Present-day Adlerian psychiatric practice.

Adlerian psychotherapy has largely followed the lines laid down by Alfred Adler's basic teachings. Adler's technique of public child guidance, first demonstrated in Vienna more than 50 years ago, is now practiced in clinics, guidance centers, and schools in the United States and abroad. New techniques and growing experiences add to the present effectiveness of Adlerian psychiatric practice. In keeping with growing needs, group approaches, practiced by Individual Psychologists from the beginning, are increasingly in the foreground of the therapeutic work of all Adlerian clinics and guidance centers (I, 10, 13). New discoveries, such as better psychopharmacologic drugs, are used by our medical psychotherapists whenever needed. Adler's basic concept held that a person's life style evolves within, and in response to, society-as experienced by the individual. Furthermore, the criterion of mental health is the degree of social interest (Gemeinschaftsgefuhl) developed by the individual. This concept offers guidelines for understanding and treatment of all disorders and is to be assumed in all the following sections, where varied specifics are dealt with.