Editing Superiority complex

{{Short description|Psychological defense mechanism articulated by Alfred Adler}}
{{use dmy dates|date=February 2023}}
A '''superiority complex''' is a [[defense mechanism]] that develops over time to help a person cope with feelings of inferiority.<ref name=":2">{{cite book |ref=Adler1 |last=Adler |first=Alfred |author-link=Alfred Adler |date=1917 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IXSbtSZGZJAC |title=The Neurotic Constitution: Outlines of a Comparative Individualistic Psychology and Psychotherapy |translator=Bernard Glueck and John E. Lind |location=[[New York City | New York]] |publisher=Moffat, Yard & Co |page=xvii |quote=... so the traits of character, especially the neurotic ones, serve as a psychic means and form of expression for the purpose of entering into an account with life, for the purpose of assuming an attitude, of gaining a fixed point in the vicissitudes of life, for the purpose of reaching that security-giving goal, the feeling of superiority.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite dictionary |title=superiority complex|dictionary=[[American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language]]|edition=5th|date=2018 |url=https://ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=superiority+complex|access-date=5 October 2020}}</ref> The term was coined by [[Alfred Adler]] (1870–1937) in the early 1900s, as part of his school of [[individual psychology]].

Individuals with a superiority complex typically come across as supercilious, haughty, and disdainful toward others. They may treat others in an imperious, overbearing, and even aggressive manner.{{sfn|Adler|1917|loc=p. 327 "Usually one sees deviations and circuitous paths in following which the sadistic trait seems wholly or in part lost. In this way the neurotic succeeds in gaining superiority over the weak, or he operates on this new line so skillfully as to manage to set up an aggression which enables him to dominate and torture others."}}<ref>{{Cite dictionary|title=superiority complex|url=https://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/superiority+complex|access-date=5 October 2020|dictionary=[[Stedman's Medical Dictionary |Medical Dictionary for the Health Professions and Nursing]]|quote=...a constellation of behaviors–eg, aggressiveness, assertiveness, self-aggrandization, etc, which may represent overcompensation for a deep-rooted sense of inadequacy.}}</ref>

In everyday usage, the term is often used to refer to an overly high opinion of oneself.

==Alfred Adler==

Alfred Adler was the first to use the term superiority complex. He claimed that a superiority complex essentially came from the need to overcome underlying feelings of inferiority: an [[inferiority complex]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=The Individual Psychology of Alfred Adler: a Systematic Presentation in Selections from His Writings|last=Adler |first=Alfred |author-link=Alfred Adler|isbn=9780061311543|edition=1st|location=[[New York City | New York]]|publisher=[[Basic Books]]|oclc=5692434|date = 1964-12-30}}</ref> Throughout his works Adler intertwines the occurrence of an inferiority complex and a superiority complex as cause and effect.<ref name="Mosak1">{{cite book |first1=Harold |last1=Mosak |first2=Michael |last2=Maniacci |title=Primer of Adlerian Psychology: The Analytic - Behavioural - Cognitive Psychology of Alfred Adler |date=2013 |location=[[Milton Park]]|publisher=[[Taylor & Francis Group]]|isbn=9780203768518|doi=10.4324/9780203768518 |page=83}}</ref> Among his writings touching on the topic were ''Understanding Human Nature'' (1927),<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/understandinghum00adlerich/mode/2up|last=Adler|first=Alfred |translator=Walter Biran Wolfe |title=Understanding human nature |location=[[New York City | New York]] |publisher=Greenberg, Publisher, Inc. |via=[[Internet Archive]] (archive.org)|date=1927|access-date=2023-02-28}}</ref> and ''Superiority and Social Interest: A Collection of Later Writings'', a collection of twenty-one papers written by Adler and published posthumously in 1964.<ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2007-17788-001|last=Toal|first=Robert A.|title=Review of ''Alfred Adler—Superiority and social interest: A collection of later writings'' [abstract]|via=[[PsycNET]] (psycnet.apa.org)|doi=10.1037/h0087963|date=February 1966|journal=[[Psychotherapy (journal) | Psychotherapy: Theory, Research & Practice]]|volume=3|issue=1|pages=43–44|issn=0033-3204|eissn=1939-1536 |access-date=2019-11-07|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

Adler distinguished a normal striving to achieve from superiority complexes,<ref name="Scharf1">{{cite book |ref=Scharf1 |first=Richard S. |last=Scharf |title=Theories of Psychotherapy and Counselling: Concepts and Cases |date=2011 |publisher=[[Cengage | Cengage Learning]] |isbn=9780357671047|location=[[Boston]]|page=130}}</ref> the latter being attempts in order to overcompensate a feeling of inferiority.<ref name=":0" /> He states that those with an inferiority complex develop a superiority complex to overcome the difficulties presented by the former, primarily by inflating their sense of self-importance in some way.<ref name="Scharf1"/> Dreams of heroism, and a false assumption of success,<ref>{{cite book |first=Alfred |last=Adler |editor-first=Henry T. |editor-last=Stein |translator=Cees Koen and Gerald Liebenau |title=Collected Clinical Works of Alfred Adler |date=2002 |location=[[Bellingham, Washington]] |publisher=Alfred Adler Institute |page=78}}</ref> revealed for Adler the reactive nature of such strivings.<ref name="Mosak1"/>  

