Alfred Adler Quotes

Neurosis is the natural, logical development of an individual who is comparatively inactive, filled with a personal, egocentric striving for superiority, and is therefore retarded in the development of his social interest, as we find regularly among

There is only one reason for an individual to side-step to the useless side : the fear of a defeat on the useful side.

Tears and complaints - the means which I have called water power - can be an extremely useful weapon for disturbing cooperation and reducing other to a condition of slavery.

The feeling of inferiority rules the mental life and can be clearly recognized in the sense of incompleteness and un-fulfillment, and in the uninterrupted struggle both of individuals and humanity.

In the investigation of a neurotic style of life, we must always suspect an opponent, and note who suffers most because of the patient`s condition. Usually this is a member of the family.

If I didn`t have this affliction, I would be the first. As a rule the if-clause contains an unfulfillable condition, or the patient`s own arrangement, which only he can change.

All failures - neurotics, psychotics, criminals, drunkards, problem children, suicides, perverts, and prostitutes - are failures because they are lacking in social interest

The greater the feeling of inferiority that has been experienced, the more powerful is the urge to conquest and the more violent the emotional agitation.

What do you first do when you learn to swim? You make mistakes, do you not? And what happens? You make other mistakes, and when you have made all the mistakes you possibly can without drowning - and some of them many times over - what do you find? That you can swim? Well - life is just the same as learning to swim! Do not be afraid of making mistakes, for there is no other way of learning how to live!

The style of life is a unity because it has grown out of the difficulties of early life and out of the striving for a goal.