The Collected Clinical Works of Alfred Adler, Volume 6 - Journal Articles: 1927-1931 by Adler Alfred

Author:Adler, Alfred [Adler, Alfred]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Alfred Adler Institute of Northwestern Washington
Published: 2011-07-17T05:00:00+00:00

A.: You are a very able boy. You could be a very good student. I think you are very fearful. You think you can't do anything. You think you can't do this silly arithmetic! You can do that easily. I will help you to become good at arithmetic! ... We can then arrange for you to attend a more advanced school. I would like to help you with that as well. We'll do that skillfully and it will be fun for you. Suddenly, everything will go well. I would like you to come into our center where you can play and do your homework. It's fun there.... I also was poor in arithmetic and then someone showed me how it's done. Then I moved to the head of the class in arithmetic. What would your teacher say if you were to become the best?

Fritz: She would be very happy.

A.: Would you like to make her happy?

Fritz: Yes!

A.: Come back soon and don't get upset when some fellow says something stupid to you. They say those things out of ignorance. Also when someone criticizes you at home don't get angry right away and wet yourself. You must help me! Can I count on you? (He bids the child farewell.)

Chapter XVIII

Sleeplessness1

[1929]

Sleeplessness may be the consequence of an organic illness, as for instance, patients are sometimes sleepless in the early stage of typhoid fever; it may occur in disorders of the glands and in some cases of nephritis; and it plays a big part in the beginning of some cases of insanity. But insomnia can be explained psychologically if we can exclude an organic reason. When we look into the whole personality, we will find that this sleeplessness fits in perfectly. If you want to find out how it fits in with the whole personality, we can ask the person who suffers from sleeplessness: “What could you do if you could sleep?” Then he will tell what he is afraid to do: e.g. if he could sleep, he could work better and take his examination. He is so afraid of his problem that he is tense; this mental tension will not let him relax and thus, he cannot sleep. Sleep is not a passive state, and it is not true that we are passive when we sleep. So far as our understanding goes, sleep is an activity; we have to do it and have to make ourselves sleep. We are trained in the very beginning to accomplish that and, therefore, it happens easily. There are always some reasons if we fail to accomplish it; and especially emotions and tensions are able to disturb sleep. If a person is afraid of something, he may not sleep. Some patients, especially women, cannot sleep because they think of their housekeeping, whether it is in the best order. We can see that, because what do they do when they do not sleep? They think of housekeeping, of the party tomorrow, whether they will be criticized, or whether everything will be as it should be.

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