Organ Inferiority

The term “organ inferiority” from Alfred Adler’s theory of psychology, called Individual or Adlerian psychology, dates back to the first stages of his theory development. Because he was trained as a physician, his initial thoughts about human behavior and its motivations were medically driven and biologically based (Ferguson 1984). The inclusion of the self and subjective aspects of Adlerian psychology did not appear until 1910 and thereafter. Thus, his ideas about organ inferiority do not include the same ideas that Adler later developed and wrote or lectured on during his travels in Europe and the US, such as biased apperception and striving for perfection.

Adler’s first book, A Study of Organ Inferiority and Its Psychical Compensation, was published in 1907. The basic premise of organ inferiority is that each human has organs that are weaker and stronger than others. According to Manaster and Corsini (1982),

The weaker organ may or may not be crucial to day-to-day functioning....