The science of living / by Alfred Adler.

  • Alfred Adler
Date:
[1930]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The science of living / by Alfred Adler. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Such correction is easier at the time of the for¬ mation of the prototype. And when we do not correct them at that time, we may correct the mistakes later on by recalling the whole situ¬ ation of that period. Thus if we are confronted with the task of treating a neurotic patient, our problem is to discover, not the ordinary mistakes he makes in later life, but the very fundamental mistakes made early in his life in the course of the constitution of his prototype. If we discover these mistakes, it is possible to correct them by appropriate treatment. In the light of Individual Psychology the problem of inheritance thus decreases in impor¬ tance. It is not what one has inherited that is important, but what one does with his inheritance in the early years—that is to say, the prototype that is built up in the childhood environment. Heredity is of course responsible for inherited organic defects, but our problem there is simply to relieve the particular difficulty and place the child in a favorable situation. As a matter of fact we have even a great advantage here, inas¬ much as when we see the defect we know how to act accordingly. Oftentimes a healthy child with- 87
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