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Adler inferiority complex


The Psychology of Alfred Adler: Superiority, Inferiority and Courage

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“It would not be easy to find another author,” wrote Henri Ellenberger in The Discovery of the Unconscious, “from which so much has been borrowed from all sides without acknowledgment than Alfred Adler.” (The Discovery of the Unconscious, Henri Ellenberger)

While Alfred Adler was one of the most influential psychologists of the twentieth century he is greatly overshadowed by two of his contemporaries – Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud. Adler’s approach to understanding human behaviour, however, has an appealing aspect which these other two men sometimes lack – he is extremely practical. He relied on a common-sense approach to explain why people behave as they do and how they can best go about changing their behavior to live more flourishing lives. One of the overriding themes of his work is that often the source of our suffering is not to be found in the way life challenges us, but in the solutions we adopt in the face of such challenges, and in this video we will provide an overview of Adler’s psychology in order to flesh out this idea.

According to Adler if we are to understand why a person behaves as they do we must first recognize that humans have a tendency to strive after self-created goals:

“…[the] first thing we discover in the psychic trends is that the movements are directed toward a goal. . .This teleology, this striving for goals is innate in the concept of adaptation”. (Alfred Adler, Understanding Human Nature)

Each of us holds a multitude of goals with respect to different aspects of our life. Our choice of these goals, according to Adler, is structured by a higher-order goal called our self-ideal. Our self-ideal represents the ideal type of person we would like to become and its formation begins early in childhood. “How can we best find our place in this world?”, we wonder, and the way we answer this question forms our self-ideal. Our self-ideal, in other words, shapes the course of our life in that it

“points to the future and “pulls” us toward what could be, what might be”. (A Primer of Adlerian Psychology)

Our self-ideal plays a crucial role in our development in that it influences our striving for superiority, which according to Adler is the fundamental drive behind human behavior. We are in other words, naturally driven to improve our perceived lot in life, to gain a more advantageous position. Or as Adler put it, “the material of life has been constantly bent on reaching a plus from a minus situation” (Alfred Adler, Social Interest: A Challenge to Mankind). While the striving for superiority is innate, the specific manifestations of this striving are determined by the content of our self-ideal. We strive for superiority, in other words, by seeking to actualize our self-ideal.

As we go through life we learn what type of behaviours and thought-patterns move us closer to our self-ideal, and which hinder us. In the process we develop what Adler called our life style which “is the subjective, unarticulated set of guidelines individuals develop and use to move them through life and toward their goals.” (A Primer of Adlerian Psychology) Adler was insistent that we cannot, in an a priori manner, judge a life style as healthy or unhealthy, normal or abnormal. Rather we can only observe it in action and see what success it brings.

“For Adler, there was no “normal” life style. Every life style was adequate, until life presented it with a task for which it was not prepared; it was at those times that its “weak points” emerged.” (Harold Mosak and Michael Maniacci, A Primer of Adlerian Psychology)

The “weak points” of our life style frustrate us in our pursuit of superiority and trigger feelings of inferiority. Feelings of inferiority are based on the subjective evaluations we make of ourselves, or the conclusions we draw, with respect to our ability to reach our goals. Inferiority feelings are often triggered by what are called objective inferiorities, which are inferiorities that are based on some measurable criteria in comparison with another. For example, we may be objectively inferior in terms of our strength or height, the amount of money we earn, or our skill level at a certain activity. An objective inferiority, however, only triggers feelings of inferiority if it is somehow important to our striving after superiority. If, for example, someone is poor, but money is not an important part of their self-ideal, their lack of wealth will not trigger inferiority feelings. On the other hand, Feelings of inferiority can arise in the absence of objective inferiorities. Very often people perceive themselves to be inferior in ways which have no basis in reality.

How we react, and adapt, to our inferiorities strongly impacts our psychological health and the overall quality of our life. Adler suggested there are two primary ways people deal with feelings of inferiority. Either we see the circumstances which produce them as challenges to be confronted and so make use of coping behaviors, or we view them as problems to be avoided and resort to safeguarding behaviors.

