Adler, Alfred
(1870–1937) Austrian psychologist Adler was born in Penzing, Austria, the son of a corn merchant, and was educated at the University of Vienna, where he obtained his MD in 1895. After two years at the Vienna General Hospital he set up in private practice in 1898.
In about 1900 Adler began investigating psychopathology and in 1902 he became an original member of Sigmund Freud's circle, which met to discuss psychoanalytical matters. His disagreements with Freud began as early as 1907 – he dismissed Freud's view that sexual conflicts in early childhood cause mental illness – and he finally broke away from the psychoanalytic movement in 1911 to form ...