--- Title: The Soul of the Child. Résumé of a Series of Lectures Description: The New Era (London) 8 (1927), No. 29 (January), pp. 5-6. Résumé of five lectures given at the Tavistock Clinic, London, 8-12 November 1926. Author: Alfred Adler URL: https://adler.school/archivo/adler/original/1927-01%20The%20Soul%20of%20the%20Child --- # The Soul of the Child *Résumé of a Series of Lectures* By Dr. Alfred Adler (*Author of "Individual Psychology," etc.*) Every child has to find some solution to the three great problems of life—social life, occupation and love or sex life. The feeling that he is too little, too weak to satisfy his desires leads him to increase his power and his goal is always to solve the three problems without great difficulties. The third problem, that of his sex life, is the most difficult because tradition is no longer a guide. A child should be given courage so that he may be convinced he can develop on an equality with others. If he is faced with too great a difficulty he loses his courage and goes over from the useful to the useless side, as it were. In the first three years he forms his style of life. Any defect in his organs in the beginning of life gives the child an inferiority feeling, and to compensate he makes greater efforts to train the organ in question. Thus a left-handed child, educated in the right way, can develop his right hand even better than normal children, but if, on the contrary, he is educated in the wrong way and accused of being clumsy, he may lose his courage and develop undesirable compensations on the useless side, as a way of escape from the feeling of inferiority. The same is true of children who have deficient sense organs, defective heart, lungs, muscles, weakness of the skin, or who have an illness during their first year. In consequence of wrong treatment they may become "naughty," difficult or criminal children. A petted child or one who has too little love may show the same symptoms. When left alone, he feels inferior and lacking in self-confidence. His language development is hindered; he becomes anti-social and makes no friends. He constantly turns to obtain the support to which he has become accustomed. The teacher must consider the child's mistakes, his so-called naughtinesses, and through them arrive at an understanding of the style of life he has adopted. It is of no use to treat the symptoms without understanding his case; it is the style of life that must be changed. The child's affection must be won, his desire for love must be satisfied, and he must be made an independent individual. Difficulties arise from the child's place in the family. The first child, for a time the centre of interest and love, becomes jealous on the arrival of a second, and constantly strives for power, while the second child feels inhibited by the first and strives to overcome him. The youngest is usually a spoilt child; he tries to overcome the others by becoming different from them. The elder son, believing that, as a boy, he is privileged and superior, feels inhibited by a younger sister, since at a certain period she develops more rapidly. The only child is often spoilt and not trained either for school or society. He should play with other children, get accustomed to being left alone, and be made independent. The only boy between sisters and the only girl between brothers both have special difficulties. The idea of masculine privilege must disappear, since it has done great harm to both sexes. In all cases the children should grow up realising the rôle that circumstances have assigned to them with its attendant difficulties, and thus be saved from regressing to the useless side of life. When treating a difficult child we should look first for defective organs and illnesses in the first three years of life; then examine his position in the family and the attitude of his parents and grandparents; collect evidence of his behaviour and work during his school career and of his relation to his fellows; obtain from him any early recollections and his aim regarding his future. A child's mistakes are not pre-determined. We must not treat the mistakes but find the cause. Is it a nervous child or adult? Only people with a great inferiority feeling become nervous, therefore we must treat the inferiority. The lazy child develops laziness as a protection, and he must be treated so that he regains his courage. We should watch what happens when a child is placed in a new situation. He would not regress and go over to the useless side if he had not lost hope. The teacher or parent could step in at this point and prevent regression. The hindrance to a child's development may be found in a school where he is subjected to much criticism and punished. He tries to escape, and to effect this he has to deceive and perhaps becomes a truant. He may become a thief and develop a criminal neurosis. He has failed in his first environment, he must be given new courage in another environment so that he can solve his three problems of life. --- *Fuente:* Alfred Adler, «The Soul of the Child. Résumé of a Series of Lectures», *The New Era* (órgano de la New Education Fellowship, Londres) 8 (1927), n.º 29 (enero), págs. 5-6. Transcripción a partir del volumen anual de 1927 digitalizado en archive.org (IOETNE007), con el OCR de la plataforma corregido íntegramente sobre la imagen de las páginas. Las conferencias se dieron en la Tavistock Clinic (sede de la British Medical Association, Londres) del 8 al 12 de noviembre de 1926. Se omite el párrafo introductorio de la redacción (reproducido en un comentario del código). 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