The Alternative to Freud
IT is refreshing, in these days of psycho-analysis and gloom, to find a therapeutic psychology which has nothing monstrous or hair-raising in its approach to common human problems. In the school of Individual Psychology, founded by Dr. Alfred Adler, there is no over-stressing of sexual factors ; no intense concentration on symbolisms ; no horrid phrase- ology of anal-erotic complexes, mother fixations and poly- morphous perversities. The difference of outlook reflects itself in the technique of treatment. For a Freudian analysis it is recommended that the patient should lie on a sofa with the physician sitting out of sight behind him. Care is taken to exclude everything that might call a patient back to the ex- ternal world. Such a technique, as Dr. Wexberg says, gives the physician the role of a "God in the clouds." But "it is just the demolition of the physician's authority and not its strengthening which is the concern of Individual Psychology." Treatment approximates, as far as conditions will allow, to a friendly, cheerful, and ordinary conversation between equals.
Putting the view of Individual Psychology as briefly as possible, we may say that a neurotic is a man who does not believe in himself. Because of his discouragement before the problems of life, he has tried unfair or logically erroneous methods of meeting them. The treatment of Individual Psychology consists, therefore, o two phases. In the first place, it is necessary to understand as fully and immediately as possible the personality of the neurotic and find out, in all his expressions—gestures and attitudes, opinions, response to circumstances, functional symptoms, dreams and fan- tasies—the co-ordinating motives, the impression of a whole way of living. It is not, of course, a question of criticism, but of "making contact." The second phase can be given in a single word : it is "encouragement."
With this view of the wholeness of the personality, the Individual Psychologist does not overestimate the symptoms themselves. He regards these as if they were determined by the total outlook.
",ether a neurotic evades his task of making himself useful in life by the production of obsessions, or whether he attains the same goal by sleeplessness, agoraphobia, and headaches, is of secondary importance. It may be interesting and in many cases of practical therapeutic importance to explain exhaustively the psychogenesis of the symptom—because this analytical work helps the patient to the understanding of tho peculiarity of the nervous mechanisms and to a discernment of his responsibility— but it adds nothing new to the meaning of the neurosis."
In all neurotic tendencies (and it should be remembered that no one can count himself entirely free from such ten- dencies) we are concerned with a depressed view, by an individual, of his own capabilities. Life comprises three groups of tasks, and it is in the fulfilment of these three tasks that its meaning lies. The first is the task of work, actual achievement within one's own calling and outside it ; and this task must always be fulfilled within the framework of the community. In other words individuals will always be unhappy and restricted so long as they are not occupied in work which at the same time is useful to others and satis- factory to themselves. The second task is the achievement of a good relation to other human beings, in the individual's contact with his fellows, in his building up of friendships, and in his attitude to society in general. The third is his task of finding a satisfactory and fruitful sex-life. This task, under present conditions, is best fulfilled in the family : that is to say, in monogamy and the generation of children.
"He who believes in himself, and only he, must without conscious consideration regard the amplest possible fulfilment of these tasks as a self-evident life-goal ; but the discouraged and ambitious person who from his insecurity doubts whether he is equal to these tasks, and therefore tries to evade them with tricks and pretexts, is the neurotic."
To understand a man, therefore, in his total personality, we shall need to be aware of his circumstances and see how far he is realistically attempting to solve in them these three typical tasks. It is not by suggestion that we can help him towards a surer self-esteem ; his errors in valuing his own powers must be met with real arguments, and he must con- vince himself that he is better equipped to face these tasks than he has taken for granted. We cannot " over-persuade " him ; for if he does not see it himself the discouragement will persist and he will either make no new efforts to acquit himself well or he will make fantastic efforts which are extremely ill-designed for securing a solution. The real proof of the success of the treatment comes when the patient, with full responsibility and buoyancy, turns himself back into communal life and sets himself to make something out of his own part in it.
Dr. Erwin Wexberg's handbook is the clearest and simplest outline of individual psychology that we possess. It is designed as a practical treatise, and while it pays attention to the treatment of definite neuroses and psychoses it should also prove illuminating to everyone who is concerned in meeting his own situations in the fullest and healthiest way. There is included in the book a questionnaire by which we can arrive as quickly as possible at an understanding of our own personalities or the personalities of our fellows. The argument is illustrated by very clearly narrated cases ; and the translator has turned the book into fresh and easily
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