--- Title: Companionate Rite Cowardly, Says Dr. Adler Description: The Philadelphia Inquirer, Monday, February 6, 1928, pp. 1 and 5. Interview by John M. McCullough, conducted on February 5 at the Hotel Sylvania, Philadelphia, on Adler's arrival for a week of lectures under the auspices of the Parents' Council. Author: Alfred Adler URL: https://adler.school/archivo/adler/entrevistas/original/1928-02-06%20Companionate%20Rite%20Cowardly%2C%20Says%20Dr.%20Adler --- # COMPANIONATE RITE COWARDLY, SAYS DR. ADLER ## Viennese Psychologist, Here for Lectures, Finds Marriage Plan Escape for Weak ## Propounder of Inferiority Complex Cites Failure of Promiscuous Unions in Russia to Bolster Views By JOHN M. McCULLOUGH Companionate marriage is the coward's excuse for escaping the responsibilities and the trials of married life. Men and women who choose it—or who, because of "surface" irritations, conclude their marital difficulties in the divorce court—are cowards. Seeking a way of easy escape from ties that they fear will bind them to dreariness and irritation and decreasing affection, they have chosen an ancient highway of flight. Whether it be called "companionate marriage," in the language of Judge Ben Lindsey, or "free love," in that of the social modernists, it is still bad psychology, and can lead to no other conclusion than individual disaster and social confusion. As the puppet-master leans upon the parapet of his miniature stage, and with sure fingers directs the actions of his marionettes with slender strands, so Dr. Alfred Adler, famous Viennese psychologist and psychiatrist, propounder of the theory of the "inferiority complex," and founder of the school of individual psychology, looked upon modern man and modern woman yesterday afternoon. ### Here For Week of Lectures Dr. Adler arrived in this city yesterday for a week of lectures and conferences under the auspices of the Parents' Council of Philadelphia. A short, stout, genial little man, with a close-clipped grey moustache and pudgy, plump hands, he looked anything but that dynamic person who could, by the sheer expounding of his theories, persuade orthodox psychologists and psychiatrists to tear their hair and beat their breasts and cry out in the depths of their agony. But as he talked yesterday, sitting quietly in his suite in the Hotel Sylvania, with his stout, soft fingers clasped restfully over the rotundity of his short person, one realized suddenly that here was a great mind, vitalized and directed by a great compassion and a great understanding. "Marriage is a task to last for eternity," he said, his keen eyes narrowed behind the lenses of his nose-glasses. "That they do not understand. To it a man must bring all of his intelligence, all of his force, all of his strength, to overcome difficulties, and to sustain it until the very last point—and even beyond that. He must be ready to ask himself: 'Am I not wrong?' when some difficulty arises, and to say, 'Well, then, I must try and correct that wrong.' "What is the cause of all of your divorces and your companionate marriages and your unhappy marriages?" The little man smiled, and made a deprecating gesture with his hands. ### Finds Solution Is Woman "Why the sudden devlopment of woman. It has been so always. All through history it has been so. When woman has developed, when she has become free, then there has been social unrest. No more is the woman the slave—and man has become tremblingly afraid. He fears that marriage cannot last. He thinks that it cannot be for eternity, with the woman who will not stay quietly at home at the loom or sewing on buttons. And to hide his fear, he accepts what he can, which is never more than temporary. "And woman! Many modern women think that they will be loved only as long as they have youth and beauty and vitality and they determine to make the most of it." Dr. Adler leaned forward suddenly and struck the arm of his chair a resounding blow with the palm of one hand. "There can be no harmony with one note left out. There can be no marriage which says, 'We are in love, yes. We are married, yes, but—.' There can be no love which does not think of children. Love and children are inseparable. "But when men and women are afraid that marriage cannot last, when they are afraid to believe that it is for eternity, that it is a task, just as one's business is a task, then that is 'triste'—that is sad. The woman becomes like the man. She drinks, she pets. ### Cites Russian Experiment "They tried it in Russia. A man could marry with a word, and he could get a divorce by simply asking for one at the government office. And then the government found that it was wrong. Every man and woman had been married five, six, seven times. Children did not know who their fathers and mothers were. There was sex [¿depravity?]. There was moral degeneracy. It was easy. And the government said, 'This must stop.' "Companionate marriage is the [ilegible: el final de la columna está cortado en el escaneo] the old way in which psychiatrists treated the neurotics. They locked them up, they put them away, they said, 'let them rest a little while.' But that did not cure the disease. It was only an escape from meeting the problem. "The only cure for the whole situation is more social contacts and teaching the little children what marriage means. "The women finally will revolt. They will turn away from this business of being lived with and tossed aside, because they will find that life has no meaning. They will turn to religion. "Men and women do not look upon marriage as the part of a whole scheme, with eternity as a goal. They do not see themselves in relation to all society. ### Sees Literature An Influence "It is bad that young people get their ideas of marriage and of love from literature," Dr. Adler continued, still in the ruminative mood which is so characteristic of him. "They get almost all of their ideas from the drama, from romance, from stories. And all stories seem to be of unhappy marriages, of weak men and weak women. Why, even in the Bible, Eve was discontented. And then the beautiful Helen, who disturbed a whole nation, a whole ancient world. All is of unhappiness and of tragedy. "And then there is environment. What ideas does the little child get of marriage from parents who are cold to each other, or who carry on their affairs with mutual consent. That child, without being able to share the confidence of either parent, forms repressions. There is no opening of the heart. It becomes a liar. It becomes secretive and sly—and slyness always is cowardice." All crime, he said, is a direct outgrowth of cowardice. The criminal, having stepped outside of the laws that bind society, acquires an inferiority complex. Its expression is found in his efforts to prove to himself that he is right, that he is the stronger, the more clever, the more resourceful, in his attempts to outwit the police. He is seeking escape from working to obtain his living, and he is attempting to justify his stealing, and his burglary, by proving that he can get away with it. ### "All Criminals Are Cowards" "All criminals are cowards," Dr. Adler declared. "All of them. I do not care how defiant they are. They are criminals because they are cowards. They are afraid of life, and so they defy it. It is only the coward who will shoot down a defenseless man. "I do not believe in capital punishment, because the warfare between criminals and society is a competition. The more punishments society imposes the more the criminal strives to outwit society, the greater seems his triumph when he succeeds. "When a man knows that he will be killed if he is caught, the greater becomes his brutality. He will shoot down more defenseless people. He will murder and steal more and more, because that is the manner in which his inferiority, his cowardice, is elated." Dr. Adler, under the direction of the Parents' Council, has arranged an extensive programme of lectures and conferences with parents and teachers during the week. Today and on Wednesday he will lecture at Haverford College. This evening he speaks at Swarthmore. Wednesday evening he will make an address at the Philomusian Club, 3944 Walnut street. A number of other conferences, of a semi-private and private nature have also been scheduled. The eminent psychologist will remain in this country until early May, visiting in the course of the stay a number of colleges and universities of the country and lecturing principally on the subject of child guidance. --- *Fuente:* *The Philadelphia Inquirer* (Filadelfia), lunes 6 de febrero de 1928, págs. 1 (última columna) y 5 (columnas 1-2); entrevista de John M. McCullough. Transcripción hecha sobre la imagen de las dos páginas (fultonhistory.com, «Philadelphia PA Inquirer 1928 a - 1454.pdf» y «- 1458.pdf»), con ayuda del OCR de la plataforma. El borde inferior de la pág. 5 está cortado en el escaneo: se pierden una o dos líneas al pie de la primera columna (marcadas [ilegible]). Se respetan las erratas del periódico («devlopment»; «Dr. Alder» en el encabezamiento de la continuación).