Coping behaviors can be divided into two types, direct problem solving and compensation. When we believe we can directly address the cause of our inferiority feelings we adopt a problem-solving approach. If we lose our job, we look for another, if our skills are inadequate in a certain endeavour, we spend time improving them. If on the other hand direct problem solving is impossible we may resort to the coping behaviour called compensation. We look for ways to make up for our inferiority by excelling in a manner which can compensate for our deficit. For example, someone who loses their hearing may compensate by cultivating the ability to read lips.

Many people, however, are unwilling to address their issues in this manner and so turn to safeguarding behaviours. Safeguarding behaviors are used in the attempt to convince oneself and others, that the reason they have failed to address their inferiorities and moved closer to their goals is because certain obstacles, which they claim lie outside of their control, are impeding their progress. Adler likened safeguarding behaviors to the side shows seen at a circus as they are used to distract attention away from the most pressing issues of one’s life, and to direct it instead to issues which are relatively trivial.

Safeguarding behaviours take a variety of forms. Some people develop physical issues, such as headaches, or chronic tiredness, which are then used as excuses for why they cannot face up to their challenges. Others develop anxiety disorders which are used in a similar manner; they use their fears as a justification for why they cannot take the actions needed to move them closer to their goals. At other times, instead of relying on excuses and symptoms, people turn to the safeguarding behaviour that Adler called distance seeking. This entails procrastination, or only taking the tiniest of steps forward before falling back into one’s comfort zone.

While we all make use of safeguarding behaviours to one degree or another, problems arise when the use of them goes on for too long. For as Ellenberger noted in The Discovery of the Unconscious, Adler saw those who rely on safeguarding behaviours as “pitiful individual[s] who made use of transparent tricks in order to escape…life[s] duties.” (The Discovery of the Unconscious, Henri Ellenberger) Safeguarding behaviours eventually lose their effectiveness. We can only rely on certain excuses for so long before others see through them. When this happens, we have two options we can begin to address our issues head on, or we can completely withdraw from the challenge thus developing what Adler called an inferiority complex.

To avoid this fate, we must cease relying on safeguarding behaviors and learn to directly face up to our challenges. Adler believed that sometimes the reason people struggle to do this is because they have adopted a self-ideal which unconducive to a healthy existence. Perhaps our self-ideal is overly-perfectionist, or too reliant on the pursuit of such things as wealth, status, power, fame, or beauty. In other words, our self-ideal is so unrealistic that we are forever thwarted in our attempts to achieve our goals and so we resort to safeguarding behaviours not knowing what else to do. Therefore, becoming more aware of what we are striving for, and adjusting our self-ideal if necessary, is a crucial step toward self-improvement.

In the end however, even with a more realistic self-ideal, we will only change if we learn to be more courageous. Adler believed that the most basic concern of psychotherapy should simply be to help people cultivate a more courageous attitude toward life.

“Courage,” wrote Adler “is not an ability one either possesses or lacks. Courage is the willingness to engage in a risk-taking behavior regardless of whether the consequences are unknown or possibly adverse. We are capable of courageous behavior provided we are willing to engage in it.” (Alfred Adler)

Given that we cannot expect life to cease challenging us, we have a choice, either we cultivate a courageous attitude, and learn to co-exist with the uncertainty and discomfort this will invite into our life, or we doom ourselves to waste away our days receding further and further into the misery of our comfort zone.

Further Readings

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Inferiority complex - New World Encyclopedia

In the fields of psychology and psychoanalysis, an inferiority complex is an extremely deep feeling that one is inferior to others. It is often unconscious, and is thought to drive afflicted individuals to overcompensate, resulting either in spectacular achievement or extreme antisocial behavior. Early work in this field was pioneered by Alfred Adler, who used the example of the "Napoleon complex" to illustrate his theory. According to Adler, even the deepest and most destructive inferiority complexes can be cured through his therapeutic process, which uses our natural ability to make positive change in our lives.

