The Goal of Interpersonal
Relationships Is a Feeling of
Community
YOUTH: Okay, I have a question. Please give me a simple answer that gets straight to the heart of the matter. You said that the separating of tasks is the point of departure for interpersonal relations. Well, what is the goal of interpersonal relations?
PHILOSOPHER: To get straight to the heart of the matter, it is “community feeling.”
YOUTH:… Community feeling?
PHILOSOPHER: Yes. This is a key concept in Adlerian psychology, and views on its application have been the subject of much debate. In fact, Adler’s proposal of the concept of community feeling drove many people to part ways with him.
YOUTH: Well, it sounds fascinating to me. What is this concept?
PHILOSOPHER: It was the time before last, I believe, that I brought up the matter of how one sees others, that is, as enemies or as comrades. Now, take that a step deeper. If other people are our comrades, and we live surrounded by them, we should be able to nd in that life our own place of “refuge.” Moreover, in doing so, we should begin to have the desire to share with our comrades, to contribute
to the community. This sense of others as comrades, this awareness of “having one’s own refuge,” is called “community feeling.”
YOUTH: But what part of this is open to debate? It seems like a completely irrefutable point.
PHILOSOPHER: The issue is community. What does it consist of? When you hear the word “community,” what images come to mind?
YOUTH: There are such frameworks as one’s household, school, workplace, or local society.
PHILOSOPHER: When Adler refers to community, he goes beyond the household, school, workplace, and local society, and treats it as all-inclusive, covering not only nations and all of humanity but also the entire axis of time from the past to the future—and he includes plants and animals and even inanimate objects.
YOUTH: Huh?
PHILOSOPHER: In other words, he is espousing that community is not merely one of the preexisting frameworks that the word might bring to mind but is also inclusive of literally everything—the entire universe, from the past to the future.
YOUTH: No way. Now you’ve lost me. The universe? Past and future? What on earth are you talking about?
PHILOSOPHER: The majority of those who hear this have similar doubts. This is not something one can comprehend immediately. Adler himself acknowledged that the community he was espousing was “an unattainable ideal.”
YOUTH: Ha-ha. Well, that’s perplexing, isn’t it? How about the other way around, then? Do you really comprehend and accept this community feeling, or whatever it is, that includes the entire universe?
PHILOSOPHER: I try to. Because I feel that one cannot truly comprehend
Adlerian psychology without comprehending this point.
YOUTH: Okay then!
PHILOSOPHER: As I have been saying all along, Adlerian psychology has the view
that all problems are interpersonal relationship problems. Interpersonal relations
are the source of unhappiness. And the opposite can be said, too—interpersonal
relations are the source of happiness.
YOUTH: Indeed.
PHILOSOPHER: Furthermore, community feeling is the most important index for
considering a state of interpersonal relations that is happy.
YOUTH: All right. I’d like to hear all about it.
PHILOSOPHER: Community feeling is also referred to as “social interest,” that is
to say, “interest in society.” So now I have a question for you: Do you know what
society’s smallest unit is, from the point of view of sociology?
YOUTH: Society’s smallest unit, huh? I’d say the family.
PHILOSOPHER: No, it is “you and I.” When there are two people, society emerges
in their presence, and community emerges there too. To gain an understanding
of the community feeling that Adler speaks of, it is advisable to use “you and I”
as the starting point.
YOUTH: And what do you do with that as the starting point?
PHILOSOPHER: You make the switch from attachment to self (self-interest) to
concern for others (social interest).
YOUTH: Attachment to self? Concern for others? What’s all that about?
