Alexandra Adler (24 September 1901 – 4 January 2001) was an Austrian neurologist and the daughter of psychoanalyst Alfred Adler and Raissa Adler. She has been described as one of the "leading systematizers and interpreters" of Adlerian psychology. Her sister was socialist activist Valentine Adler. Alexandra Adler's husband was Halfdan Gregersen.
Career
Adler was born in September 24th 1901 in Vienna, Austria to a well-to-do Jewish family -her father and grandfather father were Austrian-Jews and her paternal grandmother was of Hungarian Jewish origin-. Adler's mother was born in Russia to a Russian-Jewish merchant family. Adler completed her medical studies at the University of Vienna in 1926, and then specialized in psychiatry at the University of Vienna Neuropsychiatric Hospital. In 1934, Adler ran a child guidance center, where she remained in charge until Nazis shut the center down. She emigrated to the United States in 1935, where she worked as a neurology instructor at the Harvard Medical School. She was noted as one of Harvard's first women neurologists. Also in 1935, she established the Journal of Psychology. In 1938, Adler became the medical director of the Alfred Adler Clinic, named after her father.
Medical studies
thumb|Harvard Medical School quadrangle in Longwood Medical Area
From 1928 to 1938, Alexandra Adler conducted an investigation of known cases of encephalitis or encephalomyelitis at the Boston City Hospital. The study included over 100 patients. Patients were only admitted if encephalitis was the sole illness of the individual. The aim of the study was to contribute knowledge for these diseases. it was found that survivors were only recognizing parts of what happened. It was theorized that this was due to the stress or a possible lesion in the brain due to carbon monoxide exposure. Adler became one of the first neurologists to create a detailed documentation of what is known as post-traumatic stress disorder. Her findings allowed her to apply what she discovered to work with treatment for World War II Veterans, who potentially had PTSD.
In the 1950s and throughout the 1960s, Adler continued her father's work of Adlerian psychology for possible treatments for schizophrenia, neuroses, and personality disorders. She believed this could be done through modern drug treatment, group therapy, and the existentialist and religious psychotherapies.
She lived till the age of 99. She died on January 4, 2001, in New York City.