Alfred Adler:

"We see how, for thesafeguarding of his picture of the world and for the defense of hisvanity, the patient had erected a wall against the demands of actualcommunity life. Without clearly realizing it himself, he was able toexclude or shove aside all disturbing problems of life, while heabandoned himself utterly to his feelings and to the observation of hissymptoms. These symptoms were the result of the shock which heexperienced when, in a difficult situation, he felt himself too weak toarrive at the high goal which he, in his vanity, had set for himself;when he felt too weak to play a pre-eminent role commensurate with thatwhich should be his according to his picture of the world. Thus he wasable to avoid the shock of imminent problems, and could relegate thoseproblems to the background. Such a procedure of exclusion naturallyappeared to him the lesser of two evils." (From "The Neurotic's Picture of the World, in "The International Journal of Individual Psychology, v. 1, no 3, pages 3-13.)

"Neurotic symptoms and the failures of problem children are defensemechanisms, safeguards, arranged escapements and self constructedbarriers to avoid being revealed as inferior." (A new translationof "Introduction into the More Recent Psychology," which first appearedin "Einführung in die neuere Psychologie," Osterwick/Harz, published byZickfeld, 1926, pages 364-372, in the AAISF/ATP Archives.)

This is a photo of the great Alfred Adler....