Contents

  • 1 Classical Adlerian psychology
  • 2 Napoleon complex
  • 3 Inferiority complex in children
  • 4 Cultural cringe
  • 5 Treatment
  • 6 References
  • 7 External links
  • 8 Credits

Classical Adlerian psychology

An inferiority complex is an extremely deep feeling of inferiority that can lead to pessimistic resignation and an assumed inability to overcome difficulties. Unlike a normal feeling of inferiority, which can act as an incentive for achievement, an inferiority complex is an advanced state of discouragement, often resulting in a retreat from difficulties. This neurosis is caused by an attempt to attain an extremely unrealistic personality ideal, while, at the same time, the belief in one's own significance has already been severely shaken by a deep-seated sense of inferiority. On the other hand, an inferiority complex can lead to successful overachievement accompanied by self-imposed social ostracism, as the individual is pushed to extremes to overcompensate for their perceived inferiority while believing that others see them only in terms of that inadequacy.

The concept of the inferiority complex was first introduced by Alfred Adler in his Individual psychology. Adler defined mental health as a feeling of human connectedness, and a willingness to develop oneself fully and contribute to the welfare of others. When these qualities are underdeveloped, an individual experiences feelings of inferiority, or an attitude of superiority that may antagonize others. The perception of superiority leads to self-centered behavior and the individual may become emotionally or materially exploitive of other people. Adler's theory of Individual psychology of psychological compensation states that "the stronger the feeling of inferiority, the higher the goal for personal power."

Adler postulated that, as a result of initial helplessness, an infant feels inferior and attempts to overcome feelings of incompletion by striving for a higher level of development. Feeling inferior, and compensating for that feeling, becomes the dynamic principle of motivation, moving an individual from one level of development to the next. This striving occurs continuously throughout life, beginning in infancy, as children become aware of their inadequacies, especially when comparing themselves to older children and adults. Adler described the resulting experience of feeling inferior was as a "minus situation." These inferiority feelings become the motivation for striving towards what he called "plus situations. "

Adler made a distinction between primary and secondary inferiority feelings. A primary inferiority feeling is rooted in the young child's original experience of weakness, helplessness, and dependency. A secondary inferiority feeling refers to an adult's experience of being unable to reach an unconscious, compensatory, fictional, final goal of subjective security and success. The perceived distance from that goal leads to a "minus" feeling that could then prompt the recall of the original inferiority feeling. This composite of inferiority feelings could be experienced as overwhelming.

The problem with these feelings of inferiority is that the goal invented to relieve the original, primary feeling of inferiority actually causes the secondary feeling of inferiority. This vicious circle is common in those suffering from neurosis. The secondary inferiority feeling is exacerbated when the individual has adopted an unrealistically high or impossible compensatory goal. In addition to the distress of not achieving this goal, the residue of the original, primary feeling of inferiority may still haunt an adult.

Napoleon complex

Napoleon complex (or Napoleon syndrome) is a colloquial term used to describe a type of inferiority complex suffered by people who are short. Alfred Adler used Napoléon Bonaparte as an example of someone driven to extremes by a psychological need to compensate for what he perceived as a handicap: his small stature. In actuality, though, Napoleon was not especially short, being slightly over 168 cm (5 feet, 6 inches).

Typically, people with this complex compensate in many ways. For example, a person with a Napoleon Complex may set pictures in their home to lower levels and make other such accommodations that enable them to feel taller in their surroundings. Compensatory behavior may also include being overly aggressive, or argumentative, and a tendency to want to over-achieve, all of which serve to give the person a sense of greater self worth.

Inferiority complex in children

Adler believed that the feeling of inferiority typically begins in childhood. Children may have developed feelings of inferiority on the basis of real shortcomings, or from misinterpretations about their body, or their social or physical relationship with their environment. Adler believed that a fictitious goal of superiority is set higher, and will be adhered to more tenaciously, the longer and more clearly the child perceives his insecurity, the more he suffers from actual physical or mental impediments, and the more intensely he feels being neglected. At some point the striving for power and dominance over others becomes exaggerated and intensified until it is considered pathological.

