June 19th, we will begin a discussion of The Collected Clinical Works of Alfred Adler, Volume 8, Chapters XXV-XXVI. The following chapter summaries were prepared by Manu Jaaskelainen.
Ch. XXV
Freud's Psychoanalysis and the Unconscious (undated) is an unpublished paper on the differences between psychoanalysis and IP. The paper is somewhat polemical, because the relationships between Freud and Adler were always very tense. Adler starts presenting Freud as standing with one foot in the Frensch school (Bernheim, Charcot, Janet). What was characteristic for Freud was his theory that the unconscious is basically sexual; thus, the striving for power is e.g. explained on the basis of the autoerotic attitude of the child (narcissism). This is a conception that is not acceptable to Adler; for him, the striving for power is a tendency that is not reducible to any drives. Then follows a discussion on the Oedipus Complex. Even this conception is not acceptable to Adler; from his point of view, this complex, if there is such a complex, is explainable as the striving of the child to "grow bigger" than the father, to have power to dominate the parents. According to Adler, one primary current in human motivation is an innate social feeling; another arises from the striving to superiority. The key to the unconscious is, according to Adler, to be found in these two sources.
Ch. XXVI
The Etiology and Treatment of Neurosis (undated) is an unpublished manuscript wherein Adler recapitulates some landmarks in the development of IP. Adler points out that the inferior organs as such are never causes of the feelings inferiority. What counts, is the situation and the attitude of the client. All drives, all emotions are placed at the service of the lifestyle. A neurosis is an expression of a lack of preparation for solving the questions of life. Problems occur because people are not prepared. Psychological tension occurs because people do not feel themselves at home in the world; insufficient preparation produces insecurity and the feeling that the environment is hostile.
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