inferiority complex

inferiority complex
inferiority complex n an acute sense of personal inferiority resulting either in timidity or through overcompensation in exaggerated aggressiveness

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1. an unconscious and extreme exaggeration of feelings of insignificance or inferiority, which is shown by behaviour that is defensive or compensatory (such as aggression).
2. (in psychoanalysis) a complex said to result from the conflict between Oedipal wishes (see Oedipus complex) and the reality of the child's lack of power. This gives rise to repressed feelings of personal inferiority.

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unconscious feelings of inadequacy, producing timidity or, as a compensation, exaggerated aggressiveness and expression of superiority; based on Alfred Adler's concept that everyone is born with a feeling of inferiority stemming from real or imagined physical or psychological deficiency, with the manner in which the inferiority is handled determining behavior.

Medical dictionary. 2011.

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