The concept of inferiority as a motivational force for children is not unique to Adler. One of Adler's students, Anthony Bruck, cautioned that labeling children as aggressive, or otherwise antisocial is only superficial. He believed that the desire for significance and feelings of inferiority are causal factors. Feelings of inferiority hurt children and make them aggressive. On the other hand, he believed that inferiority feelings can be very useful in education. This is particularly important from the viewpoint of the teacher, as the interest of children in their education springs from their feeling of inferiority, provided it remains within tolerable limits. He pointed out two significant reasons that thwart a child's interest in learning: One is an excessive feeling of inferiority which leads to despair and feelings of hopelessness at achieving mastery. The other, the usual consequence of the former, is the development of a striving no longer towards security and equality, but towards power and superiority.

Erik Erikson described the fourth stage of psychosocial development as the task of inferiority vs. industry. He discovered that for the child at this stage it is essential to discover pleasure in being productive and to experience success. In school, a child is challenged to learn academic skills, new socializing skills with peers, as well as develop physical abilities through games and sports. Difficulty in any of these areas can lead to a sense of inferiority, failure, and incompetence. With an adult's support, however, the child can develop a sense of competence. If the adults in a child's life do not support the child, feelings of inferiority are likely to develop which in turn lead the child to invest less and so to further failure.

Cultural cringe

It has been suggested that the inferiority complex can also exist at a wider level, affecting entire cultures. In such cases, known as "cultural cringe," people of a particular nation suffer a sense of embarrassment caused by feeling that their national culture is inferior to others. While controversial as a sociological theory, the term has entered into popular parlance, particularly in Australia, Scotland, and other countries with historical ties to England.

Adler believed that the desire of groups to escape or compensate for their crushing sense of inferiority is a contributing factor to national hatreds, class struggle, and even war. He attributed such a sense of inferiority to the individuals in crowds clamoring for war as a solution to perceived threats to their security, and the still larger crowds that have accepted war as a solution.

Adler concluded that his principles of individual psychology could also be applied to groups, rallying the latent forces for good, as it had for individuals. If used on a larger scale, he postulated, this approach could be developed into a powerful instrument to rid nations and groups of their destructive collective inferiority complexes, just as it had cured individuals from their sense of inferiority.

Treatment

The primary indication of mental health in Adlerian psychotherapy is the person's feeling of community and connectedness with all of life. Attempts to compensate for an exaggerated inferiority feeling by a fictional final goal of superiority over others is a major hindrance to development of a feeling of community. This sense of unity provides the real key to the individual's genuine feeling of security and happiness. When adequately developed, it leads to a feeling of equality, an attitude of cooperative interdependence, and a desire to contribute. Consequently, the central goal of Adlerian psychotherapy is to strengthen this feeling of community.

The therapeutic process is simultaneously focused on three aspects of change. First, the painful, exaggerated feelings of inferiority are reduced to a level that can be used to promote growth, development, and a healthy striving for significance. Second, the patient's destructive striving for superiority over others, manifested in a compensatory lifestyle, must be released. The third aspect is the fostering of equality and feeling of community. Underlying this approach is a firm belief in the creative power of the individual to freely make choices and correct them when given sufficient information—an extremely optimistic view of human nature and our ability to change.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

  • Adler, Alfred. 1987. The Child's Inner Life and a Sense of Community. Individual Psychology. Vol. 44 No. 4, September 1987.
  • Boeree, C. George. 1997. Alfred Adler

External links

All links retrieved March 2, 2018.

  • Erik Erikson's Stages of Psychosocial Development
  • 'I want to end the Scottish cringe' - news story quoting Jack McConnell, Scotland's First Minister.

Credits

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Feelings of inferiority according to A. Adler

Alfred Adler started his practice as an eye doctor, and then he chose psychiatry as his main field of activity. In the course of his work, he encountered the problem of treating neuroses and got acquainted with the works of Z. Freud. In 1902, he became an active member of a discussion group on psychoanalysis.

A. Adler was never a student of Freud and developed his own ideas, which (subsequently) led to a disagreement between them. Their views on personality development varied widely. Adler believed that the central place in the development of personality is occupied not by sexual desires, but by the feeling of inferiority and the need to compensate for the defect [3].

The difference of opinion led to the fact that in 1911 Adler decided to step down as president of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society and cut off all ties with Freud.

