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

THE ADLER SOCIETY 91

and save the world. The true ruling principle, the true self-imposing superior caste, the best man, the best characters, the best hearts can save the world by imposing upon it that spiritual aristocracy which is the aristocratic expression of the belief that the best is immanent in mankind, and that mankind must not worship any higher power than itself.!¢

In the work of Adler he found a rich fund of practical advice and theoretical insight upon which to draw in pursuit of the “best” that was “immanent” in those around him.

Adler made his first visit to England in 1923 to attend a conference at Oxford. In 1926 he returned to deliver some lectures in London. Lilian Slade attended one of these presentations and arranged a meeting between Mitrinović and the psychologist. The two men got on extremely well together and had a number of long and intimate talks at Valerie Cooper’s studio.!5 At Mitrinovic’s invitation Adler also gave a lecture at the studio on the subject of Dostoyevsky and Nietzsche, and later entrusted Mitrinovi¢ with the formation of the British branch of the International Society for Individual Psychology. The first recorded meeting of this group took place on March 27th 1927 at the studio. On Sunday April 24th of that year, after a meeting addressed by W. H. Sampson on Astrology, people transferred to 55 Gower Street where premises for what was to become known as the Adler Society had been found. At midnight a lecture on Individual Psychology was delivered by Alan Porter to mark the formal opening of the rooms which, for the next five years, served as a centre for public lectures and private discussions covering a whole range of subjects. The Society took over the basement and ground floor of the property in Gower Street. To the left of the entrance hall and passageway was the lecture room which could hold up to 75 people. It also housed the books of the society’s lending library. Downstairs in the basement the original kitchen area was turned into a private study for Mitrinovié. In a way the two levels of the property reflected the different ‘levels’ of his activities: the public and the private, the exoteric and the more esoteric, the formal and the informal. The ground floor was where the more public and formal activities of the Adler Society took placethe lectures and open meetings. The study was used for smaller private meetings and discussions amongst intimate friends and co-workers. It was the inner sanctum where one entered only by invitation—a dark and cluttered room lined with books, paintings and works of art.

The ground floor lecture room was Open to the public most days from about 2 p.m. onwards. Each evening saw some activity or other taking place there. An idea of the range of lectures and courses presented can be obtained from the programme for the last quarter of 1927. On Monday