ABSTRACT
Alfred Adler (1973a, 1973b) seems to have been among the first of the modern theorists/clinicians to emphasize personal responsibility for one’s behavior. Viewing neurotic symptoms as a means of avoiding responsibility, Adler wrote: “The life plan of the neurotic demands categorically that if he fails, it should be through someone else’s fault and that he should be freed from personal responsibility.… Every therapeutic cure … tears him from the cradle of his freedom from responsibility” (Ansbacher & Ansbacher, 1956, pp. 270–271).
