AN ADLERIAN INTERPRETATION OF “THE MODEL STUDENT” OF JOSEPH ROTH

Abstract

This paper emphasizes the impressive coincidence of the psychic dynamics, described by the writer Joseph Roth, and the basic principles of the psychological theory of Alfred Adler, his contemporary and fellow-countryman. The life goals and the behaviours of the protagonist of the tale are inspected in the light of the concepts of inferiority, compensation, striving for superiority, social feeling, fiction. Anton Wanzl’s vicissitude may become paradigmatic of the life-style coherence and of the behaviour meaning, according to the individual-psychological view