Feeling of inferiority & striving for superiority

Feeling of inferiority is a person's feeling of his weakness, failure. Adler believed that the feeling of inferiority arises in childhood. The child begins to experience it from the fact that for a long time it is completely dependent on its parents. This leads to a feeling of own weakness, inferiority in comparison with strong and independent parents. At the same time, this feeling is quite natural and should not be perceived negatively. Rather, on the contrary, this feeling often causes a response that stimulates ambition and the desire for superiority.

The pursuit of excellence is the main driving force of society. Thanks to this desire, a person is able to develop. Thus, the feeling of inferiority and the desire for superiority can complement each other. After all, it is likely that without awareness of a feeling of inferiority, a person will not have a desire to overcome it and achieve success.

Inferiority complex & superiority complex

Feelings of inferiority can become too strong and transform into a complex. It manifests itself in a person's persistent conviction that he is in many ways worse than others and that he has serious shortcomings that make him truly inferior.

According to A. Adler, children in whom the feeling of inferiority is most clearly manifested, which can later become an inferiority complex, can be divided into three categories. “These are children born with weak or imperfect organs; children who were treated harshly and without love, and, finally, too spoiled children” [1].

In the first case, children born with obvious physical disabilities often suffer from a sense of psychological inferiority. Children deprived of care and love also become insecure, because of the thought that they will never be loved and appreciated. But even those who are loved, but spoiled too much in childhood, are also often subject to this complex. This is due to excessive guardianship and care, they are often afraid to do anything on their own, which creates a sense of insecurity in their own abilities.

Although the above cases often lead to an inferiority complex, they are not a necessary condition for its occurrence.

Summing up

If the feeling of inferiority increases too much, this can lead to the development of a complex. So, a person begins to exaggerate the feeling of his weakness and thoughts about his own inferiority are fixed in him. This feeling leads to the fact that a person becomes unsure of his abilities and believes that he is completely good for nothing. In other cases, a person develops a superiority complex, as a result of which, a person begins to unreasonably exaggerate his abilities and skills. Such a person becomes arrogant and self-centered.

Thus, an inferiority complex can be a negative manifestation of an excessive feeling of inferiority, which in itself is quite neutral and natural. It contributes to the personal development of a person, encourages him to improve, become better, achieve his goals and realize his inner potential. However, the inferiority complex itself is not normal. If a person feels a certain discomfort, in connection with it, then you should seriously think about starting work on eliminating the complex.

Literature:
  • 1. A. Adler. Parenting. The interaction of the sexes / Translated from English, A. A. Valeeva and R. A. Valeeva. (The Education of Children. Gateway Editions, Ltd South Bend Indiana, 1978). Rostov n / a, publishing house "Phoenix", 1998.
  • 2. Gurevich, P. S. Psychoanalysis. Modern Depth Psychology: a textbook for masters / P. S. Gurevich. - 2nd ed., revised. and additional - M .: Yurait Publishing House, 2013.
  • 3. Zhdan, A.N. History of psychology: from antiquity to modernity: A textbook for students of psychological departments of universities. Ed. third, corrected. - M .: Pedagogical Society of Russia, 1999.

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Contribution of Alfred Adler. Inferiority complex and its relationship with psychosomatic medicine

Alfred Adler, the son of a Jewish merchant, was born in Vienna on February 7, 1870. Alfred's mother was a wonderful pianist, and Adler himself had an unusually beautiful voice and he was often advised to try himself as an opera singer. Alfred Adler suffered many illnesses in childhood, but he was more burdened by the constant rivalry with his older brother. At home, he did not feel equal and could not enjoy self-respect. He later reflected the experience gained in the struggle in his writings, where he emphasized the importance of empathy and common values, calling it a social interest, thanks to which a person can realize his potential and become a useful member of society [7, 118]. At the age of 18, Alfred entered the University of Vienna in the department of medicine. At one of the political meetings at the university, he met his future wife Raisa, a Russian student who also studied at the university.

Adler received his medical degree in 1895 and began his practice as an ophthalmologist, but due to his growing interest in the functions of the nervous system and adaptation, Alfred retrained towards neurology and psychiatry.

In 1901, defending Freud's book in print, he received a letter of thanks from Z. Freud and was invited to a discussion group on psychoanalysis.

