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.
Read more about this topic: Alfred Adler
Famous quotes containing the words personal and/or life:
“Close friends contribute to our personal growth. They also contribute to our personal pleasure, making the music sound sweeter, the wine taste richer, the laughter ring louder because they are there.”
—Judith Viorst (20th century)
“Dear, I know nothing of
Either, but when I try to imagine a faultless love
Or the life to come, what I hear is the murmur
Of underground streams, what I see is a limestone landscape.”
—W.H. (Wystan Hugh)