Social Feeling and Mutual Aid versus Power and Violence

One cannot help but wonder what Adler would have to say about the current terrorist attacks in the United States. The following are excerpts of Adler's writings which, in my view, address some of these issues. I would appreciate other thoughts on these crucial issues. Thank you. - Carroll

"Even those who do not understand the element in man's psychical life that nurtures the feeling of community or its command 'love thy neighbour'--all who are merely occupied with revealing the 'inner scoundrel' in men hiding slyly from discovery and punishment--are important fertilizers for upward-striving humanity. They show their backward state of development in bizarre exaggeration. Their feeling of inferiority seeks a purely personal compensation in the conviction of the worthlessness of every one else. What does seem to me dangerous is to misuse the idea of social feeling in this way--viz. by taking advantage of the occasional uncertainty of the path to social feeling in order to approve socially harmful ideas and ways of life, and to force them, in the name of salvation, on the present or even on future society. Thus capital punishment, war, and even the killing of opponents occasionally find adroit advocates. Moreover, these persons always drape themselves in the cloak of social feeling. What a proof this is of its omnipotence! All these obsolete conceptions are clear indications that this advocacy springs from a lack of confidence that a new and better way can be (p. 105) found, i.e. from an unmistakable feeling of inferiority. The history of humanity ought to have taught every one that even killing does not make any difference to the supremacy of advanced ideas, nor does it prevent the collapse of those that are moribund. So far as we can see there is only one case in which killing can be justified, and that is in self-defence, when our own life or the life of another person is in danger. No one has brought this problem more clearly under the purview of humanity than Shakespeare has done in Hamlet, although this has not been understood. In all the tragedies of Shakespeare, as well as in those of the Greek poets, the murderer and the criminal are hunted to death by the Furies; and that was in an age when deeds of blood more terrible than those of our day shocked the social feeling of those who were struggling for an ideal society. They were also nearer to that ideal, and in the end they have prevailed. All the errors of the criminal show us the furthest limits to which his social feeling can reach. Those sections of humanity that struggle forward are accordingly in duty bound not only to give enlightenment and a right education, but also not to set severe tests prematurely for persons unschooled in social feeling. Nor should they regard them in any way as though they were able to perform tasks that would only be possible for those who have a developed social feeling, but not for any who are lacking in this feeling. The reason is that persons who are unprepared experience a shock when they come up against a problem that demands a heightened social feeling; and this, (p. 106) through the formation of an inferiority complex, gives rise to failures of all kinds. The structure of the criminal's nature shows clearly the style of life of a person who is endowed with energy but who has little use for society. He is one who since childhood has developed a conception of life that justifies him in making use of the 'contributions' of other people. It need no longer be a secret that this type is found predominantly among pampered children, less often among those that have been neglected. There are those who hold the view that crime is self-punishment and is to be traced to childish sexual perversions, and occasionally also to the Oedipus complex. It is not difficult to confute this view when we understand that the person who is greatly in love with metaphors in real life will all too easily get entangled in a network of similes and likenesses. Hamlet: 'Do you see yonder cloud that's almost n shape of a camel?' Polonius: 'By the mass, and 'tis like a camel, indeed'" (p. 107).

Adler, Alfred. (1933/1964). Social Interest: A Challenge to Mankind. New York: Capricorn Books, Pp. 105-107.

"The common people seem always to have been on the track of social interest, and every intellectual and every religious uprising has been directed against the striving for power; the logic of the communal life (p. 455) of man has always asserted itself. But all this has always ended again in the thirst for dominance. All social legislation of the past, the teachings of Christ, and the tablets of Moses have fallen, again and again, into the hands of power-craving social classes and groups. These abused the most sacred concepts, resorting to the refined tricks of forgery, in order to channel the always-emerging manifestations and creations of social interest into the paths of power tendencies. Thus social interest was rendered ineffective for the common weal.
"The better socially adjusted individual or group is at a disadvantage in the social struggle. Their feeling of being in the right lets them sleep quietly. The unsocial or antisocial individual or group is always more restless and alert in planning attacks. The lazy, slow-moving, and undecided people, wishing only to live like a worm in an apple, are an easy prey to the more active antisocial group.
"The present stage of our culture and insight still permits the power principle to prevail. However, it can be adhered to no longer openly but only through the exploitation of social interest. An unveiled and direct attack of violence is unpopular and would no longer be safe. Thus when violence is to be committed this is frequently done by appealing to justice, custom, freedom, the welfare of the oppressed, and in the name of culture.
"The truths and necessities gathered from the coercion of the communal life of man are distorted by those who cultivate the power principle and whose deepest intention is always: 'Through truth to falsehood!' It is in this way that the disastrous exploitation of social interest by the striving for power comes about. Social interest is transformed from an end into a means and is pressed into the service of nationalism and imperialism. . . . all great reformers of mankind have always intuitively placed mutual aid above the struggle for power" (p. 456)

". . . granted that the simplest way to create everything that is good and promising would be by means of force, where in the life of (p. 456) man or in the history of mankind has such an attempt ever succeeded? The struggle for power has a psychological aspect, the description of which appears to us today as an urgent duty. Even where the welfare of the subjugated is obviously intended, the use of even moderate power stimulates opposition everywhere, as far as we can see. Human nature generally answers external coercion with a countercoercion. It seeks its satisfaction not in rewards for obedience and docility, but aims to prove that its mean of power are the stronger.
"The results of the application of power are apt to be disappointing to both parties. No blessing comes from the use of power. In power politics the man in power wins followers who are actually his opponents and who are only attracted by the intoxication of power. And he finds opponents among those who might be his followers if they had not automatically become oppositional. Those excluded from power lie in wait for the revolt and are receptive to any argument.
". . . . Now the terrible mechanism is automatically released in the unprepared minds of men whereby attacks are answered with counterattacks, without regard for the good of society, only because the mutual will to power is threatened. Cheap reasons are given to justify action and reaction. Fair becomes foul, foul becomes fair! . . . The [adversaries] must reply by reinforcing their power positions. There can be no reduction in violence, but only further increases, as is always the case when power has the decisive word. If there is any means to call a halt, it can only be the remembrance of the miracle of social interest which we must perform and which will never succeed through the use of power. For us the way and the tactics are determined by our highest goal: the cultivation and strengthening of social interest (p. 457)."

Adler, Alfred. (1918/1956). The Individual Psychology of Alfred Adler: a systematic presentation in selections from his writings. Edited by Heinz L. & Rowena R. Ansbacher. New York: Basic Books, Pp. 456-457.

"A careful consideration of individual and collective existence, both past and present, shows us the struggle of mankind for a stronger social feeling. One can scarcely fail to see that humanity is conscious of this problem and is impressed by it. Our present-day burdens are the result of the lack of a thorough social education. It is the pent-up social feeling in us that urges us to reach a higher stage and to rid ourselves of the errors that mark our public life and our own personality. This social feeling exists within us and endeavours to carry out its purpose; it does not seem strong enough to hold its own against all opposing forces. The justified expectation persists that in a far-off age, if mankind is given enough time, the power of social feeling will triumph over all that opposes it. Then it will be as natural to man as breathing. For the present the only alternative is to understand and to teach that this will inevitably happen" (p. 285).

Adler, Alfred (1933/1964). Social Interest: A Challenge to Mankind. New York: Capricorn Books, p. 285.

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Re:Social Feeling and Mutual Aid versus Power and Violence , by Henry Stein, 09/20/01

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