In 1910 he became president of the Psychoanalytic Society and co-editor of one of the psychological journals. Just a year later, the divergence of views with Freud was unacceptable to many members of the Society and Freud himself and Adler left the presidency and resigned from the Society along with nine like-minded people. Subsequently, Adler created his own organization, the Association of Individual Psychology, and this trend spread throughout Europe.

Alfred Adler has published many articles and monographs, and has devoted much of his time to lecture tours in Europe and the United States, and was engaged in teaching. In 1932, he left Vienna forever and settled in the United States, heading the department of medical psychology at the Long Island Medical College. Adler died in Scotland in 1937, at the age of 67, during a lecture tour of Europe [7, 118].

Basic concepts of Adler's individual psychology

Adler's theory is based on several sources. Ch. Darwin's theory of evolution, Z. Freud's psychoanalytic theory, Nietzsche's will to power, Vaihinger's fictitious goals and the theory of holism became especially significant. Adler concentrated his attention on the relationship between the individual and the world around him. The main biological fact for Adler is not the child's instinctive sexual behavior, but that the child feels small and helpless in the adult world. According to Adler, children's early attempts to adapt to their environment lead them to develop superiority over others as a way to gain self-assertion and achieve success.

The basic principles of A. Adler's theory are as follows:

  1. All human actions take place in a social context; one cannot study people in isolation.
  2. The emphasis is on interpersonal psychology. The most important thing for the individual is to develop in him a sense of inclusion in some larger social whole as an integral part of it.

Inferiority (organic inferiority) - organic weakness. Each individual has certain weak points - organs that are especially prone to disease. Organic weakness can be overcome with diligent training. In fact, a weak organ can be developed to such an extent that it becomes the most important strength of a person. “It is not what a person was born with that is important, but how he manages it”

Inferiority complex. According to Adler, children are deeply affected by their own inferiority consciousness, which is an inevitable consequence of the child's size and lack of power. Children are relatively small and helpless in the adult world. For a child to control his own behavior and break free from the power of adults is the most important task. The struggle to achieve power is early childhood compensation for feelings of inferiority. “Feelings of inferiority in and of themselves are not abnormal. It is the cause of all improvements in the condition of mankind.” Moderate feelings of inferiority can push a person towards constructive achievement.

For Adler, almost all progress is the result of our efforts to compensate for feelings of inferiority. This feeling pushes us to greater achievements.

Awareness of one's weakness, failure and frustration together form an inferiority complex.

Aggression and struggle for superiority. Adler identified the concept of aggression with initiative and the ability to overcome obstacles, and aggression can also manifest itself as the will to power. In the future, he considered aggression and the will to power as a generalized motive "striving for superiority." The pursuit of excellence can take both a positive and a negative direction. So if the desire is associated with social interest and concern for the well-being of others, then development will be favorable, healthy, constructive, and vice versa, if the desire is aimed at personal superiority, trying to subjugate others, instead of becoming more useful to others, can lead to a neurotic syndrome, personal superiority usually does not bring the recognition and personal satisfaction that a person seeks.

Life style and life goals . Life goals are a guideline that is developed by a person. A person's life goal is influenced by his life experience, his values, inclinations and personal characteristics. Life purpose is not clear and conscious. The formation of a life goal begins in childhood, as compensation for feelings of inferiority. Life goals usually serve as a defense against feelings of powerlessness, a bridge to a future life.

Life goals are always unrealistic, often neurotically exaggerated. For the neurotic, there is usually a huge gulf between consciously set real goals and self-destructive life goals set unconsciously. Fantasies of personal superiority and self-respect are given more attention than goals that lead to real achievement.

Lifestyle is a unique way of achieving your goals, chosen by the individual. This is a set of tools that allow you to adapt to the surrounding reality. Life style components:

  • Self-concept;
  • The ideal of oneself - an opinion about how it should be;
  • Image of the world - an idea of ​​the world, people, as well as what the world requires from a person.
  • Ethical beliefs - personal code of ethics.

