The Science of Living (Psychology Revivals)

Alfred Adler

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9780415820646
• eBook ISBN: 9781136702280
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: History & Theory in Psychology
• Index: Psychology

Originally published in 1930 The Science of Living looks at Individual Psychology as a science. Adler discusses the various elements of Individual Psychology and its application to everyday life: including the inferiority complex, the superiority complex and other social aspects, such as, love and marriage, sex and sexuality, children and their education. This is an important book in the history of psychoanalysis and Adlerian therapy.

CHAPTER EIGHT

PROBLEM CHILDREN AND THEIR EDUCATION

HOW shall we educate our children? This is perhaps the most important question in our present social life. It is a question to which Individual Psychology has a great deal to contribute. Education, whether carried on in the home or at school, is an attempt to bring out and direct the personalities of individuals. Psychological science is thus a necessary basis for the proper educational technique, or if we will, we may look upon all education as a branch of that vast psychological art of living.

Let us begin with certain preliminaries. The most general principle of education is that it must be consistent with the later life which the indi-viduals will be called upon to face. This means that it must be consistent with the ideals of the nation. If we do not educate children with the ideals of the nation in view, then these children are likely to encounter difficulties later in life. They will not fit in as members of society.

To be sure the ideals of a nation may change—they may change suddenly, as after a revolution, or gradually, in the process of evolution. But this simply means that the educator should keep in mind a very broad ideal. It should be an ideal which will always have its place, and which will teach the individual to adjust himself properly to changing circumstances.

The connection of schools with social ideals is of course due to their connection with the govern-ment. It is the influence of the government which causes national ideals to be reflected in the school system. The government does not readily reach the parents or the family, but it watches the schools in its own behalf.

Historically, the schools have reflected dif-ferent ideals at different periods. In Europe schools were originally established for aristocratic families. The schools were aristocratic in spirit, and only aristocrats were taught in them. Later on, the schools were taken over by the churches, and they appeared as religious schools. Only priests were teachers. Then the demands of the nation for more knowledge began to increase. More subjects were sought and a greater number of teachers was needed than the church could supply. In this way others besides priests and clergymen entered the profession.

Until quite modern times the teachers were never exclusively teachers. They followed many other trades, such as shoemaking, tailoring, etc. It is obvious that they knew how to teach only by using the rod. Their schools were not the sort in which the psychological problems of the children could be solved.

The beginning of the modern spirit in education was made in Europe in Pestalozzi's time. Pestalozzi was the first teacher to find other teaching methods besides the rod and punishment.

Pestalozzi is valuable for us because he showed the great importance of methods in the schools. With correct methods, every child—unless he is feeble-minded—can learn to read, to write, to sing, and to do arithmetic. We cannot say that we have already discovered the best methods; they are in the process of development all the time. As is right and proper, we are always searching for new and better methods.

To return to the history of European schools, it is to be noted that just after pedagogical technique had developed to some extent, there appeared a great need for workmen who could read, write, count, and be generally independent without needing constant guidance. At this time there appeared the slogan, “a school for every child.” At present every child is forced to go to school. This development is due to the conditions of our economic life and to the ideals which reflect these conditions.

Formerly in Europe only aristocrats were influential, and there was a demand only for officials and for laborers. Those who had to be prepared for higher stations went to higher schools; the rest did not go to school at all. The educational system reflected the national ideals of the time. Today the school system corresponds to a different set of national ideals. We no longer have schools in which children must sit quietly, hands folded in their laps, and not allowed to move. We now have schools in which the children are the teacher's friends. They are no longer compelled by authority, no longer compelled merely to obey, but are allowed to develop more independently. Naturally there are many such schools in democratic United States, since the schools always develop with the ideals of a country as crystallized in governmental regulations.

The connection of the school system with national and social ideals is organic—due to their origin and organization, as we have seen—but from a psychological point of view it gives them a great advantage as an educational agency. From a psychological point of view the principal aim of education is social adjustment. Now the school can guide the current of sociability in the individual child more easily than the family because it is much nearer to the demands of the nation and more independent of the criticism of the children. It does not pamper the children, and in general it has a much more detached attitude.

On the other hand the family is not always permeated with the social ideal. Too often we find traditional ideas dominating there. Only when the parents are themselves socially adjusted and understand that the aim of education must be social, can progress be made. Wherever parents know and understand these things we will find children rightly educated and prepared for school, just as in school they are rightly prepared for their special place in life. This should be the ideal development of the child at home and in school, with the school standing midway between the family and the nation.

