An inferiority complex is a series of emotional sensations and psychological traits that combine into a feeling of one’s own abnormality and inferiority. This complex arises due to certain reasons: mental trauma, various failures, discrimination, personal mistakes. The feeling of worthlessness determines a person’s behavioral patterns and well-being. In other words, the phenomenon under consideration can be represented in the form of a behavioral response that affects the self-perception of an individual, forcing him to feel unfit for anything. An inferiority complex often prevents a person from personal growth, development, self-realization, realizing dreams and plans, and building relationships.
What is an inferiority complex?
An inferiority complex is a set of psychological and emotional disorders. In other words, it is a reason that may be hidden in failure, mental trauma, discrimination, physical or psychological abuse.
An inferiority complex always has a starting point from which a person will subsequently push off, compensating for his insecurity with certain actions.
I would immediately like to distinguish between the concepts of inferiority complex and self-doubt. These are two concepts that are far from each other; if the latter is inherent in almost everyone, then the complex is often the foundation of a psychological or mental disorder. Due to the feeling of inferiority that accompanies this complex, a person is prone to experiencing depression and even suicidal tendencies.
The concept of inferiority complex according to Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud was dubious about the concept of an inferiority complex, despite the fact that this term (complex) was first introduced by his student Carl Jung:
- He agreed with the existence of stimulating factors that provoke a person to compensate for this disadvantage at the expense of other advantages.
- Freud believed that it is often this “complex” that can lead a person to success.
- But the doctor, in his characteristic manner, referred to erotic origins.
- He developed several types of complexes, which were based on unhealthy sexual desire.
Thus, the Oedipus complex reveals the son’s sexual desire for his mother, and the Griselda complex reveals the father’s unconscious attraction to his daughter, when he is prone to hypercontrol and overprotection over her. Oddly enough, the second complex is a neglected consequence of the first.
But the Jocasta complex is akin to the Oedipus complex - the unhealthy sexual attraction of a mother to her son. We can observe mothers who, on a subconscious level, feel the need to overprotect their son at any age.
Sigmund Freud also developed several more very interesting complexes that are still relevant and applicable in our time:
- Unrecognized genius complex . Inflated self-esteem, which makes it difficult to come to terms with the “superior-subordinate” relationship model. Such people do not stay in one place for long due to disagreements with management.
- Marilyn Monroe complex . Low self-esteem. A feeling of inferiority that provokes one to feel one’s worth only during sexual intimacy and a constant change of sexual partners.
- Cain complex . Envy of the older brother towards the younger. A complex that is often attributed to teenagers.
- Jonah complex . Low self-esteem, which lies in the fear of something good. A person experiencing this complex considers himself unworthy to be successful or happy.
- Complex of Polycrates . A feeling of anxiety that after a white stripe there is always a black one. Such people live in constant fear of retribution for their quiet life.
- Napoleon complex . A very interesting concept. This is an overcompensation that lies in the great determination of short men.
Sigmund Freud came to the conclusion that the cause of the inferiority complex is a disagreement between the Ego (the individual) and the Super-Ego (the individual's idea of himself). When the difference becomes noticeably noticeable, a person develops an incorrect, distorted idea of himself, so he begins to experience an inferiority complex.
Compensation for inferiority complex
A person with an inferiority complex begins to feel an advantage over the situation when they sublimate their anger, resentment or tension in some direction. Thus, he tries to compensate for his lack in the situation that is available to him. But the problem is that the carrier of the complex does not always choose the right direction:
- Many people, compensating for their complex with other advantages, find in their trauma a stimulus that helps them succeed.
- But there are people whose complex turned out to be stronger, completely destroying their faith in their abilities.
- Many are able to feel their advantage only by humiliating and insulting others. It seems to them that they can “grow” in their own eyes against their background if they artificially humiliate another, more successful opponent.
All serial killers, without exception, suffered from an inferiority complex. By killing their victims, they tried to compensate for their inferiority by playing the situation in reverse. Often the offenders were women. As a striking example of an inferiority complex: a serial maniac never rapes his victim without eliminating him. He is afraid of judgment or ridicule from his victim.
For example, a little boy always saw how his mistress, a rich white woman, always humiliated his mother, who served her as a housekeeper. In the future, the whole world will know him as the “Stocking Strangler” - a killer who chose his victims based on the type of his mother’s employer.
Basic concepts of Adler's individual psychology
Adler's theory is based on several sources. The theory of evolution of Charles Darwin, the psychoanalytic theory of Z. Freud, the will to power of Nietzsche, the fictional goals of Vaihinger 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 the fact that the child feels small and helpless in the world of adults. 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-esteem and achieve success.
