ABSTRACT
Adler (1964, p. 142) took a certain pride in keeping a piece of metaphysics in Individual Psychology. At a time when “scientific” psychologists strove to separate themselves from philosophical or metaphysical considerations, Adler maintained an idealistic positivist position. He declared late in his career that
unfortunately, there are many who have an erroneous view of metaphysics, who would like to see everything eliminated from the life of mankind which they cannot comprehend immediately …Every new idea lies beyond immediate experience. Vice versa, immediate experience never yields anything new. It is only the synthesizing idea which connects the data of immediate experience …. I see no reason to be afraid of metaphysics; it has had a very great influence on human life and development. We are not blessed with the possession of the absolute truth, and on that account we are compelled to form theories for ourselves about our future and about the results of our actions. (1964, p. 142, emphasis added)
Clearly Adler has placed the experiencing person at the very center of meaning. The person is, however, not just a passive receiver of experience,
but an active participant in giving personal meaning to the empirical data of immediate experience. This creative power of the individual was a major intervening variable in Adler’s thought through most of his long and productive career. He essentially developed a psychology with a soul (Adler, 1964).
