--- Title: A Great Psychiatrist Analyses the Jews. An Interview with Dr. Alfred Adler Description: The Hebrew Standard of Australasia (Sydney), Friday, February 21, 1930, p. 11. Interview given in the United States in the winter of 1929-30; unsigned here, signed by Martha Neumark in the reprint in the Australian Jewish Chronicle (Sydney), March 27, 1930. Author: Alfred Adler URL: https://adler.school/archivo/adler/entrevistas/original/1930-02-21%20A%20Great%20Psychiatrist%20Analyses%20the%20Jews --- # A Great Psychiatrist Analyses the Jews ## AN INTERVIEW WITH DR. ALFRED ADLER It is often said that one of the national neurosis of the Jews is their individual preoccupation with their own lives and with the destiny of their people. Perhaps it is the centuries of aimless wandering and fruitless suffering that has accentuated in the Jew the desire, natural with man, to discover his origin and to ascertain his goal. And perhaps, also the tradition of the "chosen people" makes it incumbent upon the successive generations of Jews to find a distinction between them and other peoples, distinction mental, cultural or spiritual. That may give rise to an attitude cherished by more than the illiterate that the Jew's intellectual calibre is greater than that of his neighbour or that his qualities of heart are unrivalled. These are questions which no statistical machine will ever answer—fortunately, perhaps, for the claimants of the distinction. There is perhaps no one with whom these matters could be more profitably discussed than Dr. Alfred Adler. Among the uninitiated Adler is regarded as an outstanding "phychoanalyst." But Adler rejects that appellation. As the founder of the school of individual psychology he prefers to be known merely as a psychiatrist who had done as much toward imparting to men and women an understanding of human conduct as any other man in contemporary medicine. Two decades ago, Dr. Adler startled Vienna with the publication of a volume that revolutionised the scientific attitude to individual psychology. Since that time he and his disciples have established the now commonly accepted principle that the origins of neurosis are to be found in childhood. Dr. Adler's free child-guidance clinics in Vienna have found their counterparts in other cities throughout the world. At the present time Dr. Adler is in the United States lecturing under the auspices of America's foremost medical foundation and conducting a child and adult clinic. Why do Jews seem to dominate the field of psycholanalysis? Are Jewish children more intelligent school pupils than others? Are the Jews more neurotic than their neighbours? What of the theory that century-old consanguinity has has caused the neurosis? These and similar questions constituted the basis of our conversation, and in order to preserve the gist of his views, I reproduce a rather formal account of the interview. "How do you explain the fact," I wanted to know, "that so many of the great names in the various schools of psychotherapy—Freud, Adler, and so on—are Jewish? Do you think that Jews have a special aptitude for this sort of work, or that there is some special racial trend that causes their interest?" "I don't grant your premise that a disproportionate number of Jews lead in the psychological field. Contrary to popular opinion, the majority of the great men are not Jews. Jung is not a Jew; nor is Watson; nor is MacDolgall. It is only in the special field of psychoanalysis that Jews may be found in numbers larger than usual, but there is a very simple explanation of this fact. In Europe, in Vienna—more than in America—medical practise is somewhat restricted and the Jewish doctor sometimes finds it easier to get along under the protection of membership in the group of psychoanalysts. But that is the result of a special set of circumstances, and not of any racial tendency." "It has often been suggested that among Jews there is a greater percentage of high mentalities as well as a greater percentage of low mentalities than among other races. What is your reaction to such a statement?" "I do not believe that this statement is in any way correct," was Dr. Adler's reply. "As far as my experience tends to show, the Jews and the non-Jews share the same degree of genius and feeble-mindedness. There is a special set of circumstances that has given rise to this erroneous impression of the concomitant superiority and inferiority of the Jews. "It is true that Jewish schoolchildren often pass intelligence tests with disproportionately high ratings. But this is not necessarily due to any special mental potentialities. **It is rather a result of the special home training which is inherent in the Jewish tradition.** "**I remember my own childhood.