Inferiority Complex

1907

Alfred Adler (1870–1937)

Perhaps one of the most widely used psychological terms in the English language is inferiority complex. The person who originated the term, Alfred Adler, was born in Vienna and grew up a sickly child, suffering from a variety of illnesses that impeded him physically. He developed an intense rivalry with his older, more physically able brother, which lasted his entire life. He decided to become a physician partly in response to the care he had received that had saved his life on more than one occasion.

Freud’s The Interpretation of Dreams (1900) was published a few years after Adler started his practice. The book inspired him, and he publicly defended it against its many critics. Adler was part of Freud’s inner circle for a few years, but he left when he realized his theoretical differences with Freud would make it impossible for them to work together. While Freud posited sex as the basic human motivation, Adler came to believe that social interests and power were most important.

The origin of Adler’s concept of the inferiority complex was his work on organ inferiority: some bodily organs are weaker and more susceptible to illness than others; however, through training they can become strong. In his book The Neurotic Character, published in 1907, Adler extended this concept to human psychological abilities, coining the term inferiority complex. He argued that all children are affected by feelings of inferiority because of physical size and lack of power, as he had been with his older brother. On a deep psychological level, the child seeks to compensate for these feelings of powerlessness and inferiority. With growth and into adulthood, the person continues to seek ways to overcome feelings of inferiority, and this motivation is what leads to achievement. Deep feelings of inferiority, however, are hard to overcome and may limit the person’s growth. It was to help such individuals that Adler developed what he called Individual Psychology.

SEE ALSO Psychoanalysis (1899), Psychosomatic Medicine (1939)

Children’s Games by Flemish Renaissance artist Pieter Brueghel the Elder, 1560. According to psychologist Alfred Adler, such childhood activities as mock tournaments are the source of inferiority complexes that can last a lifetime.