Superiority and Social Interest: A Collection of Later Writings

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Summary: Social Interest as Adler's Final Contribution
Review: The great 20th century psychologist and therapist Alfred Adler began his career with the idea of the "inferiority complex" and the compensatory striving for superiority. In his later work, he came to view the human capacity for social interest (interest outside the self) as the key to both individual psychological health and social life. Even today, text books over-emphasize his early work on striving for superiority and under-emphasize his later work on social interest. So you have to track down the sources to understand Adler's mature, final theory of personality. It is well worth the effort. Adler's concept of the "creative self" integrates the simultaneous striving for perfection of self and society. His anti-narcissism stance is refreshing today, and his personality theory is useful. For example, he gave insightful advice to parents about how to raise children with healthy levels of social interest -- by avoiding both pampering and neglect. And his theory of gender equality or "cooperation between the sexes" was way ahead of its time in psychiatry. Indeed, there are lots of good reasons to read Alfred Adler.