quiet-the-power-of-introverts-in-a-world-that-cant-stop-talking-susan-cain

But nowhere was the need to appear
self-assured more apparent than in a
new concept in psychology called the
inferiority complex. The IC, as it became
known in the popular press, was
developed in the 1920s by a Viennese
psychologist named Alfred Adler to describe
feelings of inadequacy and their
consequences. “Do you feel insecure?”
inquired the cover of Adler’s bestselling
book, Understanding Human
Nature. “Are you fainthearted? Are you
submissive?” Adler explained that all
infants and small children feel inferior,
living as they do in a world of adults
and older siblings. In the normal process
of growing up they learn to direct
these feelings into pursuing their goals.
But if things go awry as they mature,
they might be saddled with the dreaded
IC—a grave liability in an increasingly
competitive society.
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