Ortega and Adler’s “Individual Psychology”: A Historical Note

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.63487/reo.450

Keywords:

José Ortega y Gasset, Alfred Adler, Ortega's psychology, individual Psychology, socialization, mass-man

Abstract

The paper presents a series of coincidences that may be found between various aspects of Ortega’s thought and some characteristic ideas of Alfred Adler’s “individual psychology”. They seem to indicate an affinity between both intellectual constructions. Adler’s system was proposed by his author as an alternative to Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalysis. It is also analyzed here an interview made by the psychiatrist and writer F. Oliver Brachfeld to Ortega (in 1931), in which the latter would have summarized his main points of agreement with the Adlerian thesis.

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Author Biography

Helio Carpintero Capell, Universidad a Distancia de Madrid

Chair of Basic Psychology and Vice Rector for Research at the Open University of Madrid, he holds a Ph.D. from the Complutense University of Madrid and has been awarded honorary doctorates by the universities of Valencia (Spain), UNED (Spain), Córdoba (Argentina), and San Luis (Argentina). Founder and former president of the Spanish Society for the History of Psychology, he is a member of the Royal Academy of Moral and Political Sciences and serves on the editorial board of numerous specialized journals. An expert on the work of Julián Marías, he has been a pioneer in bringing to light the Ortega-inspired studies developed by Ortega’s disciple. His research focuses on the history of psychology and Spanish thought. Among his principal publications are Julián Marías, una vida en la verdad (2008), Una voz de la Tercera España. Julián Marías. 1939 (2007), History of Psychology in Spain (2004), Outline of a Psychology Based on Vital Reason (2000), and History of Psychological Ideas (1996).

References

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CARPINTERO, H. (1984): “Ortega y su psicología del hombre-masa”, en J. MARÍAS, et al., Un siglo de Ortega y Gasset. Madrid: Editorial Mezquita, pp. 117-129.

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Published

2012-05-01 — Updated on 2012-05-01

How to Cite

Carpintero Capell, H. (2012). Ortega and Adler’s “Individual Psychology”: A Historical Note. Revista De Estudios Orteguianos (Journal of Orteguian Studies), (24), 109–126. https://doi.org/10.63487/reo.450

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Articles