On September 5th, we will begin a discussion of The Collected Clinical Works of Alfred Adler, Volume 6, Chapters XII & XIIII. The following chapter summaries were prepared by Manu Jaaskelainen.
Ch. XII
Reason, Intelligence, and Feeble-Mindedness (1928) is one of the most important by Adler (this conjecture can, of course, be debated). Adler defines himself the main message of his paper that the article is about the fundamental difference between reason and mere intelligence. The first part of the paper is a discussion on social interest, identification, and empathy. Reason is for Adler a valid category which is related to social interest. The second part is about reason and common sense. Here Adler defines reason as that intelligence which contains social interest and concentrates on that which is socially useful. Reasonable is what one understand by common sense. Third part of the paper contains a discussion on "private intelligence" which is the use of intelligence for neurotic goals. Fourth part contains a discussion about feeble-mindedness which is defined by Adler as incapacity to arrive at the formation of a life-plan. This way of defining feeble-mindedness is rather different from the usual clinical methods, and provides a thought-provoking and unorthodox perspective.
Ch. XIII
Neurotic Role Play (1928) is a case study on the problems experienced by a neurotic client. The paper contains a number of quotations from two letters written by a neurotic person, and Adler's interpretative comments. In his first letter, the man describes his neurotic problems, and tells that he wants to be Adler's client, but Adler rejected treatment (at this time, Adler spent long periods of time abroad). In his second letter, the "client" describes how he had started to think about his life-situation in the light of a lecture held by Adler (this lecture was the original impulse to contact Adler in a letter). In this long letter, the "client" has himself made a self-diagnosis, and he says that now he understand his problems better than earlier. He makes some confessions concerning his "neurotic sins" (this term is by the reviewer, not by Adler), and he feels that his burden is now lighter than it was. He says: "I now believe that I could have led my life more courageously, and I shall try to do so." One year later, the man visited Adler. He had lost all his neurotic symptoms without assuming new ones.
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