Major Adlerian Concepts:
13. Social Interest/Fellow Feeling

From his experiences during World War I, Adler came to believe that community involvement, helping others, kindness, empathy, and similar personal attributes are crucial to individual and social health. He spoke of the ability to see from the other’s viewpoint, to contribute through work and volunteerism, to cooperate in solving community problems, etc. Adlerians see Social Interest as a measure of maturity, of positive movement in therapy, and as evidence that one has succeeded in the Tasks of Life.

Adler connected social interest with striving for perfection, a goal of both the individual and the community. He saw it as a cornerstone (however late in coming) to his entire system. Thus in 1933 he said to the Vienna Medical Association:

Particularly, it means feeling with the whole, a striving for a form of community which must be thought of as everlasting, as it could be thought of if mankind had reached the goal of perfection. It is [not a specific] community or society [or] political or religious form. The goal best suited for perfection would have to be a goal which signifies the ideal community of all mankind, the ultimate fulfillment of evolution. We conceive this idea . . . as the ultimate form of mankind in which we imagine all questions of life, all relationship to the external world as solved. It is an ideal, a direction-giving goal. This goal of perfection must contain the goal of the ideal community, because everything we find valuable in life, what exists and what will remain, is forever a product of this social feeling. (Ansbachers, 1964, pp. 34-35)

In some ways, Social Interest appears to be a Fictional Final Goal, an unattainable ideal. Even so, Adler came to see it as a central task of humanity, individually and collectively. Of course it has a long history in the ideals of major religions and philosophies. In individual life, we see it as altruism, caring, working together and cooperating toward common goals, volunteerism, and similar activities. It comes as no surprise that Adler said the motto for social interest is the Golden Rule.