Initiation and initiative : an exploration of the life and ideas of Dimitrije Mitrinović

94 LIFE AND IDEAS OF MITRINOVIC

associates until the early hours of the morning. He would then retire to his rented rooms a short walk away in Bloomsbury Street to read and sleep, rarely stirring from his bed until mid-day. After lunching at one of the small restaurants in the vicinity, his afternoons were often spent wandering around the bookshops and art galleries. There is also some evidence that he devoted some time during this period acting as unpaid psycho-therapist and counsellor to various individuals who sought his assistance.

Meantime Adler was becoming increasingly committed to spreading the doctrine of ‘social interest? to an ever wider public. As a consequence the late 1920s and early 1930s was a period of increasing tension and suspicion between Adler, his lay-followers, and members of the established medical professions. Undoubtedly Adler’s belief that the ordinary difficulties of human life lay well within the scope and capabilities of trained lay psychotherapists, coupled with his conviction that each individual was responsible for their own well-being, represented something of a threat to the status of the medical profession. It was alleged that Adler was more of a preacher than a scientist. He despised statistics and tended to illustrate his theories with case-material; he abandoned the use of standard control measures in his practice and research, arguing that each individual was unique. Consequently it was claimed that his approach to psychology was speculative rather than truly scientific.

This tension between the Individual Psychology movement and the established medical and scientific communities was reflected within the London branch of the International Society. Under the influence of Mitrinovic the Gower Street society had attracted to its ranks not only members of the medical profession but also substantial numbers of young, idealistic folk: teachers, artists, students, journalists. For them the society was a social movement, a movement for social change and renewal guided by the insights and principles provided by Individual Psychology. As such, they made uneasy bedfellows with those members who were medical practitioners and who were primarily committed to Individual Psychology as a new body of knowledge and practice upon which they could draw in the pursuit of their professional activities.

The unease experienced by the medical practitioners at being associated with lay-persons with such ‘unprofessional’ interests was heightened towards the end of 1928 when a group of socially concerned individuals who had become known as the “Chandos Group” resolved to ally itself with the Adler Society. The Chandos Group had come into existence in 1926. On September 16th of that year Mitrinovic, Maurice Reckitt and W. T. Symons had met for dinner at the Chandos public house “to plan work together and regular meetings for the furtherance of their common objectives.”?! This