Going beyond limits as a modern cause of an inferiority complex
Going beyond the limits is the modern theory of inferiority complex. Now many psychologists are coming to the conclusion that outdated standards of upbringing, which we absorbed from the cradle, in the future can lead to an inferiority complex and the reason for this is going beyond this model of upbringing.
This is a very interesting path since childhood, along which an inferiority complex is formed. Since childhood, we have been taught to live according to a single pattern:
- study well
- graduate from school with a gold medal
- University - with honors diploma
- be a good specialist in your field
- get a job in your specialty
- be a good employee
- strive to move up the career ladder
- get married early
- have two children (preferably by age 25), etc.
There are several more paradigms that we manage to acquire with valuable parental advice:
- money is earned hard
- funds must be spent wisely
- To achieve something significant, you need to work hard (or even suffer)
And also a look at some character traits that are common to all people:
- Selfishness. It has been harshly suppressed since childhood. For example, before we take the last pie, we must ask if anyone in the house would like it. Surely parents will allow their child to take a treat, but what happened? This is the process of education!
Reflections taken from the book “Manuals for the Egoist” by Andrei Kurpatov, who claims that this is a basic instinct characteristic of all people and some primates.
- Greed. From childhood we are taught that we need to share. In the kindergarten group we had friends and enemies, but we had to share with everyone. To the point that some bully could complain to the teacher or even to the mother. Often, everyone takes the side of the offended one, because no one likes greedy children.
- Pride. This is the most important and wrong infringement of parents in the early manifestation of pride and self-esteem. We must ask our parents for forgiveness for our disobedience, and also forgive and be friends with our offenders. When the sense of self-worth is neglected from childhood, there is nothing to be surprised at the presence of an inferiority complex in children.
What's happening?
Living by adhering to all points of the script is difficult. Therefore, we often move away from the usual pattern of “normal” life. For example, we are not in a hurry to get married, but have been living in a civil marriage for a long time; we leave the university and follow the call of our true calling; We don’t hold a respectable position, but earn extra money by doing handicrafts or simply refuse to have children. What's happening?
- When we go beyond the established scenario, we suffer condemnation from loved ones. We do not receive the approval that we have strived for since childhood and we begin to feel inferior in this life.
- Having gone beyond, we do not understand what to do next. After all, we were not taught how to live the way we want. We begin to doubt our abilities and feel inferior. This can easily lead to an inferiority complex problem.
Imagine that you walked along the same path every day to pick berries. Once again visiting the forest, you have left the path, and now the road is unfamiliar to you. A person who goes beyond the boundaries of a single correct scenario feels the same way.
Personality theory
Its fundamental principles are revealed in two works: “On Nervous Character” (1912) and “Study of Physical Inferiority and Mental Compensation” (1917).
The theory represents the first psychological personality typology.
The key message of the teaching is a compensatory mechanism. Compensation helps develop three innate unconscious feelings:
- community
- inferiority
- striving for superiority
A sense of community sets the vector for lifestyle. The skeleton on which the structure rests. Two feelings: inferiority and the desire for superiority are carriers of energy important for the harmonious development of the individual.
Adler divided the compensatory mechanism into four categories:
1) Incomplete
Occurs in the absence of complete realization (examples of the presence of external deformities).
2) Full
That is, the defect is perceived as a selective individuality. A person strives not to become better than others, but to be no worse.
3) Overcompensation
A human defect does not give rise to aggressive actions. The person strives to benefit society. A striking example: the 32nd American President Franklin Roosevelt and the Greek philosopher Demosthenes.
In the case of an undeveloped sense of community, the principle of the compensatory mechanism works in the opposite way. The defect serves as a source of aggression: a person strives for power with all the ensuing consequences. Adler cited Hitler, Suvorov, and Napoleon as examples.
4) Imaginary
Leads to defect speculation.
Female inferiority complex according to Alfred Adler
The reason for a woman's inferiority complex, according to Adler, may be her secondary role in society. A woman is more susceptible to feelings of insignificance and even insignificance when there was or is a man in her life whose social role is much more significant. This may be expressed in one of these life scenarios:
Overbearing father
When a little girl observes from childhood how different the social roles of men and women (mom and dad) are, she begins to set priorities:
- There is nothing wrong with the fact that people strive for the best, so a girl, watching such a picture, subconsciously tries on the role of a dominant (overbearing father), but, having become a woman, she understands the absurdity of the situation.
- Being a woman, she considers herself a second-class type.
- In all men she will see an imperious father, before whom the mother bows.
- The consequences of such thinking can range from low self-esteem and inferiority complex to personality disorder.
Autocratic husband
An oppressive husband can cause you to suffer from an inferiority complex. I would immediately like to distinguish between the concepts of a stupid man (tyrant) and an emotionally unstable, cunning and two-faced despot. It is the second type that can destroy your concept of self-esteem. What happens?
