when people mention Adler they must talk about these two terms inferiority complex and compensation according to Alfred Adler the sense of inferiority is the single Drive of human behaviors in early childhood the sense of inferiority and the desire to overcome this sense become the motivational force of our behaviors according to this Theory we are all the ugly duckling and we all hope to become the beautiful Swan one day at the beginning Alfred Adler suggested that the sense of inferiority came from organ inferiority So Physical deficits are the major cause of inferiority for example when someone is short this physical limitation will lead to sense of inferiority in other words the psychological sense of inferiority must come from physical deficits but later he extended his theory and suggested that everyone no matter you have physical deficit or not will have the sense of inferiority this sense of inferiority is general and Universal it is not only about physical deficit it is a general feeling that is experienced by everyone since childhood since every child must grow up in an environment of adults he is predisposed to consider himself weak small incapable of living alone when we were toddlers we were surrounded by adults who are talker stronger and smarter than us we were so weak and helpless we must depend on them so we are predisposed to consider ourselves weak and small and useless this is the origin of sense of inferiority since we have the sense of inferiority we have the motivation to overcome it this motivation leads to compensatory behaviors compensation means that we want to overcome the sense of inferiority with the feeling of adequacy through developing physical and mental skills there are three types of compensation the first type is successful compensation these people successfully compensate their inferiority so the feeling of weakness and inferiority will disappear and they have a sense of adequacy for example Beethoven overcame his deafness and became a great composer but sometimes the feeling is of inferiority is so strong that people don't think they can compensate for it then inferiority complex is developed this refers to the failure to compensate in a positive and socially acceptable way so the feeling of inferiority is always there this in turn results in overcompensation they try to dominate other people and only look at personal gains according to Alfred Adler overcompensation occurs when the feeling of inferiority is intensified to the degree that the child fears he will never be able to compensate for his weakness he will demand an overcompensation they develop exaggerated goal of dominance they are against the world and the world is against them for example some teenagers may become gangsters because they feel inferior they can't perform well in school and have low self-esteem so they overcompensate by using violent mean to dominate others some people argue that Hitler is a case of overcompensation this is the relationship between the sense of inferiority and compensation when people have a strong sense of inferiority they try to compensate but sometimes the feeling is of inferiority is so strong that people don't think they can compensate for it then they develop into inferiority complex this in turn leads to overcompensation they try to dominate other people they just look at personal gain and usually it ends up with superiority complex these people try to bully and dominate others but the underlying feeling is still inferiority on the surface they have high self-esteem but deep inside they have a very strong sense of inferiority so superiority complex develops from inferiority complex if we cannot compensate in a positive and socially useful way the inferiority feeling will be overwhelming then we fake ourselves that we are super good in result we show off and we dominate other people the third type of compensation is called Retreat to illness these people use illness as an excuse to escape from the tasks in life these people don't want to face the real world because they think they can't handle it overall there are three types of compensation successful compensation overcompensation and Retreat to illness