Menschenkenntnis (1927)

In the mid-1920s, Adler and his group of individual psychologists in Vienna devoted themselves intensively to the practice of educational counseling.

The book "Human Knowledge" can be seen as the result and foundation of this socio-educational commitment.

In it, Adler shows the background and motivations of human behavior and wants to make it understandable.

With this in mind, in the first part he deals with basic anthropological questions such as the "social nature of mental life", the child's ability to be influenced in its environment or the "relationship between the sexes".

In the second part, Adler focuses on the essence and development of the human character and analyzes various character traits as well as separating and connecting affects.

With his character studies he also wants to lead to a deeper understanding of people as "community beings", because "Errors in knowing human nature are life-threatening", writes Adler in the foreword Self-knowledge with a theoretical presentation of its individual psychology.