** In the evenings my father and mother would be at home and we would all gather together and relax in the peaceful home atmosphere. The Jews are essentially a home-loving people; and therein lies the secret of their succes in child-training. There is more of a tradition of family solidarity among the Jews. On the average they devote more time to the rearing of their children—not so much because of any special aptitude but because circumstances have made for a closer clinging to tradition. So it is that the Jewish schoolchild shows the benefit of his home training. But when childhood days are over and the sixteen and seventeen-year-olds are no longer under the constant home guidance, these differences are erased. "On the other hand, the Jews expect so much from their children as a result of this very training that the slow child is often regarded as more definitely below normal than he would be in another group not so interested in intellectual attainments. "Of course, it is true that we seem to provide the world with a surprisingly large number of brilliant minds and leaders among men. But this is really an illusion of a peculiar kind. If in a small group of a hundred men, ten stand out for their high achievements, they attract a good deal more attention than a hundred men who might be conspicuous for their abilities in a larger group of a thousand. In other words, it is because the Jewish luminaries compete with a narrower field that their brilliance seems the brighter, and not because there are proportionately more of them. "Have you, in your personal practice, found anything to support the theory often advanced that Jews have a more pronounced neurotic trend than other people?" "Not at all. Such theories seem to me to be based on a mistaken impression that the fears and depressions of past generations can be inherited—which is not true. I have never seen any conclusive statistics on this question. But even if there were [s]uch statistics I should say that the cause would be found in the traditional tensity and severity surrounding the head of the household—and so the whole problem would naturally resolve itself into a need for co-operation in the individual home; there would be nothing of a racial character involved." "But reputable scientists have advanced the theory that the consanguinity practised by the Jew throughout the centuries has tendered to intensity their original mental and psychic disabilities." "That, I believe, is all nonsense. There can be no objection to consanguinity if the two individuals concerned are both healthy. Naturally, if there is any weakness it will be intensified—but that is also the case when two entirely unrelated people marry. I know that people frown on marriage between blood relatives; but their fear is more superstitious than anything else." I was interested to know whether Dr. Adler has found that living in America had produced either more or less neuroticism among the Jews, but he said that he had noticed no difference. Then, as we were about to leave, he assumed a new role, that of the proud Jewish father. "Oh, but you must meet my daughter, who is here with me," he insisted, and called to her in the next room. In a moment in [¿it?] bounded a lovely child—perhaps not beautiful in the classical sense but with gorgeous vivid red hair and lively brown eyes and an indescribable and unforgettable charm. She looked like a slim, vital young girl of fifteen. "Are you going to follow in your father's footsteps?" I asked. "I don't know yet," she said. "My sister is a doctor, you know." When I inquired whether she was studying she replied: "Not just now. I have been an actress for a couple of years, but now I am just with my father." And then, to my amazement, I learned that this sprightly creature was all of twenty years of age, and not the child she seemed. "She doesn't eat enough," Dr. Adler complained. And "that's what all fathers say, isn't it?" his daughter smiled knowingly. The little family looked contented and happy—a typical Jewish family—as I left. --- *Fuente:* "A Great Psychiatrist Analyses the Jews. An Interview with Dr. Alfred Adler", *The Hebrew Standard of Australasia* (Sydney), 21 de febrero de 1930, pág. 11, sin firma. Transcripción de todo el artículo hecha sobre la imagen de la página en Trove (National Library of Australia, nla.news-article121832425), con apoyo del texto OCR corregido por los voluntarios de Trove; todo se ha cotejado con la imagen. La misma entrevista se reimprimió con el título "The Jew and Neurosis. An Interview with Dr. Alfred Adler. By Martha Neumark" en el *Australian Jewish Chronicle* (Sydney), 27 de marzo de 1930, págs. 4 y 16 (Trove, nla.news-article261034255), que no se ha cotejado; el original estadounidense (prensa judía de Nueva York, invierno de 1929-30) no se ha localizado. La hija es Cornelia (Nelly) Adler, actriz; la hermana médica, Alexandra Adler. Se conservan las erratas del impreso («national neurosis», «phychoanalyst», «psycholanalysis», «has has», «MacDolgall» por McDougall, «succes», «tendered to intensity» por *tended to intensify*); se restituye la *s* caída de «[s]uch». En «In a moment in [¿it?] bounded» el impreso está dañado. Las negritas reproducen las del impreso.