Understanding Human Nature (Psychology Revivals)

Alfred Adler

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781136702563
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Psychoanalysis
• Index: Psychology

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.'

BOOK I

HUMAN BEHAVIOR

CHAPTER I

THE SOUL

I. THE CONCEPT AND PREMISE OF THE PSYCHIC LIFE

We attribute a soul only to moving, living organisms. The soul stands in innate relationship to free motion. Those organisms which are strongly rooted have no necessity for a soul. How supernatural it would be to attribute emotions and thoughts to a deeply rooted plant! To hold that a plant could, perhaps, accept pain which it could in no way escape, or that it could have a presentiment of that which it could not later avoid! To attribute reason and free will to it at the same time that we considered it a foregone conclusion that the plant could not make any use of its will! Under such conditions the will and the reason of the plant would of necessity remain sterile.

There is a strict corollary between movement and psychic life. This constitutes the difference between plant and animal. In the evolution of the psychic life, therefore, we must consider everything which is connected with movement. All the difficulties that are connected with change of place demand of the soul that it foresee, gather experiences, develop a memory, in order that the organism be better fitted for the business of life. We can ascertain then in the very beginning that the development of the psychic life is connected with movement, and that the evolution and progress of all those things which are accomplished by the soul are conditioned by the free movability of the organism. This movability stimulates, promotes, and requires an always greater intensification of the psychic life. Imagine an individual to whom we have predicated every movement, and we can conceive of his psychic life as at a standstill. “Liberty alone breeds giants. Compulsion only kills and destroys.”

II. THE FUNCTION OF THE PSYCHIC ORGAN

If we regard the function of the psychic organ from this standpoint, we will become aware that we are considering the evolution of a hereditary capability, an organ for offense and defense with which the living organism responds according to the situation in which it find itself. The psychic life is a complex of aggressive and security- finding activities whose final purpose is to guarantee the continued existence on this earth of the human organism, and to enable him to securely accomplish his development. If we grant this premise, then further considerations grow out of it, which we deem necessary for a true conception of the soul. We cannot imagine a psychic life which is isolated. We can only imagine a psychic life bound up with its environment, which receives stimuli from the outside and somehow answers them, which disposes of capabilities and powers which are not fitted to secure the organism against the ravages of the outer world, or somehow bind it to these forces, in order to guarantee its life.

The relationships which suggest themselves from this are many. They have to do with the organism itself, the peculiarities of human beings, their physical nature, their assets and their defects. These are entirely relative concepts, since it is entirely a relative matter whether a power or an organ shall be interpreted as asset or liability. These values can be given only by the situations in which the individual finds himself. It is very well-known that the foot of man is, in a sense, a degenerate hand. In an animal which had to climb this would be of decided disadvantage, but for a man, who must walk on the flat ground, it is of such advantage that no one would prefer a “normal” hand to a “degenerate” foot. As a matter of fact, in our personal lives, as in the lives of all peoples, inferiorities are not to be considered as the source of all evil. Only the situation can determine whether they are assets or liabilities. When we recall how variegated the relationships are between the cosmos, with its day and night, its dominance of the sun, its movability of atoms, and the psychic life of man, we realize how much these influences affect our psychic life.

III. PURPOSIVENESS (TELEOLOGY) IN THE PSYCHIC LIFE

The first thing we can discover in the psychic trends is that the movements are directed toward a goal. We cannot, therefore, imagine the human soul as a sort of static whole. We can imagine it only as a complex of moving powers which are, however, the result of a unit cause, and which strive for the consummation of a single goal. This teleology, this striving for a goal, is innate in the concept of adaptation. We can only imagine a psychic life with a goal towards which the movements which exist in the psychic life, are directed.

The psychic life of man is determined by his goal. No human being can think, feel, will, dream, without all these activities being determined, continued, modified and directed, toward an ever-present objective. This results, of itself, from the necessity of the organism to adapt itself and respond to the environment. The bodily and psychic phenomena of human life are based upon those fundamentals which we have demonstrated. We cannot conceive of a psychic evolution except within the pattern of an ever-present objective, which is determined in itself by the dynamics of life. The goal itself we may conceive as changing or as static.

On this basis all phenomena of the soul life may be conceived as preparations for some future situation. It seems hardly possible to recognize in the psychic organ, the soul, anything but a force acting toward a goal, and Individual Psychology considers all the manifestations of the human soul as though they were directed toward a goal.

