This chapter describes the development of psychoanalysis at the turn of the century in Vienna and the links between psychoanalysis and music. It suggests that, even if its founder, Sigmund Freud, was only marginally concerned with music, there might be some similarities between the two disciplines: after all, the task of the psychoanalyst is to listen with the ‘third ear’. The chapter then introduces Freud’s circle, the so-called Psychological Wednesday Society, which later became the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society and which had some music-loving members, and examines the topics and the frequency of the discussions about music at Society meetings. The chapter concludes with the finding that references to music took up only a marginal amount of time in the overall discussion, and the hypothesis that Freud’s lack of interest in music played a weighty role in this.

This chapter starts with a description of Adler’s personal and family backgrounds, including growing up in the shadow of a high-achieving and popular older brother; life-threatening and disabling illnesses during his childhood; struggles to enter and complete his medical school education; dissatisfaction with academic medicine focusing on diseases instead of patients; his egalitarian medical practices; and his involvement in social and public health reform. It also includes narratives of Adler’s marriage with his Russian Jewish wife, who had strong socialist commitments, as well as their relationship with various communist revolutionaries. It then describes Adler’s association with Freud and their eventual separation, the evolution of Adler’s theories and practices, the differences in the temperament and orientations between Adler and Freud, and the continuing mutual influences between Adler and Freud even long after their break-up. It ends with a discussion of Adler’s role in and contribution to the field of psychotherapy and the mental health movement.

This chapter traces the author’s intellectual and professional development, in both Taiwan and the USA, and describes how his lifelong search for a better understanding of the human mind sustained his fascination with the genesis of the thoughts of major schools of depth psychology, especially in the context of the life experiences of their founders. This search led to the realization of “wounded healer” as a unifying theme for the strivings and insights of these pioneers.