Alfred Adler: Striving for Superiority

• Born February 7, 1870

• Died May 28, 1937

• Cause of death: Heart attack 

Alfred Adler was an Austrian medical Dr., a Psychotherapist, and founder of the school of Individual Psychology. He was the third child of a Jewish merchant and his wife. Adler wasn't in great health as a child. He didn't walk until four years of age because he had rickets, and he almost died at pneumonia at age five. He was outgoing, popular, and involved in school-work.

Like Erikson, Alfred also rejected Freud's emphasis on sex. 

Acoording to Adler, it is normal for humans to develop feelings of inferiority. This allows us to strive for success. However, the inferiority complex does not motivate people. People with inferiority complex are convinced they are worthless, destined to fail, and they avoid challenges because they feel sure they will not succeed.  Inferiority complex is the feeling of inadequacy that may result in aggressiveness or shyness as a compensation for feeling inferior.  They may act in ways that make them appear superior. 

According to Cushman's article, "Constructing the Self," white actors and audiences of the minstrel shows were able to admit "they had certain propensities and that they yearned to pursue them- for instance, loving music, relaxing, dancing, clowning, and sex." The article continues, stating that those behaviors were permitted for African Americans, but not for whites." These behaviors were mocked for the purpose of comedy and was not acceptable for the white bourgeoise during the Victorian era in America. The mockery on stage allowed the whites to act out what they could not have since it was socially unacceptable, and the masks of the black faces allowed them to "unknowingly identify with the characteristics of a complete social outcast, the most imperfect of characters... they were protected from detection (and self-awareness) by the ridicule of their own laughter."

The guise of inferiority was masked, since they refused to act on their wishes off the stage and without a mask; the wishes was only reserved for the inferior and social misfits.

Privilege, as discussed in Lois Weiss's article "Critical Bifocality and Circuits of Privilege: Expanding Critical Ethnographic Theory and Design" highlights how feelings of inferiority harms society today. Privilege heightens the inferiority complex because it divides the school system, and widens inequality gaps between white children and black and brown children. The inferiority complex is causing marginalized children to feel that they will never be good enough to reach the doors of college.

W.E. Dubois researched the "negro problem," but his findings were made to be of little importance. Dubois was determined to show that the “Negro Problem was a symptom, and not a cause” of the racial order and economic order. The article states that  “he had been hired to document the ‘pathology’” of the black race as if it were inherent to the black culture.  Perhaps the assumption that African Americans are inherently indigent and criminal is a result of an inferiority complex. There is a vicious cycle  stemming from this inferiority complex since there is a disposition for higher rates of illegal activity and illnesses in the black community because of the divided school system, divided social classes, and misuse of knowledge. In poor African American communities, teachers expect less from their students, academically than they would expect of others in communities with a higher socio-economic standing.

If students are put under the impression that they lack the resources to reach very far, then chances are they may feel discouraged and inferior to the perceived superior. This is why it is important to tell children that they can achieve anything, as long as they try their best. Deepening the inferiority complex is the media, which display images of what it superior in looks. The message given is that if you look a certain way, then you will be able to achieve what the models and actors possess. In reaction to this message follows extreme dieting, leading to anorexia or bulimia, bullying and extreme, unnecessary plastic surgeries to enhance already flawless features.

The inferiority complex can be seen in children from a young age, which can affect them for a large chunk of their lives. This was shown in an experiment by married couple and psychologists Kenneth and Mamie Clark who conducted a 1940 experiment using black dolls and white baby dolls. "The Doll Test" was done to study the psychologic effects of segregation on African American children. Children between the ages of three to seven, were asked to identify both the race of the dolls and which color doll they prefer. The results were disheartening. Most children chose the white doll, attributed positive words to it, and rejected the black doll nearly all of the time. This is due to an inferiority complex, that the white doll is better than the black doll. In fact, children said the black doll was "bad." The Clarks concluded that “prejudice, discrimination, and segregation” created a feeling of inferiority among African-American children and damaged their self-esteem. 

Children aren't born with the inherent view of being inferior to others. First they learn the feelings of inferiority from their surroundings, and those whom are closest to them, such as caregivers or parents. They learn from society that the way they look is flawed. This video clearly illustrates the disheartening and damaging effects race inferiority complex has on children. From a young age, they are conditioned to see anything associated with "black" as bad. This is why some individuals go to great lengths to achieve beauty ideals associated with what is viewed as superior.

Weis, L., & Fine, M. (2012). Critical bifocality and circuits of privilege: Expanding critical ethnographic theory and design. Harvard Educational Review, 82(2), 173-201.