Core Argument: The world is fundamentally simple, and happiness is within everyone’s reach, instantly. Unhappiness is a choice, not a predetermined fate. Individuals possess the courage and agency to change their lives and find happiness.

Key Concepts:

• “People Can Change”: Change is possible at any time. The inability to change comes from a “persistent decision not to change your lifestyle,” often due to lack of courage or fear of the unknown.
• “You Are the One Who Determines Your Own Life”: Individuals are not controlled by emotion or the past; the meaning attributed to past events determines one’s present.
• “If ‘I’ Change, the World Will Change”: Emphasizing that change can only be initiated by oneself.
• Psychology of Courage and Use: Adlerian psychology is a “psychology of courage” and a “psychology of use,” not a “psychology of possession”. It’s about what one does with one’s “equipment,” not what one is born with.

Teleology (Study of Purpose): Adlerian psychology fundamentally rejects the Freudian concept of trauma, arguing that past experiences do not determine an individual’s present or future. This is a shift from “etiology” (study of causation) to teleology.

Key Concepts:

• “Trauma Does Not Exist”: No experience is a cause of success or failure; the meaning we give to experiences is self-determining.
• Fabricated Emotions/Symptoms: Emotions like anxiety or anger are “tools” created to achieve specific goals, such as avoiding responsibilities or making others submit.
• “Your Life Is Decided Here and Now”: The past does not exist as a deterministic force; the individual determines their own life in the present.

Core Principle: “All problems are interpersonal relationship problems” – problems like loneliness or inferiority arise only in a social context.

Key Concepts:

• Feelings of Inferiority: Normal, universal desires to improve oneself (“pursuit of superiority”) by comparing oneself to an ideal self. They are stimulants for striving and growth, not inherently bad.
• Inferiority Complex: Occurs when one uses feelings of inferiority as an “excuse” to avoid life tasks.
• Superiority Complex: A compensatory mechanism for strong feelings of inferiority, including “giving authority” or “bragging about one’s own misfortune.”
• Life Is Not a Competition: Viewing life this way leads to fear and distrust, making everyone an “enemy.”
• Power Struggles and Revenge: Conflicts often arise from attempts to make others submit; the advice is to step down from power struggles as soon as possible.
• Life Tasks: Three categories of interpersonal relationships one must confront: tasks of work, friendship, and love. Avoiding these is a “life-lie.”

“Courage to Be Disliked”: True freedom is achieved by not being afraid of being disliked. Being disliked is proof of exercising freedom and living by one’s principles.

Key Concepts:

• Denial of Desire for Recognition: There is no need to be recognized by others; one “must not seek recognition.”
• “You Are Not Living to Satisfy Other People’s Expectations”: Individuals should live their own lives, and others are not living to satisfy one’s own expectations.
• “Whose Task Is This?”: The fundamental question for separating tasks, determined by who ultimately receives the result of a choice.
• Non-Intervention vs. Assistance: Do not meddle in others’ tasks, but offer “assistance” by letting them know support is available.
• Cutting the Gordian Knot: Complex interpersonal problems must be “severed by some completely new approach.”

Community Feeling (Social Interest): The ultimate goal of interpersonal relationships and the path to genuine happiness. It is a “sense of others as comrades” and “an awareness of having one’s own refuge” within the community.

Key Concepts:

• “You Are Not the Center of the World”: True belonging comes from active commitment to the community, not being its center.
• Horizontal Relationships: Refutes all “vertical relationships” (hierarchical, controlling) and advocates for equal relationships based on mutual respect.
• No Praise or Rebuke: Praise implies judgment by a superior and is a tool for manipulation.
• Encouragement: Based on horizontal relationships, involving “straightforward gratitude and respect and joy.”
• Three Pillars of Community Feeling (Circular Structure):
  1. Self-Acceptance: Accepting “one’s incapable self” as is and focusing on “what use one makes of that equipment.”
  2. Confidence in Others: Believing in others “unconditionally, without concerning oneself with security.”
  3. Contribution to Others: Acting in some way on one’s comrades, not as self-sacrifice, but to be aware of the worth of the “I.”
• Happiness is the Feeling of Contribution: If one feels “I am of use to someone,” one is happy.

Living in the Here and Now: Focus on present-moment existence rather than being trapped by past or future concerns.

Key Concepts:

• Life Is a Series of Moments: Life is not a line with a destination, but a “series of dots,” living each “now” as if dancing. This is “energeial life” as opposed to “kinetic life.”
• “Shine a Light on the Here and Now”: Live earnestly and conscientiously in the present moment.
• The Greatest Life-Lie: To not live here and now, by focusing on an invented past or future.
• The Courage to Be Normal: Accept one’s normal, ordinary self, rather than trying to be “special.”
• Workaholism Is a “Life-Lie”: Workaholics use work as an excuse to avoid other responsibilities.
• Guiding Star: Contribution to others serves as a “guiding star” in life, helping individuals choose freedom and happiness.