Understanding Human Nature by Alfred Adler Book Review

Disclaimer: The version I read is a Chinese version, the original version of this story is also written in Chinese

This is not a new book, it is one of the very early writing of Alfred Adler. And Alfred thought have been interpreted into many other really great and famous books. But to me is always great to read some of the original thing aside from the hyped books.

This book is an attempt to acquaint the general public with the fundamentals of Individual Psychology. At the same time it is a demonstration of the practical application of these principles to the conduct of one’s everyday relationships, not only to the world, and to one’s fellow men, but also to the organization of ones personal life.

This is a quote from the introduction of the book. I like this quote a lot because it is why I really like reading about psychology. And I think Adler nailed it with this book.

Mistakes in business or in science are costly and deplorable, but mistakes in the conduct of life are usually dangerous to life itself. To the tack of illuminating man’s progress toward a better understanding of human nature, this book is dedicated.

This is quite right to me. Understanding human nature is in fact important in many aspect of life. Including business and science for sure.

( Copyright 1997, Henry T. Stein, Ph.D.)

This tree is called style of life, to me pretty much rounded up the book.

This book to me is a charm. I come across this i the library, and after into a few chapters I decided to buy it instead. I read this after reading Brave New World, so when I read this book I personally think of characters in the novel.

Seclusiveness and isolation appear in a variety of forms. People who detach themselves from society speak little, or not at all, do not look their fellows in the eye, do not listen, or are inattentive when one speaks to them. In all social relations, even the simplest ones, they exhibit a certain frigidity which serves to separate them from their fellows.

This makes me think of Bernard Max of the book. And as Adler is very much care about society in his thinking in this book. We can be pretty sure that, this type of person is not really welcomed.

But there is something bugs me a little bit in this book. Is the highly concern on society and thinks that a lot of things is due to chasing power in life. Maybe is because of the society structure, as the economy back then is much more depending on labors and lot of hands on work. People care about society is actually important.

And now lets end this review with a quote I really like

Causality becomes a different causality, and the results of experience acquire entirely new values, when the power of self-knowledge and self-criticism is still alive, and remains a living motif. The ability to know one’s self becomes greater when one can determine the wellsprings of his activity and the dynamics of his soul. Once he has understood this, he has become a different man and can no longer escape the inevitable consequences of his knowledge.