Famous Psychiatrists Archives » International Network on Personal Meaning

Alfred Adler (1870-1937)

Webmaster — Wed, 13 Dec 2017 23:07:59 +0000

Adler was born in Vienna, the third of six children. His childhood was marked by difficulty, namely: neglect as a middle child, suffering from rickets, witnessing his brother’s death due to illness, and being run over twice in the streets. Despite this, he excelled in math, and studied medicine when he attended the University of Vienna. Aside from a stretch when he served as a doctor in WWI, he practiced psychology, and founded the school of “individual psychology”. He believed in the effect of birth-order, (needless to say) and developed a set of traits based on the subject’s relative position in the birth-order. He opened many child guidance clinics in Austria, but by 1932 most had been closed due to his Jewish ancestry. He decided to immigrate to the United States, and settled at the Long Island College of Medicine. He died on May 28th, of a heart attack, in Aberdeen, Scotland, while on a speaking tour. While his death was a blow to the school of thought he had pioneered, many of his ideas were taken up by “neo-Freudians”. His teachings and ideas are still practiced and taught a various Institutes set up in his honour.

Carl Jung

Webmaster — Wed, 13 Dec 2017 23:30:45 +0000

Jung’s unique and broadly influential approach to psychology emphasized understanding the psyche through exploring the worlds of dreams, art, mythology, world religion and philosophy. Although he was a theoretical psychologist and practicing clinician for most of his life, much of his life’s work was spent exploring other realms: Eastern vs. Western philosophy, alchemy, astrology, sociology, as well as literature and the arts. Jung also emphasized the importance of balance and harmony. He cautioned that modern humans rely too heavily on science and logic and would benefit from integrating spirituality and appreciation of the unconscious realm. Jungian ideas are not typically included in curriculum of most major universities’ psychology departments, but are occasionally explored in humanities departments.

R.D. Laing

Webmaster — Wed, 13 Dec 2017 23:35:41 +0000

“We are living in an age in which the ground is shifting and the foundations are shaking. I cannot answer for other times and places. Perhaps it has always been so. We know it is true today.” (1990a, p. 108). Laing, R.D. 1990a. The Politics of Experience and The Bird of Paradise. London: Penguin.

Publications

(1968) ‘The Obvious’, in The Dialectics of Liberation. pp. 13-33. Edited by David Cooper. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books Ltd.
(1974) Knots. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books Ltd.
(1974) Sanity, Madness and the Family. (with A. Esterson) Harmondsworth: Penguin Books Ltd.
(1976) The Politics of the Family and Other Essays. New York: Random House.
(1990) The Divided Self. London: Penguin Books Ltd.
(1990) The Politics of Experience and The Bird of Paradise. London: Penguin Books Ltd.
(1991) Self and Others Penguin Books Ltd.

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