We have gathered from previous discussions that the style of life of a child in a family is fixed after it is four or five years old and cannot directly be changed. This indicates the way in which the modern school has to go. It must not criticise or punish, but try to mould, educate and develop the social interest of children. The modern school cannot work on the principle of suppression and censorship, but rather on the idea of trying to understand and solve the personal problems of the child.

On the other hand, parents and children being so closely united in the family, it is often difficult for the former to educate the latter for society. They prefer to educate the children for their own sakes, and thereby they create a tendency which will conflict with the situation of the child in later life. Such children are bound to face great difficulties. They are already confronted with them the moment they enter school, and the problems become still more difficult in life after school.

To remedy this situation it is of course necessary to educate the parents. Often this is not easy, for we cannot always lay our hands on the elders as we do on the children. And even when we get to the parents, we may find that they are not very much interested in the ideals of the nation. They are so set in tradition that they do not want to understand.

Not being able to do much with the parents, we simply have to content ourselves with spreading more understanding everywhere. The best point of attack is our schools. This is true first because the large numbers of children are gathered there; secondly, because mistakes in the style of life appear better there than in the family; and, thirdly, because the teacher is supposedly a person who understands the problems of children.

Normal children, if there be such, do not concern us. We would not touch them. If we see children who are fully developed and socially adjusted, the best thing is not to suppress them. They should go their own way, because such children can be depended upon to look for a goal on the useful side in order to develop the sense of superiority. Their superiority feeling, precisely because it is on the useful side, is not a superiority complex.

On the other hand both the feeling of superiority and the feeling of inferiority exist on the useless side among problem children, neurotics, criminals, etc. Such persons express a superiority complex as a compensation for their inferiority complex. The feeling of inferiority, as we have shown, exists in every human being, but this feeling becomes a complex only when it discourages him to the point of stimulating training on the useless side of life.

All these problems of inferiority and superiority have their root in family life during the period before the child enters school. It is during this period that he has built up his style of life, which in contrast with the adult style of life we have designated as a prototype. This prototype is the unripe fruit, and like an unripe fruit, if there is some trouble with it, if there is a worm, the more it develops and ripens the larger the worm grows.

As we have seen, the worm or difficulty develops from problems aver imperfect organs. It is the difficulty with imperfect organs that is the usual root of the feeling of inferiority, and here again we must remember that it is not the organic inferiority that causes the problem but the social maladjustments which it brings in its wake. It is this that provides the educational opportunity. Train a person to adjust himself socially and the organic inferiorities, so far from being liabilities, may become assets. For as we have seen, an organic inferiority may be the origin of a very striking interest, developed through training, which may rule the individual's whole life, and provided this interest runs in a useful channel, it may mean a great deal to the individual.

It all depends on the way the organic difficulty fits in with the social adjustment. Thus in the case of a child who wants only to see, or only to hear, it is up to the teacher to develop his interest in the use of all his sense organs. Otherwise he will be out of line with the rest of the pupils.

We are all familiar with the case of the left-handed child who grows up clumsy. As a rule no one realizes that this child is left-handed and that this accounts for his clumsiness. Because of his left-handedness he is constantly at odds with the family. We find that such children either become fighting or aggressive children—which is an advantage—or else they become depressed and peevish. When such a child goes to school with his problems, we shall find him either combative, or else downhearted, irritable and lacking in courage.

Besides the children with imperfect organs, a problem is presented by the great number of pampered children who come to school. Now the way schools are organized, it is physically impossible for a single child always to remain the center of attention. It may indeed happen occasionally that a teacher is so kind and soft-hearted that she plays favorites, but as the child moves from grade to grade it falls out of its position of favor. Later in life it is even worse, for it is not considered proper in our civilization for one person always to be the center of attention, without doing anything to merit it.

All such problem children have certain defined characteristics. They are not well fitted for the problems of life; they are very ambitious, and want to rule personally, not in behalf of society. In addition they are always quarrelsome and at enmity with others. They are usually cowards, since they lack interest in all the problems of life. A pampered childhood has not prepared them for life's problems.

Other characteristics which we discover among such children is that they are cautious and continually hesitating. They postpone the solution of the problems that life presents to them. Or else they come to a stop altogether before problems, going off on distractions and never finishing anything.

These characteristics come to light more clearly in school than in the family. School is like an experiment or acid test, for there it becomes apparent whether or not a child is adjusted to society and its problems. A mistaken style of life often escapes unrecognized at home, but it comes out in school.

Both the pampered-child and the organ-inferiority type of children always want to "exclude" the difficulties of life because of their great feeling of inferiority which robs them of strength to cope with them. However, we may control the difficulties at school, and thus gradually put them in a position to solve problems. The school thus becomes a place where we really educate, and not merely give instruction.

