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Major Adlerian
Concepts:
4. Inferiority and Superiority
Adler’s best-known concept comes from early in
his career: That, as children, we feel inferior to others: weak where they are strong,
dependent where they are independent, etc. This is a "natural" consequence of
early childhood, compared with adults or older siblings. Internalized and carried forward
in life as a self-definition, however, it becomes an inferiority complex. Adler at first
explained it in terms of physical or organ inferiority (size, weakness, or disability) but
later expanded it to include social factors and spoke of inferiority feelings. He said
that such a self-assessment (or "minus self-rating"), internalized and carried
into adulthood, led to over-compensation by a will to power which becomes a superiority
complex or superiority strivings toward the "plus" side.
I shall consequently speak of a general goal of man. A thorough-going study has taught
us that we can best understand the manifold and diverse movements of the psyche as soon as
our most general pre-supposition, that the psyche has as its objective the goal of
superiority, is recognized. . . . This goal of complete superiority, with its strange
appearance at times, does not come from the world of reality. Inherently we must place it
under "fictions" and "imaginations." Of these Vaihinger…rightly
says that their importance lies in the fact that whereas in themselves without meaning,
they nevertheless possess in practice the greatest importance. For out case this coincides
to such an extent that we may say that this fiction of a goal of superiority so ridiculous
from the view-point of reality, has become the principal conditioning factor of our life
as hitherto known. (Adler, 1925, pp.7, 8)
It should be noted that, unlike many in his day (including Freud, who saw man as an
"untamed beast within," following the still-prevailing views of 17th century
social philosopher Thomas Hobbes), Adler had a highly positive view of human beings, both
actual and potential. Thus when he spoke of "inferiority" in young children, he
was not thinking of some "original sin" but of a learned internalized response,
a choice the child makes which becomes the basis for self-definition, Guiding Goal (whose
attainment will cancel inferiority) and Guiding Line (the individual’s movement
toward that idealized goal).
Childhood, like all of life, involves problems and problem-solving. Adler believed that,
from all of childhood’s problems, one will emerge as unable to be solved by the
child. Yet it must be solved if life is to have meaning, for until it is solved one will
remain inferior and vulnerable. Thus to solve it will provide safety, mastery and power.
The belief that there is a Perfect Solution and that one spend the rest of one’s life
to find it, becomes what Adler called the individual’s fictional final goal which
underlies and explains all other behaviors.
By the way, it has been noted by some Adlerians that Adler himself used the terms
"organ inferiority" and "inferiority feelings" but did not use the
term "inferiority complex" until late in his career, when an American newspaper
reporter wrote that Adler was "the father of the inferiority complex." The first
part is true; the part about the reporter, while quoted, has not been substantiated.
In real life, inferiority expresses itself in various ways. Adler suggested the main
expression was to seek superiority to make up for feelings (or evidence?) of inferiority.
Thus, striving to be on top rather than on the bottom in life, striving to be first
instead of last, plus instead of minus. The abstract is made concrete in what one does to
achieve one's goal: by marrying the right person, living in the right town or part of
town, having the right job, going to the right school, and so on. In each case, of course,
"right" is defined as the evidence that one has overcome whatever was seen as
less, and has achieved more. Where this striving becomes all-consuming, where it involves
not just compensation (an even balance) but over-compensation (going well beyond even),
Adlerians usually say it has gone beyond inferiority "feelings" (that is,
self-assessment...not a physiological or organic sensation) to an inferiority
"complex." By this they mean that the striving itself has become the defining
activity, a thing in itself, and that the goal ("to be plus, better, higher,
stronger, richer...etc.") is secondary. Here we have, then, a person who has
exaggerated the need to rise above perceived inadequacies until it has become
all-consuming.
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Major Adlerian Concepts:
4. Inferiority and Superiority
Adler’s best-known concept comes from early in
his career: That, as children, we feel inferior to others: weak where they are strong,
dependent where they are independent, etc. This is a "natural" consequence of
early childhood, compared with adults or older siblings. Internalized and carried forward
in life as a self-definition, however, it becomes an inferiority complex. Adler at first
explained it in terms of physical or organ inferiority (size, weakness, or disability) but
later expanded it to include social factors and spoke of inferiority feelings. He said
that such a self-assessment (or "minus self-rating"), internalized and carried
into adulthood, led to over-compensation by a will to power which becomes a superiority
complex or superiority strivings toward the "plus" side.
I shall consequently speak of a general goal of man. A thorough-going study has taught
us that we can best understand the manifold and diverse movements of the psyche as soon as
our most general pre-supposition, that the psyche has as its objective the goal of
superiority, is recognized. . . . This goal of complete superiority, with its strange
appearance at times, does not come from the world of reality. Inherently we must place it
under "fictions" and "imaginations." Of these Vaihinger…rightly
says that their importance lies in the fact that whereas in themselves without meaning,
they nevertheless possess in practice the greatest importance. For out case this coincides
to such an extent that we may say that this fiction of a goal of superiority so ridiculous
from the view-point of reality, has become the principal conditioning factor of our life
as hitherto known. (Adler, 1925, pp.7, 8)
It should be noted that, unlike many in his day (including Freud, who saw man as an
"untamed beast within," following the still-prevailing views of 17th century
social philosopher Thomas Hobbes), Adler had a highly positive view of human beings, both
actual and potential. Thus when he spoke of "inferiority" in young children, he
was not thinking of some "original sin" but of a learned internalized response,
a choice the child makes which becomes the basis for self-definition, Guiding Goal (whose
attainment will cancel inferiority) and Guiding Line (the individual’s movement
toward that idealized goal).
Childhood, like all of life, involves problems and problem-solving. Adler believed that,
from all of childhood’s problems, one will emerge as unable to be solved by the
child. Yet it must be solved if life is to have meaning, for until it is solved one will
remain inferior and vulnerable. Thus to solve it will provide safety, mastery and power.
The belief that there is a Perfect Solution and that one spend the rest of one’s life
to find it, becomes what Adler called the individual’s fictional final goal which
underlies and explains all other behaviors.
By the way, it has been noted by some Adlerians that Adler himself used the terms
"organ inferiority" and "inferiority feelings" but did not use the
term "inferiority complex" until late in his career, when an American newspaper
reporter wrote that Adler was "the father of the inferiority complex." The first
part is true; the part about the reporter, while quoted, has not been substantiated.
In real life, inferiority expresses itself in various ways. Adler suggested the main
expression was to seek superiority to make up for feelings (or evidence?) of inferiority.
Thus, striving to be on top rather than on the bottom in life, striving to be first
instead of last, plus instead of minus. The abstract is made concrete in what one does to
achieve one's goal: by marrying the right person, living in the right town or part of
town, having the right job, going to the right school, and so on. In each case, of course,
"right" is defined as the evidence that one has overcome whatever was seen as
less, and has achieved more. Where this striving becomes all-consuming, where it involves
not just compensation (an even balance) but over-compensation (going well beyond even),
Adlerians usually say it has gone beyond inferiority "feelings" (that is,
self-assessment...not a physiological or organic sensation) to an inferiority
"complex." By this they mean that the striving itself has become the defining
activity, a thing in itself, and that the goal ("to be plus, better, higher,
stronger, richer...etc.") is secondary. Here we have, then, a person who has
exaggerated the need to rise above perceived inadequacies until it has become
all-consuming. |
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