Adler's Theory Of Individual Psychology

Austrian psychologist Alfred Adler proposes a theory called individual psychology, which “attempts to see individual lives as a whole, and regards each single reaction, each action and impulse as an expression of an individual’s attitude towards life” (1). From this definition, the focus appears to lie on the individual only, but the context is broader. Elaborating on his idea, Adler speaks about how it is important “to find a means to influence them [individuals] to adopt useful and constructive behaviour patterns, and to make them interested in others” (14). The growth of the individual must happen along with a simultaneous interest in society, due to which he also calls his theory “a social psychology” (14).
Three ideas are at the centre

Wells belonged to the latter half of the nineteenth century, but the relation is relevant to his characters, prominently Griffin. For many of these writers, zoologist Jean Baptiste Lamarck’s theory was crucial. Stiles talks about how Lamarck suggested that hypertrophy, or “excessive growth of any given body part”, balanced itself by causing atrophy, or degeneration, of another body part (328). To illustrate, she cites Wells’s The War of the Worlds and First Men in the Moon, where “massive alien cerebrums evolve at the expense of dwindling, underused bodies”

Hypertrophy causes atrophy according to Lamarck; the inferiority complex results in a superiority complex according to Adler. In The Invisible Man, Griffin is the perfect illustration of the tussle between the two complexes.
Griffin’s social interest is markedly affected as a consequence of the tussle. In fact, his social interest is non-existent, owing to two bitter events in his life. They occur prior to his invisibility, in two different places: the university where he teaches and begins his research, and the rented room where he continues his research. These are crucial settings in Griffin’s troubled existence, so the events leave a significant impact.
When Griffin is attempting a breakthrough in his research, he finds his professor Oliver “a scientific bounder, a journalist by instinct, a thief of ideas” (Wells 82). The young scientist realizes that he can trust no one; “the knavish system of the scientific world” upsets him (Wells 82). Griffin is unwilling to let his research be usurped by another man, and restrains himself from publishing his findings at university. He prefers instead to keep working, channelling the stress from external sources into the urge to reveal his work to the world “with crushing effect—to become famous at a blow” (Wells