Adlerian Humor: Old Fashioned Meds

Were jesters licensed?

Evolution: Theory, Fact, Dogma, or Fiction

Nicholas Wade's  review of "The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution," by Richard Dawkins, counterpoints the opposing dogmatic views of  evolution as either fact or theory.  An interesting alternative, would be to consider evolution as a useful scientific fiction, in the spirit of Hans Vaihinger, author of "The Philosphy of "As If"".

Review of "Educating Children for Cooperation & Contribution: Volume II"

Erik Mansager and Jane Pfefferle have written a glowing review of
"Educating Children for Cooperation & Contribution: Volume II,"
highlighting the valuable insights, techniques, and graphics for
guiding children toward more positive choices. The review may be
found at http://home.att.net/~Adlerian/ecc-v2-review.htm.

Adler's View of Humans as Embedded in the Stream of Evolution

For a humbling view of the human being's place in the vast panaorama of evolution, check the fascinating "Zoomable Tree" in "Thinking About Phylogienies" at http://besocratic.colorado.edu/phylogeny/Tree-index.html. After locating the "You are here" region, compare it to the rest of living forms. This graphic display adds a sobering perspective to Alfred Adler's view of human beings as "embedded in the stream of evolution."

Adlerian Humor: Creative Diagnosis

Alway room for a new diagnostic category.

Finally, A Fully-Free Market

Although Milton Friedman has recently acknowledged the erroneous assumptions of the free market philosophy, he was premature in his reversal, reflecting a not uncommon mirror image of erratic market tendencies. Had he waited a little longer, before his public confession of mistaken economic theory, he might have discovered that he had not gone far enough in his original direction. He came remarkably close to a super-theory of a "fully-free market" mentality

Rumblings in the woods suggest that a broader free market philosophy is peeking up from the horizon. "Cash for Clunkers" was a roaring success, tempting people into buying new cars that may eventually be repossessed like their abandoned sub-prime financed homes. Recently, a New Jersey school teacher improved student grades for a financial contribution, pocketing about $1,400 during one semester. Some New York City schools are paying children to stimulate academic performance. Finally, we are discovering the silver bullet of motivation: bribery.


I see unexplored possibilities for short-term solutions. Extending economic theory into education was a brilliant maneuver, paving the way for ground-breaking innovations to address previously unsolved problems in many arenas. Let us start brainstorming even further than we have in the past, using free market assumptions.

Consider the plight of many parents who cannot get their children to behave, even though they have read dozens of books on child guidance and attended scores of parent education workshops. The innovative "Cash for Compliance" strategy would establish a financial incentive scale for desired behaviors. For example: obeying a parental command immediately would earn a child $5.00 with a $3.00 bonus if the command is unquestioned, and a $2.00 bonus if it does not need to be repeated. For longer range plans, adopting parental advice about choice of friends would be worth about $10.00/month.

California is considering releasing thousands of people from prison, because keeping them in jail costs too much. Why not just pay them for not committing crimes? It might be too expensive to motivate them into becoming model citizens, but cost effective enough to reduce the overhead of law enforcement. If it costs $100,000 to investigate, arrest, convict, and incarcerate someone who stole $10,000, why not just meet them half-way and give them $5,000 and save $95,000 in overhead? Surely, some people will abuse this system by simply threatening to commit a crime in order to qualify for the benefit, but let's face it, no system is immune to exploitation.

Divorce is a often a costly, messy, adversarial experience that pours vast sums of money into law firms and ties up the courts interminably. The new "Dollars for Detente" would compensate people for staying in miserable relationships. A sliding scale could be devised for enduring indifference, rejection, depreciation, deceit, and betrayal. Even chronic anger and resentment could be reimbursed in an "earn while you burn" program. Women who no longer care about their husbands, but need more spendable income, could participate in the "Spitzer-Lysistrata" program. While sex for money is not a new idea, basing it in the home may avoid humilating prosecution and uncomfortable sexually transmitted diseases.

Insurance companies, eager to reduce even further their paltry reimbursements to mental health professionals, could eliminate them entirely by offering new incentives to their policy holders. A radical "Subsidizing Symptoms" program would either reduce insurance premiums drastically, or pay people directly for enduring their emotional distress, instead of seeing a therapist. Of course, this incentive may appeal primarily to masochists, who might even become wealthy in the process.

Having briefly explored the individual, couple, and family implications of a "fully-free market" approach to life, we would be negligent to omit the wider social application possible in government. Using California as a pilot program, the "Friedman-Madoff" plan might rescue Governor Swartzenegger and his Wild-West state from insolvency. The underappreciated and much maligned Ponzi scheme, although it has racked up a long line of victims, has not been applied on a large enough scale to prove or disprove its effectiveness as a short-term financial strategy. Utilizing the existing Lottery structure, Bernard Madoff could design a state-wide Ponzi scheme, after he is pardoned and assigned to 25 years of community service under the supervision of Milton Friedman.

You think I'm kidding?

Do CEO's Matter?

In the June 2009 issue of The Atlantic, Harris Collingwood discusses the arguments on both sides of this issue, including the question "When does leadership matter?" His conclusion that "Good leaders can make small positive differences, bad leaders can make a huge negative difference," seems to fit the last eight years of U.S. government. However, Collingwood does not discuss or explain the remarkable industrial accomplishments of Ricardo Semler and his democratization of workplaces in Brazil.

Alfred Adler provided some inspiring thoughts about leadership in his article "Salvaging Mankind by Psychology," Chapter XXIV, in The Collected Clincial Works of Alfred Adler, Volume 5, Journal Articles 1921-1926.