The contrast between Individual Psychology and Social or Group Psychology,
which at a first glance may seem to be full of significance, loses a great deal of
its sharpness when it is examined more closely. It is true that Individual
Psychology is concerned with the individual man and explores the paths by
which he seeks to find satisfaction for his instincts; but only rarely and under
certain exceptional conditions is Individual Psychology in a position to
disregard the relations of this individual to others. In the individual's mental
life someone else is invariably involved, as a model, as an object, as a helper,
as an opponent, and so from the very first Individual Psychology is at the same
time Social Psychology as well—in this extended but entirely justifiable sense of
the words.
The relations of an individual to his parents and to his brothers and sisters, to
the object of his love, and to his physician—in fact all the relations which have
hitherto been the chief subject of psycho-analytic research—may claim to be
considered as social phenomena; and in this respect they may be contrasted
with certain other processes, described by us as 'narcissistic', in which the
satisfaction of the instincts is partially or totally withdrawn from the influence
of other people. The contrast between social and narcissistic—Bleuler would
perhaps call them 'autistic'—mental acts therefore falls wholly within the
domain of Individual Psychology, and is not well calculated to differentiate it
from a Social or Group Psychology.