Inferiority

Inferiority (from Latin inferus or the comparative inferior , ius: der, die, the lower) denotes a subordinate position, inferiority or inferiority. The opposite term is superiority ( sublimity , superiority).

Examples

• Some earlier racial theories assigned groups of people a superiority or inferiority ( see also: Homo inferior ).
• In the gender debate at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, some misogynous writings , some of which were published in large numbers, were in circulation that attempted to prove an alleged inferiority of "women" as such or simply assumed it. Above all, Otto Weininger's “standard work” Gender and Character as well as Paul Julius Möbius ' work on the physiological idiocy of women should be mentioned here .
• The Individual Psychology of Alfred Adler distinguishes a normal sense of inferiority from neurotic inferiority complex .
• Economic "optimizations" then stand for inferiority if the result is that people are worse off without putting others in a better position ( see also: Pareto optimum ).