therefore, actually the working of compensation (manic) for inferiority (depressive).11 ABNORMAL AND NORMAL "Let me emphasize the fact," says Adler, "that he dynamics of psychic life I am about to decribe hold equally for healthy or diseased." 12 Recent developments in psychology have demonstrated eyond doubt the kinship of the normal and the abormal. Brill says of Freud: "It was while tracing ack the abnormal to the normal state that Professor 'reud found how faint the line of demarcation was beween the normal and neurotic person, and that the sychopathological mechanisms so glaringly observed the psychoneuroses and psychoses could usually be emonstrated in a lesser degree in normal persons . . the hitherto considered impassable gap between ormal and abnormal mental states is more apparent an real." 13 This being the case, it seems legitimate to oply Adler's scheme to the interpretation of the soalled normal personality, for the process of motivaon is the same in both classes of individuals. Freud rites: "As a matter of fact, Adler's theory is more lequate to any other field than to that of the neuroses, nich he still puts in the first place because of the hisry of its origin.” 14 In regard to this same point, Stanley Hall calls attention to "the great work of For the general basis of this theory of the manic depressive ychosis I am indebted to William McDougall. →A. Adler: Individual Psychology, p. 3. 1924. A. A. Brill in the introduction to Sigmund Freud's The Psychothology of Everyday Life, p. vi. 1914. Sigmund Freud: "History of the Psychoanalytic Movement." ychoanalytic Review. 1916, 3, 440. compensation which Adler has best characterized and which is the most important key not only for abnormal, as he deems it, but, as we believe, for normal genetic psychology." 15 EXTENSION OF ADLER'S THEORY In extending the Adlerian conception of compensation for inferiority, we shall consider varieties of inferiority other than the organic weaknesses he emphasizes. There is a tendency at present to extend the meaning of the inferiority complex to refer to feelings of inferiority that have a social rather than physical origin. "A sense of social inadequacy due to poverty, family disgrace, or unpopularity has much the same consequences in the behavior of the individual as the more serious organic inferiority described by Adler." 16 The stage is set now for the practical applications of compensation to the problems of normal personality.17 G. S. Hall: "A Synthetic Genetic Study of Fear." American Journal of Psychology. 1924, 25, 165. 16 E. R. Groves: Personality and Social Adjustment, p. 221. 1923. "For further references on Adler consult the bibliography at the end of the book. MOT CHAPTER II THE LOVE OF ESTEEM WE hear frequent reference in our time to the inriority complex. In that drama of college life, "The por Nut," 1 the trouble with the hero is diagnosed as inferiority complex. The term is loosely applied to y sort of ailment which betrays a lack of self-confince. The psychoanalytic significance of the expres-n has been obscured by popular usage. The exgerated claims which any apostle of a new creed kes for his discovery are apt to provoke ridicule. ler's psychology has not escaped the malice of popujest. In the interest of an impartial study of comnsation, let us shed our prejudices against Adler and estigate in a scientific spirit the full meaning of the feriority complex." COMPLEX, SENTIMENT, CONSTELLATION The term "complex" was introduced by Jung in discussion of his association experiments. Complex y be defined as "an organization of emotional tendencentred about some object."2 The terms "com," "sentiment," and "constellation"-we shall use se three terms interchangeably-all refer to the . C. and E. Nugent: The Poor Nut. 1925. his is McDougall's definition of a sentiment. William Mcall: Social Psychology, p. 122. Fourteenth edition, 1922. |