MEA CULPA AND WHAT IS HUMANITY TO DO? ADLER’S UNDERSTANDING OF AND APPROACHES TO PANDEMICS

Abstract

Alfred Adler lived through the epidemics of thyphus, malaria, diphteria, and later the Spanish flu as an army physician between 1916 and 1918. He was a physician in Wien after the World War I. Yet there are no direct references to the Spanish flu in any of his writings during or about the corresponding year. This article discusses the social, economic, and public health environment in which Adler lived between 1918 and 1920, details of his life, the focus of his work during those years, the possible reason he never mentioned the Spanish flu directly, and a clear holistic evolutionary approach to the pandemics that is visible and palpable in Adler’s writings