Dr Alfred Adler

Dr Alfred Adler

Austrian Psychologist

Moustache type: Trapezoid toothbrush

Born: 7 2 1870 (Vienna, Austria)
Died: 28 5 1937 (Aberdeen, Scotland, aged 67, heart failure)

Alfred Adler may not be the best-known Austrian psychologist of the late 19th and early 20th centuries but within his professional field he is respected as a great pioneer.

Initially on friendly terms with Sigmund Freud, the two grew apart as their ideas became stronger and more divergent. Adler rejected Freud’s centricity on sex and instead propagated theories that focussed on inferiority complexes and birth order within the family (eldest over-achieving, second competitive, youngest over-dependent). He believed that humans strive to compensate for their shortcomings and did not agree with Freud’s ideas about carving the personality into ego, superego and id. Instead Adler preferred to examine the personality as a whole – he called this ‘individual psychology.'

Freud and Adler are certainly two of the most famous psychologists history has to offer. Rather than lament the absence of one great psychologist from the world of moustaches, the reader should be positive, and delight in the inclusion of one great moustache in the world of psychology.