Chapter 3    Adler: Individual Psychology95
yields clues to understanding both their final goal and their present style of life. As 
we saw in the chapter opening, one of Adler’s earliest recollections was of the great 
contrast between his brother Sigmund’s good health and his own sickly condition.
If Adler’s assumption that early recollections are a valid indicator of a person’s 
style of life, then this memory should yield clues about Adler’s adult style of life. First, 
it tells us that he must have seen himself as an underdog, competing valiantly against 
a powerful foe. However, this early recollection also indicates that he believed he 
had the help of others. Receiving aid from other people would have given Adler the 
confidence to compete against such a powerful rival. This confidence coupled with a 
competitive attitude likely carried over to his relationship with Sigmund Freud, mak -
ing that association tenuous from the beginning.
Adler (1929/1964) presented another example of the relationship between 
early recollections and style of life. During therapy an outwardly successful man who 
greatly distrusted women reported the following early memory: “I was going with my 
mother and little brother to market. Suddenly it began to rain and my mother took me 
in her arms, and then, remembering that I was the older, she put me down and took 
up my younger brother” (p. 123). Adler saw that this recollection related directly to 
the man’s current distrust of women. Having initially gained a favorite position with 
his mother, he eventually lost it to his younger brother. Although others may claim to 
love him, they will soon withdraw their love. Note that Adler did not believe that the 
early childhood experiences caused  the man’s current distrust of women, but rather 
that his current distrustful style of life shapes and colors his early recollections.
Adler believed that highly anxious patients will often project their current style 
of life onto their memory of childhood experiences by recalling fearful and anxiety-
producing events, such as being in a motor vehicle crash, losing parents either tem -
porarily or permanently, or being bullied by other children. In contrast, self-confident 
people tend to recall memories that include pleasant relations with other people. In 
either case the early experience does not determine the style of life. Adler believed 
that the opposite was true; that is, recollections of early experiences are simply shaped 
by present style of life.
Dreams
Although dreams cannot foretell the future, they can provide clues for solving future 
problems. Nevertheless, the dreamer frequently does not wish to solve the problem in 
a productive manner. Adler (1956) reported the dream of a 35-year-old man who was 
considering marriage. In the dream, the man “crossed the border between Austria and 
Hungary, and they wanted to imprison me” (p. 361). Adler interpreted this dream to 
mean that the dreamer wants to come to a standstill because he would be defeated 
if he went on. In other words, the man wanted to limit his scope of activity and had 
no deep desire to change his marital status. He did not wish to be “imprisoned” by 
marriage. Any interpretation of this or any dream must be tentative and open to rein -
terpretation. Adler (1956) applied the golden rule of individual psychology to dream 
work, namely, “Everything can be different” (p. 363). If one interpretation doesn’t 
feel right, try another.
Immediately before Adler’s first trip to the United States in 1926, he had a 
vivid and anxious dream that related directly to his desire to spread his individual 
fei75766_ch03_072-106.indd 95  02/06/20  11:03 AMFinal PDF to printer