I think that the following is the way Alfred Adler explained neurosis: A horse is loping towards a hedge. It comes to the hedge but is afraid to jump it because it thinks the hedge is too high or its legs are too short. Instead of jumping the hedge it veers off to the side and lands in a swamp. It struggles to get out but keeps getting in deeper so it calls for its therapist. The therapist comes and says to the horse that the way to deal with its problem is to figure out how to get out of the swamp. But the therapist is mistaken. The problem is not the symptoms the swamp represents. The problem is that the horse was afraid to jump the hedge. Developing the courage to jump the hedge is what the horse’s therapist has to enable the horse to do. Confronting the issues in one’s life gets rid of the symptoms.
Categories