Volume 1

Understanding human nature / by Alfred Adler.

  • Adler, Alfred, 1870-1937.
Date:
1928
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Understanding human nature / by Alfred Adler. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    now had to earn his living as a day-laborer, which he as well as his friends considered the lowest form of work. The psychic tension in which he had lived had not become less. Although he had böen fr^ed from alcohol he had ac¬ tually become poorer by a consolation, despite the great advantage of this cure. He could do his first job with the help of drink, for when he was reproached too loudly at home for not accomplishing anything, the excuse that he was a drunkard seemed less shameful to him than his in¬ capability of holding a job. After his cure he was again face to face with reality and in a situation which was in no wise less oppressive than his former one. Should he now fail he had nothing to console himself with and nothing to blame, not even alcohol. In this situation of psychic peril the hallucinations re¬ appear. He identifies himself with the previous situation and looks at the world as if he were still a drunkard, and says very clearly with this gesture, that he has ruined his whole life with his drinking and nothing can be done about it now. By being sick he hoped to be freed from his little honored, and therefore, for him, very unpleasant oc¬ cupation as a ditch digger, without having to make a de¬ cision about it himself. The above-mentioned hallucination lasted for a long time until he finally was forced to the hospital again. Now he could console himself with the thought that he could have accomplished a great deal more had not the misfortune of drink ruined his life. This mech¬ anism enabled him to maintain his personal evaluation at a high level. It was more important for him not to allow his personal evaluation to sink than it was for him to work. All his efforts were directed at maintaining the con¬ viction that he might have accomplished great things had he not been visited by misfortune. This was the proof which maintained him in his power relationship and en-