The Science of Living

What it’s about

In The Science of Living, Alfred Adler distills the core principles of his Individual Psychology into a practical, accessible system for understanding human personality as a unified whole. Rejecting both the sexual reductionism of Freud and the determinism of heredity, Adler shows how each person forms a 'prototype' or style of life in early childhood, organized around a goal of superiority that compensates for an underlying feeling of inferiority. Through vivid case histories of problem children, neurotics, criminals, and unhappy spouses, he demonstrates how old remembrances, dreams, posture, and birth-order all reveal the same consistent life-line. Most importantly, he offers a remedy: the cultivation of social interest—courage, cooperation, and common sense—which transforms inferiority from a crippling complex into a stimulus for genuine achievement in society, work, and love. It is a guide for parents, teachers, and anyone who wishes to understand themselves and rescue others from the useless side of life.

The through-line

Who it’s for

A thoughtful reader—parent, teacher, or self-examiner—who wants to understand why people (including themselves) behave as they do and how to help them live well.

The problem

Children, patients, and ordinary people repeatedly fail at society, work, and love through neurosis, crime, discouragement, or unhappy relationships. They feel inferior, fearful, hesitant, and overwhelmed, unable to understand the hidden source of their own and others' difficulties.

The plan

1. Understand each person as an indivisible whole oriented toward one goal of superiority.
2. Diagnose the childhood prototype through old remembrances, dreams, posture, and family position.
3. Identify whether striving runs along the useful or useless side of life and where social interest is lacking.
4. Replace punishment with encouragement, decreasing the feeling of inferiority and changing the mistaken goal.
5. Cultivate social interest, courage, and common sense in oneself and in children, especially through education.

The payoff

Courageous, self-confident people who feel at home in the world and meet difficulties without fear. · Children educated toward cooperation who fit usefully into society, work, and love. · Marriages and friendships founded on equality and mutual interest rather than conquest.

See our guide

• Study People And Organizations With Scientific Rigor →
• The Behavioral Science Underneath It All →
• Build A People Analytics Function →
• Design The Organization And Change It →
• Do Research That Holds Up →
• Design Surveys People Answer Honestly →
• Understand What Drives Individual Performance →

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Featured in these guides

• The Behavioral Science Underneath It All →Cited source
• Build A People Analytics Function →Cited source
• Design The Organization And Change It →Cited source
• Study People And Organizations With Scientific Rigor →Cited source
• Do Research That Holds Up →Cited source
• Design Surveys People Answer Honestly →Cited source
• Understand What Drives Individual Performance →Cited source