Psyc in Literature: The Blog

Alfred Adler suffered from rickets, a disease that softens the bones, and did not walk until he was four. When he was five years old, he almost died from pneumonia. These medical incidents inspired Adler to be a doctor and cure these ailments. When Adler did become a doctor, he seemed to be living his own theory. His inferiority complex took the medical problems that made him weaker and drove to make Adler a stronger man. Adler thought that the inferiority complex was the primary force of personal development.

Adler believed in teleology, or the desire to be superior. As humans, we want to not only be better than everyone else, but we want to be perfect, even if we know we cannot be. Childhood trauma or abuse, or any sort of disaster can have lasting effects on the inferiority complex. We learn to adapt to our environment, however, and try to be superior, despite the events that may have damaged us in our past. On the other hand, people can develop a superiority complex. People will hide their inferiority by pretending like they are better than everyone else.

Adler suggested that therapists should try and inspire people to find something they are good at and something that sparks their interest. Only after discovering this can people live their lives to their full potential. Adler believed that “what doesn’t kill you can only make you stronger.”

http://www.muskingum.edu/~psych/psycweb/history/adler.htm

http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/adler.html