Besides these two types, we have to consider the hated child. The hated child is usually ugly, mistaken, crippled, and in no way prepared for social life. He has, perhaps, the greatest difficulty of all three types upon entering school.

We see, then, that whether or not teachers and officials like it, an understanding of all these problems and of the best methods for handling them must be developed as part of the school adminstration.

Besides these specifically problem children, there are also the children who are believed to be prodigies—the exceptionally bright children. Sometimes because they are ahead in some subjects it is easy for them to appear brilliant in others. They are sensitive, ambitious, and not usually very well liked by their comrades. Chil-dren immediately seem to feel whether one of their number is socially adjusted or not. Such prodigies are admired but not beloved.

We can understand how many of these prodigies pass through school satisfactorily. But when they enter social life they have no adequate plan of life. When they approach the three great problems of life—society, occupation, and love and marriage—their difficulties come out. What happened in their prototype years becomes apparent, and we see the effect of their not being well adjusted in the family. There they continually found themselves in favorable situations, which did not bring out the mistakes in their style of life. But the moment that a new situation comes their way, the mistakes appear.

It is interesting to note that poets have seen connection between these things. A great many poets and dramatists have described, in their dramas and romances, the very complicated current of life seen in such persons. There is for example, Shakespeare's character, Northumberland. Shakespeare, who was a master of psychology, portrays Northumberland as quite loyal to his king until real danger came. Then he betrayed him. Shakespeare understood the fact that the true style of life of a person becomes apparent under very difficult circumstances. But it is not the difficult circumstances that produce the style—it has been built up before.

The solution that Individual Psychology offers for the problems of prodigies is the same as that for other problem children. The individual psychologist says, “Everybody can accomplish everything.” This is a democratic maxim which takes the edge off prodigies, who are always burdened with expectations, are always pushed forward and become too much interested in their own persons. Persons who adopt this maxim can have very brilliant children, and these children do not have to become conceited or too ambitious. They understand that what they have accomplished was the result of training and good fortune. If their good training is continued they can accomplish whatever others can accomplish. But other children, who are less favorably influenced and not as well trained and educated, may also accomplish good things if their teacher can make them understand the method.

These latter children may have lost courage. They must therefore be protected against their marked feeling of inferiority, a feeling that none of us can suffer for long. Originally such children were not confronted with as many difficulties as they now meet at school. One can understand their being overwhelmed by these difficulties and wanting to play truant or else not go to school at all. They believe that there is no hope for them at school, and if this belief were true we should have to agree that they are acting consistently and rationally. But Individual Psychology does not accept the belief that their case is hopeless at school. It believes that everybody can accomplish useful works. There are always mistakes, But these can be corrected and the child can go on.

In the usual circumstances, however, the situation is not handled properly. At the very time when the child is overwhelmed by the new difficulties at school, the mother takes on a watching and anxious attitude. The school reports, the criticisms and scoldings that the child gets at school are magnified by the repercussions at home. Very often a child who has been a good child at home, because he has been pampered, becomes very bad in school because his latent inferiority complex shows up the moment he loses contact with the family. It is then that the pampering mother will be hated by such a child because he feels that she has deceived him. She does not appear in the same light as she did before. All her old behavior and pampering is forgotten in the anxiety of the new situation.

We find very often that a child, who is a fighting child at home, is quiet, calm, and even suppressed at school. Sometimes the mother comes to school and says, “This child occupies me the entire day. He is always fighting.” The teacher says, “He sits quietly all day and does not move.” And sometimes we have the reverse. That is, the mother comes and says, “This child is very quiet and sweet at home,” while the teacher says, “He corrupts my whole class.” We can easily understand the last situation. The child is the center of attention at home and for that reason is quiet and unassuming. In school he is not the center of attention, and so he fights. Or it may be the other way around.

There is the case, for example, of a girl eight years old, who was very well liked by her schoolmates and was head of her class. Her father came to the doctor saying, “This child is very sadistic— a veritable tyrant. We can no longer bear her.” What was the reason? She was a first child in a weak family. Only a weak family...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Original Title Page
• Original Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• A Note on the Author and His Work
• I The Science of Living
• II The Inferiority Complex
• III The Superiority Complex
• IV The Style of Life
• V Old Remembrances
• VI Attitudes and Movements
• VII Dreams and Their Interpretation
• VIII Problem Children and Their Education
• IX Social Problems and Social Adjustment
• X Social Feeling, Common Sense and the Inferiority Complex
• XI Love and Marriage
• XII Sexuality and Sex Problems
• XIII Conclusion