When we hear such expressions as feelings of inferiority and insecurity,
striving for self-enhancement and power, woman's revolt against her
feminine role, the oversolicitous mother, the dethronement of the
first-born, the need for affection; when maladjustment is spoken of as
self-centeredness, psychological health as other-centeredness;
psychiatry as the science of interpersonal relations, neurotic symptoms
as ego-defenses and forms of aggression, to mention only a few
instances--we are meeting ideas in which Alfred Adler was the pioneer
from 1907, the date of his first important publication, until his death
in 1937.
The purpose of the present volume is to make Adler's contributions to
the theory and practice of psychology available in a systematic and at
the same time authentic form. To this end we made selections from his
writ- ings and organized them with the aim of approximating the general
presentation of a college textbook. Because every word in the main body
of the work is Adler's, the outcome of our efforts, if we have been
successful, should be the equivalent of a textbook by Adler on
Individual Psychology, the name which he gave to his system.