One of the most published psychologists in our time remains Sigmund Freud; to be convinced of this, just go to any bookstore and find a shelf with the inscription Psychology. Almost every psychologist and psychotherapist still considers it their duty to either criticize or praise his work. Freud's aura is so inflated that psychologists such as Carl Jung and Alfred Adler are still considered his students, although this is not so. Alfred Adler, who was originally a general practitioner by profession, saw the root cause of neuroses in a certain inferiority of internal organs. It seems to me that it is precisely these views that now prevent many of his ideas from being fairly assessed. But in many psychotherapeutic concepts the influence of Individual Psychology remains. This is especially evident in the works of V. Frankl, A. Maslow, R. May, J. Bugental, I. Yalom and others. I will talk about how I discovered Individual Psychology and what I found useful in Alfred Adler’s work “Practice and theory of Individual Psychology" 1920. Inferiority complex. This is the key concept of Individual Psychology. Usually A. Adler is given credit for introducing this particular concept. Let's take the definition from Wikipedia. An inferiority complex is a set of psychological and emotional feelings of a person, expressed in a sense of one’s own inferiority and an irrational belief in the superiority of others over oneself. This phenomenon is now usually attributed to short people and people with certain physical defects. In modern psychology, the inferiority complex is considered as a separate type of neurosis. A. Adler himself considered the inferiority complex only in interaction with the superiority complex, as the basis of human behavior. He believed that the feeling of inferiority and the desire for superiority is inherent in all people and forms the basis not only of neuroses, but also of our healthy ambitions. According to Individual Psychology, even in early childhood, in conditions of complete helplessness in front of large adults, the child develops a vague, unconscious fictitious goal, as the ultimate compensation for feelings of inferiority and a life plan to achieve it. Modern culture is imbued with the desire for power, celebrity and wealth. But for many people these goals become very fanciful and can be attributed more to fictions or “as if” imaginations. And despite their obvious meaninglessness and isolation from reality, they influence their entire life. Alfred Adler wrote that this motivation is inherent in both healthy and sick people, but a neurotic has stronger psychological defenses of his life plan, and his “specific” goals are always on the "useless" side of life. A neurotic fictitious goal does not motivate a person, but interferes with a productive life and often leads to the formation of a neurotic personality and the development of mental disorders. Hostility A. Adler’s understanding of the origin of hostility in the human soul is interesting. According to Individual Psychology, it is the desire for superiority that brings hostility into a person’s life, deprives him of the spontaneity of sensations and alienates him from reality, constantly pushing him to commit violence against it. A person obsessed with a fictitious goal shows his hostility, both openly and hidden. In return, he expects the same attitude towards himself. In this view, it is important that the source of hostility is the person himself. Not the instinct for destruction, unbridled libido or biological tendency to crime, but precisely the neurotic’s view of the world. It becomes clear why so often there is an attitude towards life as a struggle. Why does a neurotic not live in such conditions, but survive? When a person begins to reconsider his life attitudes, he ceases to be afraid of the world and begins to see the vulnerability of people, and not their supposed hostility. The words of Marcus Aurelius, reinforced by Irvin Yalom, “We are all creatures for a day,” are remembered and understood. Psychological resource A. Adler also had a different understanding of the complex!