45+ Best Alfred Adler Quotes From The Creator Of Individual Psychology

Born in Austria, Alfred Adler was a renowned psychiatrist who introduced the term 'inferiority feeling' or the more popular term, 'inferiority complex' through his school of individual psychology.

The fact that Alfred was suffering from Rickets at a young age, was the primary motivation for him to become a physician after his graduation from the University of Vienna. Soon after, he became fascinated by the field of psychiatry.

In 1902, Sigmund Freud invited Alfred Adler to his home along with a few others to discuss various topics pertaining to psychology. These meetings soon became a regular event as they would meet every Wednesday.

Later they went on to establish the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society, a group which Adler became the President of.

Although Adler contributed greatly to the study of Psychology, he left the Psychoanalytic society due to the increasing differences and disagreements between Freud and Adler. It is after this when he started developing studies about individual psychology and the inferiority complex.

During his study, he had said that "the greater the feeling of inferiority that has been experienced, the more powerful is the urge for conquest and the more violent the emotional agitation". He concluded that feelings of inferiority may as a result of physical appearances, social status and other incidents that may occur during one's life.

He also believed that the social circle of a patient may also be greatly responsible for the condition of an inferiority complex. He stated that, "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."

These conclusions are hugely interesting and influential. His work, which would later be referred to as Adlerian psychology, has helped the world understand psychology better and help design improved therapies for many patients.

Here are some of the best Alfred Adler quotes about psychology and various other aspects of human life. If you enjoy these, then you're sure to enjoy our David Thoreau quotes and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn quotes too.
 

Famous Psychologist Quotes By Alfred Adler

These Alfred Adler psychology quotes made during his practice will keep your mind occupied.

1. "The feeling of inferiority rules the mental life and can be clearly recognized in the sense of incompleteness and unfulfillment, and in the uninterrupted struggle both of individuals and humanity."

-Alfred Adler.

2.  "The human mind shows an urge to capture into fixed forms through unreal assumptions, that is, fictions, that which is chaotic, always in flux, and incomprehensible."

-Alfred Adler.

3. "Far more unwaveringly, the neurotic keeps before his eye his God, his idol, his ideal of personality and clings to his guiding principle, losing sight in the meanwhile of reality, whereas the normal person is always ready to dispense with this crutch, this aid, and reckon unhampered with reality."

-Alfred Adler.

4. "We must never neglect the patient's own use of his symptoms."

-Alfred Adler.

5. "Every therapeutic cure, and still more, any awkward attempt to show the patient the truth, tears him from the cradle of his freedom from responsibility and must therefore reckon with the most vehement resistance."

-Alfred Adler.

6. "A simple rule in dealing with those who are hard to get along with is to remember that this person is striving to assert his superiority, and you must deal with him from that point of view."

-Alfred Adler.

7. "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."

-Alfred Adler.

8. "To see with the eyes of another, to hear with the ears of another, to feel with the heart of another. For the time being, this seems to me an admissible definition of what we call social feeling."

-Alfred Adler.

9. "We must interpret a bad temper as a sign of inferiority."

-Alfred Adler.

10. "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."

-Alfred Adler.

Alfred Adler Quotes About Human Nature

‍Alfred's study in psychology and inferiority helped him understand why humans behave the way they do. Which is your favorite Alfred Adler quote?

11. "No experience is a cause of success or failure. We do not suffer from the shock of our experiences, so-called trauma, but we make out of them just what suits our purposes."

-Alfred Adler.

12. "It is very obvious that we are not influenced by 'facts' but by our interpretation of the facts."

-Alfred Adler.

13. "The science of the mind can only have for its proper goal the understanding of human nature by every human being, and through its use, brings peace to every human soul."

-Alfred Adler.

14. "Man knows much more than he understands."

-Alfred Adler.

15. "Every individual acts and suffers in accordance with his peculiar teleology, which has all the inevitability of fate, so long as he does not understand it."

-Alfred Adler.

