When we hear such expressions as feelings of inferiority & insecurity, striving for self-enhancement & power, woman's revolt against her feminine role, the oversolicitous mother, the dethronement of the first-born, the need for affection; when maladjustment is spoken of as self-centeredness, psychological health as other-centeredness; psychiatry as the science of interpersonal relations, neurotic symptoms as ego-defenses & forms of aggression, to mention only a few instances—we are meeting ideas in which Alfred Adler was the pioneer from 1907, the date of his first important publication, until his death in 1937. The purpose of the present volume is to make Adler's contributions to the theory & practice of psychology available in a systematic & at the same time authentic form. To this end we made selections from his writings & organized them with the aim of approximating the general presentation of a college textbook. Because every word in the main body of the work is Adler's, the outcome of our efforts, if we have been successful, should be the equivalent of a textbook by Adler on Individual Psychology, the name which he gave to his system.

English, German (translation)

Volume 12, "The General System of Individual Psychology" is an unpublished manuscript by Alfred Adler. The thirteen undated lectures, identified as "chapters," form a complete series that Adler presented in English, possibly in New York City. Adler's terminology and style suggests that the lectures were given later in his career, and represent a summary of his matured theory of the personality, as well as principles of prevention and treatment. In the homestretch of The Collected Works, this distillation serves as a gathering point for the abundant diversity of topics Adler covered from 1898 to 1937.