Alfred Adler Sesquicentennial: The Timeliness Revisited

Abstract

Alfred Adler Sesquicentennial: The Timeliness Revisited Marina Bluvshtein This is a special issue published in the first quarter of a very special year—marking 150 years since Adler was born in Vienna on February 7, 1870. In 1970, during the centennial celebrations of Alfred Adler, Willard and Marguerite Beecher concluded their “Memorial to Dr. Alfred Adler” with the following: “He needs no adulation since his work speaks for him to each of us differently in a language of its own” (p. 5). A goal of this issue is not to worship but to honor Adler’s life and his legacy—in many languages. As a reader, you will hear many more voices than what you would usually experience when reading other issues of the journal. All together, 28 authors have contributed to this issue. There is a full-length article (“Adlerian Theory and Practice Wisdom Promote Democratic Leadership and Organizational Health,” by John), shorter essays (“The ‘Un-understood’: Adler’s Grasp of Unconscious,” by Prinsloo and Qu), an interview (“Adler’s Theory and Therapy as a River: A Brief Discussion of the Profound Influence of Alfred Adler,” by Watts and Bluvshtein), and a poem (“I Am an Adlerian,” by O’Leary). You will hear about the continuation of Adler’s legacy in Europe (“Looking Back on the Development of Alfred Adler’s Individual Psychology in Parts of Europe on the 150th Anniversary of His Birth,” by Eife, Ferrero, Neudecker, and Prina) and successful efforts to create evidence-based therapy consistent with Adlerian theory in the United States (“Adlerian Therapy Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow,” by Len Sperry). You will read inspiring stories about Sophia J. de Vries (“An Inspiring Legacy: Sophia J. de Vries,” by Stein) and Rudolf Dreikurs (“The Contribution of Rudolf Dreikurs to the Theory and Practice of Individual Psychology,” by Abramson). You will read a passionate tribute to Adler’s legacy by the current president of the North American Society of Adlerian Psychology (“Celebrating 150 Years: A President’s Perspective,” by Belangee) and will revisit Adler’s life with his biographer (“Alfred Adler: The Man Who Understood Superheroes,” by [End Page 1] Click for larger view View full resolution Alfred Adler in California, 1936. A photo from the Adler University Archives, donated by Dr. Penny Silvers, Professor of Education, Dominican University (niece of Evelyn Feldman Roth, Adler’s secretary). Hoffman). You will enrich your knowledge in discussions by veteran Adlerian researchers and practitioners (“Adler’s Motivational Theory: An Historical Perspective on Belonging and the Fundamental Human Striving,” by Dreikurs Ferguson, and “Are Alfred Adler and Rudolf Dreikurs Relevant for Parents Today?,” by Bettner) as well as—in a brave attempt to swim in Adler as a river, quoting Richard E. Watts—by those who had different theoretical upbringings (“And They Lived Happily Ever After: An Intimate Closeness of Systems and Adlerian Theories in the Case of a Transgender Couple,” by Brown and co authors). You will enjoy writings by authors with a wide range of years devoted to studying Adlerian psychology, from graduate students (Londergan, a coauthor of “And They Lived Happily Ever After”) to professors with decades of Adlerian practice (“The Miracle of Early Recollections in Adlerian Psychotherapy and Supervision,” by Shifron, and “Adler’s Original Contributions to Psychology,” by Griffith and Maybell). You will revisit some unfinished philosophical business (“The Fourth and Fifth Life Tasks as Existential Challenges,” by Linden) and be invited to tackle new clinical challenges (“Adler’s Interview Questions: Incorporating Diversity and [End Page 2] Sociocultural Contexts Holistically,” by Johnson- Migalski and co authors). Though not named in any particular article, Adler University Senior Director of Library and Learning Services Ariel Orlov and students Noah DeBruyn, Neena Mathew, and Shannon Zofkie have contributed to this special issue in its many tasks, and so they belong to this issue, too. I would like to encourage you to read the authors’ biographies to grasp a full cultural experience of each author and to listen to the many accents fully present in this issue of the English-language journal—with authors from Austria, China, Germany, Great Britain, Israel, Italy, Switzerland, and many states in the United States. In doing so, please remember that Adler, too, spoke...