“Alfred Adler: (1870-1937) Austrian psychiatrist and psychologist. A disciple of Sigmund Freud, Adler later rejected Freud’s emphasis on the libido and developed a system of ‘individual psychology.’ Adler maintained that, because of their dependence, all children begin with a sense of inferiority, which they can successfully overcome by developing a sense of their competence and their secure place in the social order. He coined the term ‘inferiority complex’ to describe the neurotic reaction by which one either succumbs to or overcompensates for feelings of inadequacy. His major work on the subject is The Practice and Theory of Individual Psychology (1923). Cooperation Between the Sexes (1978) is a collection of his writings on women, love, marriage, and sexuality.”
Excerpted from: Murphy, Bruce, ed. Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia, Fourth Edition. New York: Harper Collins, 1996.
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