What Life Could Mean to You

Book excerpt: Rather than purporting to know life's meaning, Adler set out in What Life Could Mean to You to help each of us create our own meaning for our life. He examines a wide range of themes common to all our lives, including family and school influences; adolescent development; feelings of superiority and inferiority; the importance of cooperation; the "problems of work, friendship, and love and marriage; and the individual and society. Through a fuller understanding of these areas of life and the value of each person, Adler shows how to overcome the limitations of our past and develop the courage and confidence to transform ourselves--and the world in which we live. "We must make our own lives," Adler writes. "It is our own task and we are capable of performing it. If something new must be done or something old replaced, no one can do it but ourselves. If life is approached in this way, as a cooperation of independent human beings, there are no limits to the progress of our human civilization." A contemporary of Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud, Alfred Adler was born in a Vienna suburb to a Jewish grain merchant. After becoming a medical doctor, Adler went on to found Individual Psychology and write more than 300 books and papers on child psychology, marriage, education, and the principles of individual psychology. Adler died in 1937 and is recognized along with Freud and Jung as one of the three great fathers of modern psychotherapy. The Adler Collection is also available to you which includes What Life Could Mean To You as well as the following two publications: Understanding Life which is an inspiring work that offers direction and wise counsel for increasing awareness of self, one's motivations, and the importance of each person's unique contribution to society; and Understanding Human Nature which is as relevant today as when written, this timely reprint of a classic in individual psychology shows the way to increased understanding of ourselves and our role in society.