Phenomenology Without Religious Motives: The Philosophical Context of Adler's Individual Psychology [Reprinted]

This essay has several aims. First, it intends to show that Adler was a product of one of the philosophical systems of the time, namely, German existentialism which discusses the existential aspect of Adler’s thinking as a “contextual philosophy.” Such contextual philosophy is determined by the events constituting the individual’s life. Second, phenomenological philosophy throws light on Adler’s Individual Psychology and this takes his work out of its German context as it addresses itself to individual experience. Third, the religious roots of existentialism are a strength, not a liability, in understanding the human condition and ought not to be forgotten by Adlerian psychologists