Knowing the goal of an individual, and knowing, also, something of the world, we must understand what the movements and expressions of his life mean, and what their value is as a preparation for his goal. We must know also what type of movements this individual must make to reach his goal, just as we know what path a stone must take if we let it drop to earth, although the soul knows no natural law, for the ever-present goal is always in flux. If, however, one has an ever-present goal, then every psychic tendency must follow with a certain compulsion, as though there were a natural law which it obeyed. A law governing the psychic life exists, to be sure; but it is a man-made law. If anyone feels that the evidence is sufficient to warrant speaking of a psychic law he has been deceived by appearances, for when he believes that he has demonstrated the unchangeable nature and determination of circumstance, he has stacked the cards. If a painter desires to paint a picture, one attributes to him all the attitudes which are germane to an individual who has that goal before his eyes. He will make all the necessary movements with inevitable consequence, just as though there were a natural law at work. But is he under any necessity to paint the picture?

There is a difference between movements in nature and those in the human soul life. All the questions about free will hinge upon this important point. Nowadays it is believed that human will is not free. It is true that human will becomes bound as soon as it entangles itself or binds itself to a certain goal. And since circumstances in the cosmic, animal, and social relationships of man frequently determine this goal, it is not strange that the psychic life should often appear to us as though it were under the regency of unchangeable laws. But if a man, for example, denies his relationships to society and fights them, or refuses to adapt himself to the facts of life, then all these seeming laws are abrogated and a new law steps in which is determined by the new goal. In the same manner, the law of communal life does not bind an individual who has become perplexed at life and attempts to extirpate his feeling for his fellowmen. And so we must assert that a movement in the psychic life must arise of necessity only when an appropriate goal has been posited.

On the other hand, it is quite possible to deduce what the goal of an individual must be from his present activities. This is of the greater importance because so few people know exactly what their goal is. In actual practice it is the procedure which we must follow in order to gain a knowledge of mankind. Since movements may have many meanings this is not always so simple. We can however take many movements of an individual, compare them, and graphically represent them; in this way we arrive at an understanding of a human being by connecting two points wherein a definite attitude of the psychic life was expressed, in which the difference in time is noted by a curve. This mechanism is utilized to obtain a unified impression of a whole life. An example will serve to illustrate how we may rediscover a childhood pattern in an adult, in all its astonishing similarity.

A certain thirty-year-old man of extraordinarily aggressive character, who achieved success and honor despite difficulties in his development, comes to the physician in circumstances of greatest depression, and complains that he has no desire to work or to live. He explains that he is about to be engaged, but that he looks at the future with great mistrust. He is plagued by a strong jealousy, and there is great danger that his engagement will be broken. The facts in the case, which he brings up to prove his point, are not very convincing. Since no one can reproach the young lady, the obvious distrust which he shows lays him open to suspicion. He is one of those many men who approach another individual, feel themselves attracted, but immediately assume an aggressive attitude, which destroys the very contact which they seek to establish.

Now let us plot the graph of this man's style of life as we have indicated above, by taking out one event in his life and seeking to join it up with his present attitude. According to our experience, we usually demand the first childhood remembrance, even though we know that it is not always possible to test the value of this remembrance objectively. This was his first childhood remembrance: he was at the market place with his mother and his younger brother. Because of the turmoil and crowding, his mother took him, the elder brother, on her arm. As she noticed her error, she put him down again and took the younger child up, leaving our patient to run around crushed by the crowd, very much perplexed. At that time he was four years old. In the recital of this remembrance, we hear the identical notes that we surmised in a description of his present complaint. He is not certain of being the favored one, and he cannot bear to think that another might be favored. Once the connection is made clear to him, our patient, very much astonished, sees the relationship immediately.

The goal toward which every human being's actions are directed, is determined by those influences and those impressions which the environment gives to the child. The ideal state, that is, the goal, of each human being, is probably formed in the first months of his life. Even at this time certain sensations play a role which evoke a response of joy or discomfort in the child. Here the first traces of a philosophy of life come to the surface, although expressed in the most primitive fashion. The fundamental factors which influence the soul life are fixed at the time when the child is still an infant. Upon these foundations a superstructure is built, which may be modified, influenced, transformed. A multiplicity of influences soon forces the child into a definite attitude towards life, and conditions his particular type of response to the problems which life gives.

Investigators who believe the characteristics of an adult are noticeable in his infancy are not far wrong; this accounts for the fact that character is often considered hereditary. But the concept that character and personality are inherited from one's parents is universally harmful because it hinders the educator in his task and cramps his confidence. The real reason for assuming that character is inherited lies elsewhere. This evasion enables anyone who has the task of education to escape his responsibilities by the simple gesture of blaming heredity for the pupil's failures. This, of course, is quite contrary to the purpose of education.