16.  "The human soul, as a part of the movement of life, is endowed with the ability to participate in the uplift, elevation, perfection, and completion"

-Alfred Adler.

17. "The self-bound individual always forgets that his self would be safeguarded better and automatically the more he prepares himself for the welfare of mankind and that in this respect no limits are set for him."

-Alfred Adler.

18. "Men of genius are admired, men of wealth are envied, men of power are feared; but only men of character are trusted."

-Alfred Adler.

19.  "The goal of the human soul is conquest, perfection, security, superiority."

-Alfred Adler.

20. "To be human means to feel inferior."

-Alfred Adler.

Alfred Adler Quotes On Empathy

Here are some Alfred Adler quotes that will show the importance of loving everyone around you, from the father of the school of individual psychology.

21. "You can be healed of depression if every day you begin the first thing in the morning to consider how you will bring a real joy to someone else."

-Alfred Adler.

22. "There is a law that man should love his neighbor as himself. In a few hundred years it should be as natural to mankind as breathing or the upright gait; but if he does not learn it he must perish."

-Alfred Adler.

23. "The educator must believe in the potential power of his pupil, and he must employ all his art in seeking to bring his pupil to experience this power."

-Alfred Adler.

24. "It is the individual who is not interested in his fellow men who has the greatest difficulties in life and provides the greatest injury to others. It is from among such individuals that all human failures spring."

-Alfred Adler.

25. "There are thousands of degrees and variations, but it is always clearly the attitude of a person who finds his superiority in solving the complications of others."

-Alfred Adler.

26. "To all those who walk the path of human cooperation, war must appear loathsome and inhuman."

-Alfred Adler.

27. "The only worthwhile achievements of man are those which are socially useful."

-Alfred Adler.

28. "Every human being strives for significance. But, people always make mistakes if they do not see that their whole significance must consist in their contribution to the lives of others."

-Alfred Adler.

29. "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!"

-Alfred Adler.

30. "You can be cured in fourteen days if you follow this prescription. Try to think every day how you can please someone."

-Alfred Adler.

Most Impactful Quotes By Alfred Adler

‍These Alfred Adler quotes on birth order, the inferiority complex and life shows how his studies in the school of individual psychology included the human psyche throughout life, right from birth to adulthood.

31. "We cannot say that if a child is badly nourished he will become a criminal. We must see what conclusion the child has drawn."

-Alfred Adler.

32. "It is easier to fight for one’s principles than to live up to them."

-Alfred Adler.

33. "Trust only movement. Life happens at the level of events, not of words. Trust movement."

-Alfred Adler.

34. "A lie would have no sense unless the truth were felt as dangerous."

-Alfred Adler.

35. "The chief danger in life is that you may take too many precautions."

-Alfred Adler.

36. "We find that those people are most capable of being influenced who are most amenable to reason and logic, those whose social feeling has been least distorted."

-Alfred Adler.

37. "We are capable of courageous behavior provided we are willing to engage in it. Given that life offers few guarantees, all living requires risk-taking."

-Alfred Adler.

38. "It is well known that those who do not trust themselves never trust others."

-Alfred Adler.

39. "Nobody adopts antisocial behavior unless they fear that they will fail if they remain on the social side of life."

-Alfred Adler.

40. "Play is a child's work and this is not a trivial pursuit."

-Alfred Adler.

41. "Exaggerated sensitiveness is an expression of the feeling of inferiority."

-Alfred Adler.

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

-Alfred Adler.

43. "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."

-Alfred Adler.

44. "More important than innate disposition, objective experience, and environment is the subjective evaluation of these. Furthermore, this evaluation stands in a certain, often strange, relation to reality."

-Alfred Adler.

45. "If the truth is there, bad writing won't hurt it!"

-Alfred Adler.

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly quotes for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for the best Alfred Adler quotes from the creator of the school of individual psychology, then why not take a look at these Alexander Pope Quotes, or Alfred, Lord Tennyson Quotes too?