- A despot man often uses the “carrot and stick” method to create the illusion of guilt.
- The woman becomes a dependent victim in such unhealthy relationships.
- After some time, the woman begins to feel her own need for physical punishment. It would seem stupid, but this is normal behavior of a person with an inferiority complex.
- A despot man gives the victim a “carrot” every time after a beating. This could be a sincere apology, an expensive gift, or a declaration of love, giving her the upper hand and the reins.
Thus, after some time, such relationships become the norm. The victim endures beatings to gain his advantage, because this is the only way he can feel his perfection. It is very difficult to leave such a relationship, because... the victim becomes dependent and feels a constant need to compensate for the inferiority complex.
But there is another option, this is when fate brought you together with a moral despot:
- This is a man who himself suffers from an inferiority complex and feels that he can compensate for this only by insulting and humiliating someone, thereby imposing a feeling of inferiority on his partner.
- Only by humiliating others can he raise his dignity.
- A woman, hearing her own shortcomings - it is worth noting that despots are very cunning and will focus their attention on what you yourself feel your weaknesses in - begins to experience an inferiority complex.
- What prevents her from leaving such a relationship is the low self-esteem she acquired thanks to the despot. It seems to such women that they do not deserve anything more and that they deserve everything that happens to them.
Exemplary brother
Children can feel jealous if they feel they are being treated unfairly. With girls, everything is somewhat more complicated; noticing that the main privileges are given to another child (that is, a brother), they begin to feel his advantage over themselves:
- Boys are allowed a lot of things from early childhood: there is no condemnation for them if they accidentally stain their new jeans or break their knee while climbing trees.
- They treat girls more demandingly, arguing with the phrase “you’re a girl.”
- The child may develop a feeling of male superiority over himself.
- Later, when you go to school, these demands only get worse, because parents are often afraid of early pregnancy or bad company and try to protect their daughter.
Such injustice can disappear without a trace with age, or, on the contrary, it can develop an inferiority complex in a girl.
Male inferiority complex
Men also tend to experience an inferiority complex. Often this is a consequence of upbringing or an unbearable niche that is imposed on all boys from childhood, saying to him “you’re a boy”, “don’t be a girl”, etc. It is not surprising that the child begins to develop complexes. Self-doubt appears, and the child feels inferior, experiencing the following complexes in adulthood:
- Boss complex . This is an attempt to fill your courageous niche, which was mentioned earlier, in full. This syndrome manifests itself when women or their character traits are critically belittled or the parents are too demanding of the child.
- Complex in male power . Another niche is imposed by society. There is an established opinion in the world that a man should always be ready for sexual exploits. Oddly enough, this is not the case. Such a complex can lead a man to real erectile dysfunction disorders.
- Hercules complex . In other words, this is henpecked syndrome. When a woman, whose social role is weaker than a man’s, begins to force a man to do things unusual for him (do laundry, clean up the house, etc.), he feels that his libido is being belittled. As a result, the Hercules complex develops.
- Don Juan complex . The need to increase your own libido by taking the initiative to break off a romantic relationship.
- Alexander complex . This is the most sophisticated type of complex. Due to discrimination against sexual minorities, a man is able to experience his inferiority even in completely inappropriate cases. For example, when someone jokes about his masculinity or suggests wearing a pink or blue shirt. But this complex may be a consequence when he, a man, is a subconscious fan of same-sex relationships. Such men are very afraid of exposure and, in order to avoid this, they enroll themselves in the ranks of “homophobes.”
Some complexes can be classified as “inevitable”. They do not have a natural cause that all life processes are subject to - aging. It would seem illogical, because a man is like good whiskey, the older the better, but the fear of death is inherent in everyone. Therefore, men are very worried about their aging, attaching new complexes to themselves:
- King David complex . This is a way to “rejuvenate” at the expense of your mistress. Men who experience this complex tend to compensate for their age by having sex, and sometimes by living together with young girls.
- Kotovsky complex . Baldness for a man is akin to impotence. There is no need to look for meaning in this, the fact remains: when a man begins to go bald, it seems to him that he is losing his masculine strength. It is very easy to spot such men in a crowd; noticing the slightest loss, they shave their heads to zero.
The essence of the phenomenon
The term “inferiority complex” was coined by the Austrian psychologist Alfred Adler. For the first time he used it in relation to children. Due to their psychophysiological characteristics, they all feel weak and partly inferior (“I’ll grow up…”). In small doses, this feeling is useful, as it encourages you to become stronger, better, healthier, smarter, more capable. But if environmental oppression and other negative factors are added to the natural complex, then development, on the contrary, slows down and is disrupted.
However, the child grows, becomes an adult, but inside him lives the same offended child, who does not feel safe, insecure and helpless, with a pronounced need for recognition and love, happiness. However, against the backdrop of an inferiority complex, this need is satisfied in a perverse way - by belittling others, craving for power and aggression, and fighting for personal superiority and domination.
