Quote of the day by psychology legend Alfred Adler: 'Nobody adopts antisocial behaviour unless they fear that they will fail...'

In today’s fast-moving world, where people are often quick to judge difficult behaviour, the words of early psychology thinkers still hold relevance. One such voice is Alfred Adler, the Austrian psychiatrist who founded Individual Psychology and focused deeply on human motivation and social connection. His reflections on why people withdraw from society or act against it continue to spark discussion.

“Nobody adopts antisocial behavior unless they fear that they will fail if they remain on the social side of life.” ― Alfred Adler

At first, the quote sounds direct and almost blunt. But it carries a deeper explanation of human struggle. Adler is not excusing harmful actions. Instead, he is pointing to fear as the root cause. According to his view, a person turns away from cooperation and community only when they feel they cannot succeed within it. In simple terms, when someone believes they will fail while trying to belong, they may stop trying to belong at all.


This idea connects strongly with Adler’s theory of “inferiority feelings,” later widely referred to as the inferiority complex. He believed that every human being experiences some sense of inadequacy while growing up. These feelings are not always harmful. In fact, they can motivate growth. But when a person feels overwhelmed by discouragement, humiliation, neglect, or repeated failure, that sense of inferiority can deepen. At that point, antisocial behaviour may become a shield — a way to protect one’s self-respect from further damage.

Understanding Social Interest

A central concept in Adler’s psychology was “social interest.” He argued that human beings have an inborn capacity to connect, cooperate and contribute to the common good. Mental health, in his framework, is closely linked to this feeling of belonging and usefulness. When people feel valued and capable, they usually act in cooperative and constructive ways.

However, when someone feels discouraged, the response can shift. Instead of working with others, they may compete aggressively, withdraw, or act out. Adler famously held the belief that a misbehaving child is often a discouraged child. The behaviour is not random. It is, in his understanding, a mistaken strategy to gain significance or avoid further feelings of failure.

Inferiority and the Striving for Significance

Adler introduced the term “inferiority feeling” to describe the common human experience of not feeling good enough. Over time, popular culture began using the phrase “inferiority complex,” sometimes loosely, but Adler’s original idea was more structured. He believed people strive for superiority or success not in a selfish way necessarily, but as a movement toward growth and completion.


Problems arise when this striving becomes unrealistic or exaggerated. If someone feels deeply inferior, they may set impossible goals or try to dominate others to compensate. This overcompensation can lead to self-centred or antisocial actions. In that sense, antisocial behaviour becomes a defensive move — a way of saying, in effect, “If I cannot succeed by cooperating, I will protect myself by stepping outside the system.”

Adler’s approach was holistic. He saw the individual as an indivisible whole, shaped by family dynamics, early memories, birth order, and social surroundings. He stressed that personality develops early in life and that each person forms a unique “style of life,” a pattern of thinking and behaving aimed at achieving significance.

Adler’s professional journey also reflected his independent thinking. After studying medicine at the University of Vienna and initially working within general medicine, he began exploring psychopathology in the early 1900s. He was briefly associated with Sigmund Freud around 1902, but their theoretical differences gradually became too significant, especially after Adler published Study of Organ Inferiority and Its Psychical Compensation in 1907.

By 1911, he had separated from Freud’s circle and formally developed Individual Psychology, later expanding his ideas in works such as The Neurotic Constitution (1912) and Understanding Human Nature (1927). Over the years, he established child-guidance clinics in Vienna, served as a visiting professor in the United States, including at Columbia University in 1927, and continued writing for both professionals and the general public until his death in 1937.