Home > Encyclopedia of Psychology > Inferiority Complex

A psychological condition that exists when a person's feelings of inadequacy are so intense that daily living is impaired.

The term "inferiority complex" was coined in the 1920s by French psychologist Alfred Adler, a one-time follower of Sigmund Freud who became disenchanted with Freud's emphasis on the influence of unconscious factors as motivators in human behavior. While Adler subscribed to the notion that underlying motivations play a part in directing personality, he introduced the notion of "ego psychology" in an effort to give equal importance to the role of conscious factors in determining...