Individual habits and behaviors become important as elements of an individual's lifestyle and goals, so a holistic lifestyle should be addressed in treatment, since a given symptom or behavior is just an expression of a single lifestyle. [7, 125]

Scheme of apperception - according to Adler - is a personal concept of the world that determines human behavior. Adler reminded "our feelings do not receive real facts, but only their subjective image, a reflection of the external world." The schema of apperception tends to reinforce itself. For example, if we are afraid, we are more likely to notice threats in the world around us and thereby reinforce our initial belief that the world around us threatens us.

Social interest . In a sense, all human behavior is social, because we develop in a social environment, and our personal characteristics are shaped by society. Social interest - in a broad sense, includes a sense of kinship with all of humanity and attachment to life in general.

Cooperation . Adler believed that only by interacting with each other, benefiting society, can we overcome our real inferiority. “If a person interacts with others,” wrote Adler, “he will never become neurotic.”

The idea of ​​an inferiority complex, its relationship with psychosomatic medicine

The feeling of inferiority in itself is not a disease or a defect. A person, unlike animals, is born weak, defenseless and helpless, that is, from the moment of birth, he constantly experiences a lack of his strength and limited opportunities. Being burdened by this, he does everything to become more perfect. In such a situation, the feeling of inferiority is not a brake, but a stimulus. A painful experience of one's own inferiority can give rise to a person's lack of self-confidence, which creates numerous problems for him. If feelings of inferiority begin to dominate a person's mental life, coloring it in negative emotional tones, he loses the ability to develop his creative powers and talents. Feeling no possibility for genuine compensation for inferiority, a person chooses perverted paths.

The reverse side of an inferiority complex is often the so-called superiority complex - a person strives in every way to rise above other people in order to compensate for his inferiority. Arrogance, arrogance and complacency take the upper hand in it. The means of achieving superiority are usually all sorts of social symbols - material and status. To compensate for this complex, a person can strive to enrich himself, in every possible way emphasizing the importance of money as a measure of success in life, or to acquire all kinds of titles and high positions, allowing him, despite his modest abilities, to assert his superiority over others . So unbridled careerism, the pursuit of tools and symbols of power (one of which, quite obviously, in human society is money) is in many cases not so much a manifestation of strength as a symptom of weakness. “Any neurosis,” writes Adler, “can be understood as culturally erroneous attempt to get rid of feelings of inferiority in order to gain a sense of superiority.

Adler drew attention to the facts of the physiological inferiority of individual organs: after all, not a single person has all the organs well formed and developed. One has a hardy heart, but a sick stomach, another has good eyesight, but poor hearing, a third has a strong intellect, but sluggish feelings, etc. organs and functions are able to some extent replace, compensate for each other. A heart with a diseased valve works in such a way that it develops a strong heart muscle. A visually impaired person tends to listen more often. But Adler is most interested in compensation within one function: a visually impaired child trains himself in the art of examining objects, a hearing impaired person strains the auditory organ and gradually learns to distinguish the most subtle differences in sounds.

In addition to physical defects, there are social and cultural forms of inferiority. Adler easily detects them in age, sex, economic. political and moral relations. Age is the main and universal source of inferiority.

Adler declared that "inferiority complex" is just an idea, an explanatory principle, an element of a general scheme of behavior, which must be considered in conjunction with other elements: "life style", "compensation" and "social feeling". He emphasized, especially in his last works, that it is not a matter of actual usefulness, since the criteria for usefulness and perfection are relative and depend on culture. The point is a “generalized feeling” of inferiority, which causes an influx of strength and serves as an impulse to action. [6,115]

A. Adler singled out the same causes, “three types of suffering”, which contribute to the emergence of an inferiority complex: inferiority of organs, excessive guardianship and rejection by parents. Let us consider the types of these causes that underlie the emergence of an inferiority complex, according to their contribution to the formation of the child's personal boundaries. Overprotection, for example, can lead to merging with the parents, engulfing the child, or blurring his boundaries and replacing them with those of another. Rejection by parents, complete neglect of the child or lack of full-fledged interaction creates a kind of psychological vacuum around him, in which he cannot find support for building his boundaries with the social world. The inferiority of any organ allows the child to establish quite early its difference from others, i.e. in fact, to draw a line between oneself and other people, but at the same time maximally limits the possibility of the latter in establishing a wide fruitful contact with the world.[5, 87]

Psychologists call a complex a set of unconscious ideas, emotionally colored memories, associations that arise in a person at the very beginning of his life path and then affect his attitude and behavior. ". Desperate to achieve recognition from others, unable to reinforce their own self-esteem with real successes and achievements, a person sometimes begins, paradoxically, to revel in failures, defeats and even illnesses. Moreover, he can unconsciously provoke the occurrence of various painful symptoms in order to somehow attract attention to himself and arouse the compassion of loved ones.

