Adler’s Menschenkenntnis

Abstract

Alfred Adler (1870–1937), Viennese physician and founder of individual psychology, proclaimed loudly to Abraham Maslow in 1934 that he had never been a student of Freud’s. Jung said the same thing, but the Encyclopedia Britannica, Ernest Jones, and most of the Freudians who followed Freud said otherwise. Are we to believe the protagonist when he talks about himself? After all, that is what Ernest Jones asked the world to do in his three-volume life of Freud whenever Jones referred to himself. Or should we rely on the allegedly more objective opinion of others? Either is, of course, dangerous if you do not ask about motive, point of view, and precisely when such statements were made. There is no doubt, however, that Adler’s individual psychology is nothing like Freud’s psychoanalysis or Jung’s complex psychology. For himself, Adler focused on Menschenkenntnis, the intuitive, practical understanding of human beings in their natural and social context, and the ways in which the individual developed with regard to social feeling (gemeinschaftsgefuhl). As a result, his theories had a completely different life of their own than any of the other depth psychologies.

I never was a student of Freud

Adler to Abraham Maslow, 1934