Alfred Adler’s Forbidden Psychology

Published by: David Garfinkel on 06-23-2025

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In 1911, psychology pioneer Alfred Adler resigned from the presidency of a prestigious society in Vienna—and Sigmund Freud took it personally and deemed Adler an enemy.

It didn’t stop there. Freud continued to rail against Adler until Freud’s death in 1939.

The details of the dispute are kind of technical and petty, and we won’t get into them today. The effects, however, were massive: Because of Freud’s opposition, Adler’s work was suppressed for decades.

And this is important. See, Adler had some powerful ideas that, decades later, have found their way into a number of well-accepted branches of psychology today – Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Positive Psychology, Family Systems Therapy, to name only a few.

Yet Adler’s original work remains unknown to most people.

Where this fits into copywriting is that some of Adler’s core ideas are enormously useful. They can help you with big ideas, hooks, headlines, and understanding customer motivation at a deep level.


Keywords: psychology copywriting

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