Alfred Adler - Personal Life

Personal Life

Alfred Adler was born at Mariahilfer Straße 208 in Rudolfsheim, a place near Vienna at the time but today part of Rudolfsheim-Fünfhaus, the 15th district of Vienna. He was the second child of seven children of a Hungarian-born, Jewish grain merchant and his wife. Early on, he developed rickets, which kept him from walking until he was four years old. At the age of four, he developed pneumonia and heard a doctor say to his father, "Your boy is lost". At that point, he decided to be a physician. He was very interested in the subjects of psychology, sociology and philosophy. After studying at University of Vienna, he specialized as an eye doctor, and later in neurology and psychiatry.

Alfred was an active, popular child and an average student who was also known for his competitive attitude toward his older brother, Sigmund.

In 1895 Adler received a medical degree from the University of Vienna. During his college years, he had become attached to a group of socialist students, among which he had found his wife-to-be, Raissa Timofeyewna Epstein, an intellectual and social activist from Russia studying in Vienna. They married in 1897 and had four children, two of whom became psychiatrists.

Author and journalist Margot Adler is Adler's granddaughter.