Adler on Health and Family
Awoken by a trickle of drool on your chin, you blink at the warmly lit lecture hall around you. It’s Vienna in the late 1920s, and Alfred Adler stands at the front of a small stage, wearing a stout three-piece suit. His mustache is neatly trimmed, and round spectacles perch on his nose. He speaks animatedly about “life tasks,” a concept you vaguely recall from Osebo’s notes on Horizontal Social.
Somehow, you’ve been whisked back in time after texting Osebo that you wanted to ask Adler himself why he didn’t include health or family among the “life tasks.” Now, you have your chance… but you should be careful what you wish for.
If I was in the lecture with you, I’d imagine Adler would explain that humans have three primary life tasks, work, friendship, and love, each reflecting our need to contribute, connect, and form deep, supportive bonds. From his perspective, health and family are woven into these tasks rather than standing apart as separate domains.
Adler believed that the family is the rudiment for children learning how to cooperate with others and develop “social interest.” Children pick up the basics of empathy, intimacy, communication, and collaboration at home. While Adler often spoke of “love” to mean adult romantic relationships, the emotional qualities of closeness, empathy, and responsibility in a romantic bond mirror those found in a family. In other words, family is where we learn the relational skills that later blossom into friendship and love.
Flash forward to the 21st century, and you’ll see that many people view health (physical, mental, emotional) as its own priority for living a fulfilling life. Since the late 1960s, the wellness movement has grown steadily; companies like Nike (launched in 1971) start this wave, championing fitness, athleticism, and self-improvement. With today’s endless stream of wellness products and influencers, it’s no surprise we often treat health as a distinct “task” to master.
From an Adlerian viewpoint, however, good health is less a standalone task and more the foundation that lets you effectively engage in work, friendship, and love. If poor health undermines your energy or well-being, you can’t fully pursue meaningful work or nurture your relationships. In that sense, health undergirds all the life tasks, rather than being separate from them.
References
- Ansbacher, H. L., & Ansbacher, R. R. (Eds.). (1956). The Individual Psychology of Alfred Adler. Basic Books.
- Adler, A. (1930). The Science of Living. Greenberg.
- Ichiro Kishimi (2013). Fumitake Koga (2013). The Courage to Be Disliked: The Japanese Phenomenon That Shows You How to Change Your Life and Achieve Real Happiness.
I’m going to introduce myself in every entry… so if you don’t already know, I’m Osebo, a Designer working on software for social networking, and tools for creating interactive media like games. If you want to learn more about more go here…