Inferiority complex in men
The main reason for development is maternal overprotection or, conversely, a lack of maternal love, the need to win the mother’s favor. The male inferiority complex often manifests itself:
- aggression;
- arrogance;
- attachment to things, hobbies that emphasize status and masculinity.
The following forms of manifestation of an inferiority complex in men can be distinguished:
- King David syndrome (avoiding old age by choosing a young companion);
- boss syndrome (constant emphasis and proof of masculinity);
- Napoleon syndrome (ambitiousness and vanity, desire for success);
- fear of impotence;
- lost energy syndrome (men over 50 suffer);
- Lot's syndrome (reluctance to let her daughter go into the hands of another man);
- Hercules syndrome (financial or other dependence on a woman);
- Kotovsky syndrome (non-acceptance of baldness, shaving off the rest of the hair);
- Don Juan syndrome (breaking relationships with girls).
Men more often suffer from complexes due to physical weakness or financial insolvency, sexual dysfunction or non-sexuality. Although appearance also plays a significant role in this, especially height.
Inferiority complex in women
Women are naturally more emotional, therefore the risk of developing a complex is higher, and is often associated with appearance. Popular forms and manifestations of female inferiority complex:
- non-acceptance of appearance or body type;
- gender disorientation, denial of gender identity;
- rejection of men;
- guilt;
- fear of loneliness;
- worries about untapped potential;
- the conviction that no one loves the girl and suspiciousness about this.
In women, complexes are more often associated with appearance; non-acceptance of oneself provokes the development of insecurity. Because of it, a woman withdraws into herself, is overly self-critical, and belittles her own achievements.
Inferiority complex in children
Research into Adler's inferiority complex is encouraging. Because Uncertainty in the early years is common to many children. With the right approach from their parents, such children can not only get rid of this complex, but also achieve some success. A child may suffer from an inferiority complex for several reasons:
- Physical handicap. Especially this reason can be attributed to the development of an inferiority complex in adolescents. This may be short stature, dysfunction of a limb, or unsightly appearance. Sometimes children can be very cruel, and for a fragile child’s psyche this is a real trauma that can easily lead to an inferiority complex.
- Lack of parental attention. Lack of support from parents reduces a child's self-confidence. Children are not able to reveal their inner potential on their own and this is another reason for the development of the complex. The indifferent attitude of parents makes the child inferior.
- Excessive parental care. Children who grow up in hothouse conditions turn out to be completely unsuitable for life. Such a child is unable to make independent decisions and responsibility for their actions is incredibly frightening to them. This model of upbringing can lead a child to an inferiority complex and develop alcohol or drug addiction.
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How to get rid of an inferiority complex?
Despite the fact that Wayne Dyer’s book “How to Get Rid of an Inferiority Complex” was published in 2015, even ordinary people and lovers of self-development literature came to the conclusion that the title was too loud. In fact, this is a manual for those who doubt their abilities and do not know how to properly manage their lives, but the book does not give recommendations in essence or title.
Treatment for inferiority complex has not yet been invented, so it is useless to fight it. But! It is worth considering that the situation is not at all a stalemate, on the contrary, you can derive considerable benefits from your complex:
- For example, according to Alfred Adler, an inferiority complex can lead to success.
- As mentioned in the article above, a person who has signs of an inferiority complex is able to compensate for his disadvantage through other advantages.
Sigmund Freud admired the King of Prussia and the last German Emperor, Wilhelm II. He suffered from an inferiority complex due to a physiologically congenital “deformity”: one arm was 15 cm shorter than the other. Without experiencing compensation in his mother's love, he achieved incredible heights, but never forgave his mother for such an attitude.
Unfortunately, a person cannot get rid of an inferiority complex. Having once experienced mental trauma, he will not be able to let go of this feeling of acquired inferiority, and will subconsciously return to it.
With the help of psychologists, it can be dulled or suppressed, but sooner or later it will still make itself felt. Psychologists such as Sigmund Freud, Alfred Adler and Carl Jung came to this conclusion.
If you think about it, all successful individuals have experienced an inferiority complex. This is not a reason to fall into despair, as you have already understood, the main thing is to correctly sublimate your potential, aimed at compensating for an inferiority complex.
There are many correct examples when it was mental trauma that motivated many now famous personalities. For example, Lady Gaga, Oprah Winfrey, Marilyn Monroe and Pamela Anderson are survivors of childhood sexual abuse, and Tim Roth recently admitted that he was abused by his own grandfather. And yet, despite this, these people have achieved considerable heights. There is only one conclusion: you never need to “give up” and then you will be able to solve any problem, including coping with an inferiority complex.
