(This is a copy of an earlier message by George Neeson originally posted on another thread. It has be reproduced here to maintain topical consistency.)
The Theory of Organ Inferiority etc. CCWAA Volume II, Pages 78-85
Adler now enters the arena of what we might now call genetic accidents and deficiencies. He seems to be ahead of his time in seeing the many possible psychological implications of these accidents of nature as well as their trans generational nature. I recall working one very late night on the newly acquired "electron microscope" in the bowels of the Banting Institute at University of Toronto (a actually Dr Fred Best of Banting and Best was one of my clinical instructors in physiology), with DR. J. W. Steiner a most respected pathologist just out of the Hungarian revolution and here-to-for a Communist. We were reviewing at high magnification, the renal and liver "brush borders" of a man with multiple system diseases any one of of which should have killed him. The multiple system organ compensations that adapted and allowed this man to live long after reason would have predicted his death caused Dr Steiner to exclaim in a very heavy Hungarian accent, "Jees, when you see adaptations like this, it is enough to make a communist religious". The organ adaptations are amazing. The psychological adaptations of humans are even more astounding. As a physician I have seen many people with devastating disabling illnesses.
The most usual response is one of astounding courage with occasional people who use disability for what Adler later calls "primary gain". On the bottom of page 79, Adler points this out as he says, " the tendency toward overcoming is infused within the genes". Now for his later thought, this is a bit mechanistic, but it probably has more truth than we would wish to acknowledge!
On page 80 he makes another leap when he mentions that the organ inferiorities are "
overcome with increased mental activity". As a physician I have quite commonly seen this happen. One this same page he goes on to say, "Adapting to life burdened by an inferior organ brings with it corresponding psychological problems." Now I would have expected him to say that they would be adverse, but that is not what he notices, because on the top of page 81 he says about these inferior organs and their life expression, that they "could be either advantageous or disadvantageous". He goes on to develop the difference between the physiological and psychological manifestations. On page 81 he correctly guesses that the brain is not hard wired with copper and solder but is constantly growing and changing itself when he says "If brain compensation correlates with organ inferiority" .... to
"
This would mean that originally inferior eyes would psychologically provide greater insight" Now this is a quantuum leap if ever I saw one. Indeed we now know that the brain is constantly recreating itself under the influence of "Nerve Growth Factor" such that the use of cognitive and affective strategies actually opens and closes neuronal pathways and facilitates or defacilitates the function of those areas of the brain that do or enable a task. NGF is a recent discovery and. no surprise to those of us who try to follow Adler's thinking, he "presages" that idea at a time when brain was thought to be fully and immutably structured be the late teen years! On page 81 he makes an utterly key statement when in speaking of an inferior digestive system he says, "its superstructure governs and pulls into its domain the other psychological system". What an interest compensation by the mind. He further developes this notion in relationship to averice. I have pasted a clip in here as follows fro page 83:
"A wealthy man who makes expensive gifts, who eats in a fancy restaurant, is
very hungry and takes a long walk, therein lies a considerable discomfort which can
be rationalized when we presume the patient is just as avaricious as his father;
however, being highly refined does not permit him to be avaricious. It is possible for
him to act this way only if it would not be a violatation of his culture, i.e. the saving of a
few pennies which, if necessary, he could justify on health grounds. Otherwise he is
very magnanimous, albeit not without paying for his magnanimity with a nervous attack."
Here he has, for the first time as far as I can recall, mentioned the huge cost of the "fictional goal of superiority". He even suggests "organ inferiority of brain" in delusional patients on page 84. He suggests that the hallucinations and delusions are a manifestation of over-compensation and that would seem to fit with some of the clinical experience of Adlerians who have had success in working with "psychotic disorders" without medication, because they remove the goal to which the overcompensation is directed ...
away from the community of mankind.
Finally Adler notes that organ inferiorities can be greatly beneficial as in the quote that follows here from this same chapter:
"Research conducted in art institutes showed that approximately 70% of the students suffered from eye anomalies.I have frequently found that speakers, actors, and singers have organ inferiorities.
The Bible relates that Moses suffered from a heavy tongue and his brother had the gift of speech. Demosthenes, who stuttered, became Greece's most renowned speaker, and the speech given by Camille Demoulin, who normally stuttered, was reported by his contemporaries to have flowed like liquid gold. The same applies to musicians who quite often suffer from ear illnesses. Beethoven, Robert Franz, Smetana, all of whom lost their hearing, are offered as well known examples. Klara Schumann, speaking about her life, reported having had lapses in being able to hear and speak during childhood.Far from trying to present these details as evidence, their purpose is merely to draw the reader's attention to the theory of organ inferiority's broad spectrum and its
relationship to philosophy, psychology, and aesthetics."
Dr. Adler was a skillfull and most observant physician. There are some small advantages to being trained to observe the human organism and its various adaptations to disease states as a physician (OK let me believe that please!
).
Finally, look at Adler's picture on Henry's web page and what do you see?
He wears glasses. They seem to be quite heavy negative lenses. He has an organ inferiority of his own eyes
but how well he sees.
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George Neeson M.D.