ADLER’S COPERNICAN REVOLUTION

Abstract

This paper examines the reasons behind Adler’s relative obscurity within the discipline of Psychology. The socio-historical context within which Adler’s paradigm of Individual Psychology emerged is discussed. Using the work of the philosopher John Macmurry, Adler’s work is recast from the stand-point or metaphor of the “personal” rather than through the traditional metaphors of “the machine” or “the organism”. Prior to Adler, these two traditional metaphors provided a global and an orthodox paradigm to organize our experience of the world and of each other. Psychology, with all other disciplines, emerges from these traditional metaphorical domains. Adler’s work, however, may be seen to initiate a new era in psychology