Speaking about neurotic manifestations in people, A. Adler wrote "Based on real impressions, subsequently tendentiously fixed and deepened feeling of inferiority already in childhood, constantly prompts the patient to direct his striving towards a goal that significantly exceeds any human measure." Of course, it does not follow from this that all talented neurotics, having applied the mechanism of hypercompensation, become great artists, philosophers, politicians and generals. For the ordinary neurotic, as Adler writes, "psychotherapeutic treatment should be aimed at showing him how, in his usual way, he is constantly trying to find himself in an ideal situation for the implementation of his guiding life line, while he, at first out of negativism, and then will not change his life plan of his own free will and will not join the human community and its logical requirements.

Let's go back a little to the history of the appearance of A. Adler's individual psychology and psychosomatic medicine in general. It has long been known to people that the state of the psyche affects physical health. Examples of such influence were cited by Hippocrates. However, in the 19th century, when modern scientific medicine was born, the importance of this connection was lost. The main attention was paid to the study of structural anomalies accessible to the eye (pathoanatomy). Only in the 20th century the understanding came that diseases are primarily associated with functional disorders (pathophysiology). One of the foundations of psychosomatic medicine was scientific psychology, which also appeared only in the 20th century, so in the 19thIn 07, A. Adler tried to explain in his works why diseases affect different people in different ways, he wrote as a doctor mainly from a physiological point of view, and also drew attention to the fact that each individual has certain weaknesses that are especially prone to disease. In the further development of psychosomatic medicine, conclusions were drawn that there is not a single disease in the development of which one way or another would not be involved, along with physical and psychological factors. Factors such as poor diet, alcohol, smoking, and drug abuse appear to be biological, but they are based on psychologically motivated behavior. Similarly, the "stresses" of life are known to be associated with many different illnesses. human condition, and methods of complex treatment with the help of psychotherapy.

Alfred Adler's latest achievements

Many of Adler's innovative ideas are now applied so widely that they are taken for granted. His work on the interaction of psychological and physical elements in cases of organic inferiority (see above) became a tool for the creation of psychosomatic medicine. Almost every psychological work on parenting makes use of Adler's theory of child behavior, although without reference to it. Adlerian psychology influenced leading psychologists such as Maslow, Rogers, documented (Ansbacher, 1990)[7, 141]. As has been repeatedly proven, Adler's theory became a prerequisite for the formation of cognitive psychology. Adler's significant contribution to the development of modern psychology is the study of the inferiority complex, the role of power and aggression in human behavior, the concept of the unity of the individual and the assertion of the importance of non-sexual factors in development.

Adler's ideas were of great importance for the development of modern psychology, psychiatry, especially child psychiatry, and also had a significant impact on the processes of education and training.

References:
  1. Akimova M.K. Psychology. Tutorial. - Moscow: "Pedagogy", 2003. - 489 p.
  2. Asmolov A.S. Psychology of Personality. M.: UNITI-DANA, 2003.
  3. Vasiliev V. Stress and health. - M., 1991.-369s.
  4. Granovskaya R. Elements of practical psychology. L. 1988.-215p.
  5. Zapashny A.M. complexes in adolescence. Monograph. Novosibirsk, 1985.- 446s.
  6. Kozlova V.T. Psychology and culture. Tutorial. - Moscow: "Nauka", 2001. - 612 p.
  7. Frager R., Feidiman D. Personality: theories, experiments, exercises. - St. Petersburg: prime-EVROZNAK, 2002. - 864 p.

Author: Julia Popova, practicing military psychologist.

Published in the author's edition

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