Ashes of psychoanalysis co-founder Alfred Adler found after 74 years

[alp227]

Source: The Guardian

The long-lost remains of Alfred Adler, one of the founding fathers of psychoanalysis, have been rediscovered in a crematorium in Edinburgh nearly 74 years after he died suddenly on a lecture tour.

Adler, a core figure with Sigmund Freud in the group that founded the psychoanalytic movement before the pair split in 1911, collapsed after a suspected heart attack in May 1937 while he was in Aberdeen for a three-week-long series of lectures and seminars at the university.

The Viennese doctor, credited with developing the theory of the inferiority complex, was cremated alone, and his widow and surviving children lost track of his ashes. For the following 70 years their location remained a mystery to his family, his followers and Adlerian scholars.

Later this month, however, his ashes will be returned to Vienna for a civic ceremony following a remarkable discovery by the honorary Austrian consul to Scotland, John Clifford.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/apr/10/alfred-adler-ashes-found-edinburgh

[rug]

1. Hmmm, why did his widow and children lose track of his ashes?

[kestrel91316]

3. IIRC, Margot Adler, the author and NPR reporter, is his daughter

(though she would have to be at least 74 and that doesn't sound right).

Gosh, maybe you could contact her and harangue her about it.

ETA: She's his granddaughter.

[Mojeoux]

4. They were distraught and in a foreign land,

Who friggin knows. I'm sure it had nothing to do with insecurity complexes.

[Vinnie From Indy]

2. Sometimes cigar ashes are simply cigar ashes

Cheers!

[EmmettKelly]

5. So, How does that make you feel?

[valerief]

6. I'm not sure why anyone is supposed to care. nt

[Stevenmarc]

7. Being lost for 74 years could give one an inferiority complex.

[xchrom]

8. recommend

[No Elephants]

9. How did you feel when you read this?

[alp227]

11. intrigued really n/t

[Odin2005]

10. Philospher Karl Popper worked with Adler for a time and...

...used him as an example of the pseudoscientific nature of psychoanalytic psychology and the dangers of confirmation bias.