While Adler considered what he refers to in his writing as striving for superiority was a universal of human nature,<ref name=":0" /> he thought sound-minded individuals do not strive for personal superiority over others, rather for personal ambition and success through work.  By contrast, those with an actual superiority complex were riddled with conceited fantasies, and with dreams of immutable supremacy.<ref>{{cite book |editor-first=Richard |editor-last=Gregory |title=The Oxford Companion to the Mind |edition=2nd |date=1987 |url=https://archive.org/details/oxfordcompaniont00greg |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|isbn=9780198661245|via=[[Internet Archive]] (archive.org)|pages=[https://archive.org/details/oxfordcompaniont00greg/page/368/mode/1up 368],[https://archive.org/details/oxfordcompaniont00greg/page/6/mode/1up 6]}}</ref><ref name=":2" />

==Other interpretations ==
*In contrast, an edition of the [[Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders]] that was published about twenty years after Alfred Adler's works disagreed that superiority complex (under the formal name of grandiose delusion in the DSM IV) came solely from the effects of an inferiority complex.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders : DSM-IV|date=1994 |publisher=American Psychiatric Association|isbn=0890420610|edition=4th|location=Washington, DC |oclc=29953039|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/diagnosticstati00amer}}</ref> The DSM IV states that a second cause to this delusional disorder could stem from an exaggerated emotional state.
*Ada Kahn has argued that the superiority and inferiority complexes cannot both be found in the same individual, since an individual with a superiority complex truly believes that they are superior to others.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Facing fears : the sourcebook for phobias, fears, and anxieties|last=Kahn |first=Ada P.|date=2000|publisher=Checkmark Books|others=Doctor, Ronald M. (Ronald Manual)|isbn=0816039925|location=[[New York City | New York]]|oclc=42603180|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/facingfearssourc00kahn}}</ref> She claimed that{{snd}}whereas an inferiority complex may manifest with the behaviors that are intended to show others that one is superior, such as expensive material possessions, or an obsession with vanity and appearances to conceal feelings of inadequacy{{snd}}those with superiority complexes do not always care about image or vanity, since they have innate feelings of superiority, and thus do not usually concern themselves with proving their superiority to others.
*Vera Hoorens says that those exhibiting the superiority complex have a [[self-image]] of [[Supremacism|supremacy]].<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal|last=Hoorens|first=Vera|date=December 1995|title=Self-Favoring Biases, Self-Presentation, and the Self-Other Asymmetry in Social Comparison|journal=[[Journal of Personality]]|volume=63|issue=4|pages=793–817 |doi=10.1111/j.1467-6494.1995.tb00317.x|issn=0022-3506}}</ref> Whereas individuals with an [[inferiority complex]] tend to present themselves in the best light possible, those with a superiority complex may not even attempt to make themselves look good, or to express their superiority to others. They may speak as if they are all-knowing and better than others, but ultimately do not care if others think so or not, much like with the [[cognitive bias]] known as [[illusory superiority]].<ref name=":1" /> Accordingly, they may be viewed in a negative light by those around them, since they are not concerned with the opinions of others about themselves.  Other people may not distinguish between those with low self-opinion who care deeply about the opinion of others, and those with the actual complex, who feel superior and with high [[self-esteem]], and do not care at all about the opinion of others.

==Cultural examples==
*Driven to achieve in order to overcompensate his humble origins, and small stature,<ref>{{cite book |first=J. |last=Richardson |title=A Life of Picasso, Vol. I: The Early Years, 1881-1906 |location=[[London]]|publisher=[[Pimlico (publishing imprint) | Pimlico]] |date=1992 |isbn=9780394531922 |pages=48–49}}</ref> [[Picasso]] was described by his former partner, [[Fernande Olivier]], as possessing a superiority complex: "He said he could only be touched by things to  which he felt superior".<ref>Quoted in {{cite book |first=J. |last=Richardson |title=A Life of Picasso, Vol. II: The Cubist Rebel: 1907-1916 |location=[[London]]|publisher=[[Pimlico (publishing imprint) | Pimlico]] |date=1996 |isbn=9780375711503 |page=189}}</ref>
*[[Beethoven]]'s nobility pretence was the result of a superiority complex;<ref>{{cite book |first=Max |last=Graf |author-link=Max Graf |title=From Beethoven to Shostakovich: The psychology of the composing process |date=1947 |location=[[New York City | New York]] |publisher=[[Philosophical Library]]}}</ref> but it was the same complex that fuelled his extraordinary musical achievements. As [[Ernst Bloch]] said of the young musician's boastful claims, "This piece of presumption was needed to enable him to become Beethoven".<ref>Quoted in {{cite book |first=Maynard |last=Solomon |title=Beethoven Essays |publisher=[[Harvard University Press]] |date=1988 |isbn=9780674063778|page=55}}</ref>

== See also ==
{{Portal|Psychology|Society}}
{{cmn|colwidth=18em| 
* [[Complex (psychology)|Complex]]
* [[Dunning–Kruger effect]]
* [[Egotism]]
* [[God complex]]
* [[Grandiose delusions]]
* [[Grandiosity]]
* [[Hubris]]
* [[Impostor syndrome]]
* [[Inferiority complex]]
* [[Intellectual humility]]
* [[Narcissism]]
* [[Narcissistic personality disorder]]
* [[Self-righteousness]]
* [[Superior (hierarchy)]]
* [[Supremacism|Supremacy]]
}}

== References ==
{{reflist}}

{{Narcissism}}

[[Category:Adlerian psychology]]
[[Category:Complex (psychology)]]
[[Category:Narcissism]]
[[Category:Mental states]]