Give an opinion of what kind of relationship Freud and Adler experienced with each other. How and for what reasons did this relationship change over time?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

ANS: Adler's 9-year association with Freud began in 1902, when Freud invited Adler and three others to meet once a week at Freud's home to discuss psychoanalysis. Although their relationship never became close, Freud initially thought highly of Adler and praised his skill as a physician who was able to gain the trust of his patients. It is important to remember that Adler was never a student or disciple of Freud's and was not psychoanalyzed by him.
By 1910, although Adler was president of the Vienna Psychoanalytical Society and coeditor of its journal, he was also an increasingly vocal critic of the Freudian theory. He soon severed all connection with psychoanalysis and went on to develop his own approach to personality.
Freud reacted angrily to Adler's defection. He belittled Adler's physical stature and called Adler loathsome, abnormal, driven mad by ambition, filled with venom and meanness, paranoid, intensely jealous, and sadistic. He also described Adler's theory as worthless.
Adler showed similar hostility toward Freud, calling him a swindler and denouncing psychoanalysis as filth. Adler became irate whenever he was introduced or referred to as a student of Freud's. In his later years, Adler became just as embittered toward defectors from his own approach as Freud had been toward those, like Adler, who deviated from psychoanalysis.