Austrian-born American psychiatrist and educator who developed the Austrian psychologist Alfred Adler (Adler, Alfred)'s system of individual psychology into a pragmatic method for understanding the purposes of reprehensible behaviour in children and for stimulating cooperative behaviour without punishment or reward.

After training at the University of Vienna (M.D., 1923), Dreikurs developed, in collaboration with Adler, clinics for child guidance, alcoholics, and psychopaths and did mental hygiene and welfare work. He emigrated to the United States in 1937, where he taught psychiatry. He founded the Alfred Adler institutes of Chicago and Tel Aviv, Israel.