Alfred Adler as a Doctor (Against the Background of Personal Memories): A Psychobiographical Fragment of Adler During World War I

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Sparse historical sources describe Alfred Adler’s life during World War I, and even fewer sources exist that would provide a thorough understanding of his life in that challenging time. An accidentally found obituary written in 1938 by the Polish Jewish physician Dr. Maksymilian Blassberg in a Polish medical journal unveils some interesting details about Adler’s duty as a military neurologist in the Kraków military hospital in 1917. This article helps fill the gap in understanding the circumstances of Adler’s life at the time. Combined with field letters from Kraków, the article provides a vivid psychobiographical picture of how Adler dealt with wartime circumstances, with fears of being mobilized to the front and the practices of war psychiatry. Many parallels inspire practitioners to think about the dangers and difficulties of today’s Individual Psychologists in Ukraine facing devastating war conditions. The English translation of the obituary is presented here.