Nothing in Dr. Adler's " Individual psychology " has been
more famous than the " inferiority complex." Every- one recognizes the feeling of weakness or inadequacy from which men start in their efforts to gain success. Dr. Adler used this concept to lay the groundwork for a " Science of Personality." It is nearly twenty years since' Dr. Adler wrote his first book on psychology : in the meantime he has been engaged daily among the problems and difficulties of men, women, and children, and we feel that his comments
spring from the flow of human life. In Understanding Human Nature (Allen and Unwin, 12s. 6d.) he has given a general, simple, and popular account of his findings. It is not a technical exposition, but a book of counsel for the
ordinary man. Parents discover, after many years, that they " never understood " their children. The same thing happens between friends, between husbands and wives. The misunderstanding enters tragically into industrial rela- tions, into international relations, into every aspect of life. In this book Dr. Adler deals with such questions as family, sex, education, profession, and society, and shows how on each point individual judgments may go wrong. In the second part he builds up a " science of character " on this basis.
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