ABSTRACT
Adler’s concept of “organ jargon” provides both a framework and a technique for understanding and working with clients and patients who exhibit physical symptoms, whether or not the symptoms are predominantly organic or functional. Although Adler may not have originated the idea, he made it his own by carrying it forward, and, like the inferiority complex, “organ jargon” came to be associated with him. According to M. Robb, an Individual Psychologist writing in 1932, Georg Groddeck coined the term. Robb reports Groddeck as saying, “Illness is not merely a burden to be lifted, but is a … declaration.” This is the essence of organ jargon.
