Re:Inferiority linked to aggression.

Well Michelle I shall be glad to attempt this but a full explanation could be quite lengthly. The antithesis of the inferiority feeling would in English be "Superiority". To the child and to the discouraged adult or if you will the "neurotic" the inferior (below) feeling is intolerable. Since this person is lacking in courage, they will not have a sense of equality or of being quite satisified with being a unique "fellow man" glad to share in bringing some benefit to the community. The feeling of inferiority is so painful that they form an unnecessary antithetical construction with a usually very very high goal of "perceived fictional superiority". I guess when one lives at the bottom of a "Niagara Gorge" that one has constructed as a child, the notion that one must leap to the top of the Canadian Falls (OK I live in Canada), would not be such a stretch especially when one considers that this antithetical construction is the crafty work of the discouraged child. Adler would suggest that what is missing is "social interest" which is the usual translation of a difficult German word for which there is no full English equivalance. So if the inferiority feeling is a misconceived idea of powerlessness, or weakness, or being smaller than, then the compensation could easily be to do what some birds do in mating ... to become very big, and express that in an aggressive display that is not in the common good. One therefor can see that the highly aggressive (on the useless side of living) individual, has a feeling of weakness or insignificance that they may hide from themselves (they usually hide it from self and others). When as a therapist I see a person who wishes to be threatening or hostile or disrespectful, they sadly have told me a lttle secret ... they do not feel as equal humans with a unique individual set of skills and abilities. The carry on a "trick" to inflate their perceived "weak or below status" by attempting to create fear in others! This would all be quite ridiculous except that it is the construction of a child that runs like the auto pilot in one of the aircraft I used to fly and believe me attempting to land an aircraft with the autopilot on is more than challenging. (The Life Style developed in chilhood is the personal autopilot.) So to counter the aggressive tendency of the discouraged person one must first encourage them (that is a whole special art), and then turn them in a right direction in keeping with their uniquness and thus they can in the words of Alexander Muller, "be a Blessing". I am really enjoying exploring this wonderful theory with you. Please keep the questions coming but I must beg your indulgence, I am a "hunt and peck" typist, so forgive the typo's.

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