Chapter 3    Adler: Individual Psychology87
Adler (1929/1964) used an interesting analogy, which he called “the law of 
the low doorway.” If you are trying to walk through a doorway four feet high, you 
have two basic choices. First, you can use your creative power to bend down as you 
approach the doorway, thereby successfully solving the problem. This is the manner 
in which a psychologically healthy individual solves most of his or her life’s problems. 
Conversely, if you bump your head and fall back, you must still solve the problem 
correctly or continue bumping your head. Neurotics often choose to bump their head 
on the realities of life. When approaching the low doorway, you are neither compelled 
to stoop nor forced to bump your head. You have a creative power that permits you 
to follow either course.
Abnormal Development
Adler believed that people are what they make of themselves. The creative power 
endows humans, within certain limits, with the freedom to be either psychologically 
healthy or unhealthy and to follow either a useful or useless style of life.
General Description
According to Adler (1956), the one factor underlying all types of maladjustments is 
underdeveloped social interest.  Besides lacking social interest, neurotics tend to (1) set 
their goals too high, (2) live in their own private world, and (3) have a rigid and dog -
matic style of life. These three characteristics follow inevitably from a lack of social 
interest. In short, people become failures in life because they are overconcerned with 
themselves and care little about others. Maladjusted people set extravagant goals as 
an overcompensation for exaggerated feelings of inferiority. These lofty goals lead to 
dogmatic behavior, and the higher the goal, the more rigid the striving. To compen -
sate for deeply rooted feelings of inadequacy and basic insecurity, these individuals 
narrow their perspective and strive compulsively and rigidly for unrealistic goals.
The exaggerated and unrealistic nature of neurotics’ goals sets them apart from 
the community of other people. They approach the problems of friendship, sex, and 
occupation from a personal angle that precludes successful solutions. Their view of 
the world is not in focus with that of other individuals and they possess what Adler 
(1956) called “private meaning” (p. 156). These people find everyday living to be 
hard work, requiring great effort. Adler (1929/1964) used an analogy to describe how 
these people go through life.
In a certain popular music hall, the “strong” man comes on and lifts an enormous 
weight with care and intense difficulty. Then, during the hearty applause of the 
audience, a child comes in and gives away the fraud by carrying the dummy weight 
off with one hand. There are plenty of neurotics who swindle us with such weights, 
and who are adepts at appearing overburdened. They could really dance with the 
load under which they stagger. (p. 91)
External Factors in Maladjustment
Why do some people create maladjustments? Adler (1964) recognized three contribut -
ing factors, any one of which is sufficient to contribute to abnormality: (1) exaggerated 
physical deficiencies, (2) a pampered style of life, and (3) a neglected style of life.
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