
Billing and Sons, Ltd., Guildford and Esher
F5588

This book is an attempt to acquaint the general public with the fundamentals of Individual Psychology. At the same time it is a demonstration of the practical application of these principles to the conduct of one's everyday relationships, not only to the world, and to one's fellowmen, but also to the organization of one's personal life. The book is based upon a year's lectures to an audience of hundreds of men and women of all ages and professions, at the People's Institute in Vienna. The purpose of the book is to point out how the mistaken behavior of the individual affects the harmony of our social and communal life; further, to teach the individual to recognize his own mistakes, and finally, to show him how he may effect a harmonious adjustment to the communal life. Mistakes in business or in science are costly and deplorable, but mistakes in the conduct of life are usually dangerous to life itself. To the task of illuminating man's progress toward a better understanding of human nature, this book is dedicated.

ALFRED ADLER

It has long been one of the contentions of Alfred Adler that scientific knowledge must never remain the private property to those who, by virtue of their special training, have been enabled to win new truths from Nature: the value of all knowledge is relative to its usefulness to humanity. The origins of Individual Psychology lie in chapters on organ and constitutional pathology which are among the most abstruse in all medicine. Very few are qualified to read and understand Adler's first epoch-making STUDIE BER DIE MINDERWERTIGKEIT VON ORGANEN. Yet in the fifteen years which have followed the publication of this work, Alfred Adler and his fellow-students have experimented ceaselessly along the lines suggested in this book, so that today Individual Psychology has become a separate science, a psychotherapeutic method, a system of characterology, at one and the same time a Weltanschauung and an approach to the understanding of human conduct. Despite the difficulty of the source material, the technique of understanding human conduct which is the fruit of these fifteen years of constant experiment and study, lies within the scope of any intelligent adult.

Individual Psychology followed its recognition of the origins of the neurosis and delinquency in the situations of childhood, by establishing free child-guidance clinics in the schools and settlements of Vienna. The courageous sacrifice of Adler's pupils, who worked without pay, often under the most unsatisfactory physical conditions, was amply repaid by the splendid psychotherapeutic results. Realizing further that every adult, armed with the method and insight of Individual Psychology, might make his life more meaningful, understand the conduct of his fellows better, and become a more complete human being, Adler responded to numerous requests, and held weekly lectures in the large auditorium of the People 's Institute of Vienna, on the understanding of human nature and on the technique of living. These lectures were held before audiences of several hundred people of both sexes, and of all ages. Following each lecture an open forum was held, and Dr. Adler answered the written questions showered upon him in his genial, encouraging way.

UNDERSTANDING HUMAN NATURE represents a year of these lectures at the People's Institute. A manifest defect in the book is that it is a spoken book and not a written book. Minus the gestures, minus the sparkle of Dr. Adler's wit, minus his extempore blackboard diagrams, UNDERSTANDING HUMAN NATURE tends to become a literary shadow of a very vibrant reality. Yet the material covers the broad expanses of human conduct so well, and illuminates in the understanding of our fellows so many points which have become muddied in the current logomachia of the various psychotherapeutic schools, that the translation of this work becomes important to all students of human conduct. Physicians, psychiatrists, and psychologists will realize that UNDERSTANDING HUMAN NATURE is not an exhaustive treatise on psycho-pathology, but an attempt to treat the many-faceted problems of the neuroses in a manner intelligible to the educated adult. Students of the special problems, touched but cursorily in these pages, will use it not as a final text, but as a manual of suggestions and stimulations. The same may be said of educators and sociologists, for whom the findings of Individual Psy-chology are of great moment. It is to the average intelligent adult that UNDERSTANDING HUMAN NATURE will have the greatest appeal. The precept of Socrates, Know thy-self! was, unfortunately, not followed by directions for acquiring that knowledge. Centuries after the death of the Athenian, a profound thinker, a great physician, a greater knower of the human soul, has gathered the fruits of his experience, and published a manual and a guide for this understanding of our fellows and ourselves.