Our civilization makes important contributions to the determination of the goal. It sets boundaries against which a child batters himself until he finds a way to the fulfillment of his wishes which promises both security and adaptation to life. How much security the child demands in relation to the actualities of our culture may be learned early in his life. By security we do not consider only security from danger; we refer to that further coefficient of safety which guarantees the continued existence of the human organism under optimum circumstances, in very much the same way that we speak of the “coefficient of safety” in the operation of a well-planned machine. A child acquires this coefficient of safety by demanding a “plus” factor of safety greater than is necessary merely for the satisfaction of his given instincts, greater than would be necessary for a quiet development. Thus arises a new movement in his soul life. This new movement is, very plainly, a tendency toward domination and superiority. Like the grownup, a child wants to out-distance all his rivals. He strains for a superiority which will vouchsafe him that security and adaptation which are synonymous with the goal he has previously set for himself. There thus wells up a certain unrest in his psychic life which becomes markedly accentuated as time goes on. Suppose now that the world requires a more intensive response. If in this time of need the child does not believe in his own ability to overcome his difficulties we will notice his strenuous evasions and complicated alibis, which serve only to make the underlying thirst for glory the more evident.

In these circumstances the immediate goal frequently becomes the evasion of all greater difficulties. This type recoils from difficulties or wriggles out of them in order temporarily to evade the demands of life. We must understand that the reactions of the human soul are not final and absolute: every response is but a partial response, valid temporarily, but in no way to be considered a final solution of a problem. In the development of the child-soul especially, are we reminded that we are dealing with temporary crystallizations of the goal idea. We cannot apply the same criteria to the child soul that we use to measure the adult psyche. In the case of the child we must look farther and question the objective to which the energies and activities working themselves out in his life, would eventually lead him. Could we translate ourselves into his soul, we could understand how each expression of his power was appropriate to the ideal which he had created for himself as the crystallization of a final adaptation to life. We must assume the child's point of view if we want to know why he acts as he does. The feeling-tone connected with his point of view directs the child in various ways. There is the way of optimism, in which the child is confident of easily solving the problems which he meets. Under these circumstances he will grow up with the characteristics of an individual who considers the tasks of life eminently within his power. In his case we see the development of courage, openness, frankness, responsibility, industry, and the like. The opposite of this is the development of pessimism. Imagine the goal of the child who is not confident of being able to solve his problems! How dismal the world must appear to such a child! Here we find timidity, intro- speetiveness, distrust, and all those other characteristics and traits with which the weakling seeks to defend himself. His goal will lie beyond the boundaries of the attainable, but far behind the fighting front of life.

CHAPTER II

SOCIAL ASPECTS OF THE PSYCHIC LIFE

In order to know how a man thinks, we have to examine his relationship to his fellowmen. The relation of man to man is determined on the one hand by the very nature of the cosmos, and is thus subject to change. On the other hand, it is determined by fixed institutions such as political traditions in the community or nation. We cannot comprehend the psychic activities without at the same time understanding these social relationships.

I. THE ABSOLUTE TRUTH

Man's soul cannot act as a free agent because the necessity of solving the problems which constantly arise, determines the line of its activity. These problems are indivisibly bound up with the logic of man's communal life; the essential conditions of this group-existence influence the individual, yet the facts of the communal life seldom allow themselves to be influenced by the individual, and then only to a certain degree. The existing conditions of our communal life however cannot yet be considered final; they are too numerous, and are subject to much change and transformation. “We are hardly in a position to completely illuminate the dark recesses of the problem of the psychic life, and understand it thoroughly, since we can not escape from the meshes of our own relationships.

Our sole recourse in this quandary is to assume the logic of our group life as it exists on this planet as though it were an ultimate absolute truth which we could approach step by step after the conquest of mistakes and errors arising from our incomplete organization and our limited capabilities as human beings.

An important aspect of our considerations lies in the materialistic stratification of society which Marx and Engels have described. According to their teaching, the economic basis, the technical form in which a people lives, determines the “ideal, logical superstructure.” the thinking and behavior of individuals. Our conception of the “logic of human communal life.” of the “absolute truth.” is in part an agreement with those concepts. History, and our insight into the life of the individual (that is, our Individual Psychology), have taught us however that it is occasionally expedient for the individual to make a mistaken response to the demands of an economic situation. In attempting to evade the economic situation, he may become inextricably entangled in the meshes of his own mistaken reactions. Our way to the absolute truth will lead over countless errors of this kind.

II. THE NEED FOR COMMUNAL LIFE

The rules of communal life are really just as self-explanatory as the laws of climate, which compel certain measures for the protection against cold, for the building of houses, and the like. The compulsion toward the community and communal life exists in institutions whose forms we need not entirely understand, as in religion, where the sanctification of communal formulae serves as a bond between members of the community. If the conditions of our life are determined in the first place by cosmic influences, they are also further conditioned by the social and communal life of human beings, and by the laws and regulations which arise spontaneously from the communal life. The communal need regulates all relationships between men. The communal life of man antedates the individual life of man. In the history of human civilization no form of life whose foundations were not laid communally can be found. No human being ever appeared except...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Understanding Human Nature
• Dedication
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Author's Preface
• Translator's Preface
• Contents
• Understanding Human Nature
• Introduction
• Book I Human Behavior
• Book II The Science of Character
• Appendix