What Life Could Mean to You

Alfred Adler, 1931

Your childhood gave you a private answer to what life means. Adler shows how to trade it for one built on contribution, courage and equal partnership.

Get the app Read on the web

12 parts, about 25 minutes to read.

Why read it

Argues that each of us settles on a meaning of life in early childhood, and that meanings which work centre on contributing to others
Shows how to read a person's goals through behaviour, early memories and family position rather than stated reasons
Rejects determinism: we are shaped not by what happened to us but by how we choose to interpret it

Who it is for

Parents raising a firstborn, a middle child or a youngest
Teachers and counsellors working with discouraged children
People stuck repeating the same setbacks at work or in love

What the summary covers

We live in a world of meanings1 min
The three tasks of life2 min
Private meanings and common meanings2 min
A life style formed in childhood2 min
Three situations that invite mistakes2 min
Feelings of inferiority3 min
The goal of superiority2 min
Early memories as keys2 min
The family as the first school of co operation2 min
Position in the family2 min
Work, society and the useful life1 min
Love and marriage4 min

About the author

Alfred AdlerAustrian physician and psychotherapist who founded individual psychology; died 1937
- Born 7 February 1870 near Vienna
- Graduated University of Vienna 1895, then eye doctor, later neurology and psychiatry
- Joined Freud's discussion group in 1902
- Left Freud's circle in 1911
- Founded the Society for Individual Psychology in 1912
- Started the first Child Guidance clinic in Vienna in 1919
- Professorship at Long Island College of Medicine from 1934
- Died 1937 in Aberdeen on a lecture tour

Read it alongside

Goes deeperBorn to Rebel: Birth Order, Family Dynamics, and Creative Lives
Adler argues that siblings grow up in different family situations. Sulloway proposes that seeking parental investment may drive them toward distinct roles, while reporting many studies with no significant birth order effect.