Overcompensation: what it is and how it influences the mind according to Alfred Adler

Let's see what overcompensation is and its relation to self-esteem according to Adler's theory.

The term "overcompensation" was extensively studied by the Viennese physician and psychotherapist Alfred AdlerAdler, widely known for being the founder of the school of individual psychology, as well as for having been a collaborator of Sigmund Freud.

Overcompensation in psychology is the exaggeration or aggrandizement of a certain capacity that a person possesses in order to conceal or cover up another characteristic or capacity that is considered inferior in comparison with other people, and this self-perception can be real or imaginary. In Adler's theory, overcompensation is closely related to the inferiority complex.

In this article we will see in more detail what both the concept of overcompensation and the inferiority complex consist of.

What is overcompensation?

Although the concept of overcompensation had already been used by Sigmund FreudAlfred Adler, the founder of the school of individual psychology, was the one who introduced this term in his theory in relation to the feelings of inferiority suffered by some people, thanks to which this concept took greater consideration in the field of psychology.

Adler's theory of individual psychology has as one of its foundations the belief that one of the main motivations of people's psyche is the tendency to try to compensate for their own physical characteristics. try to compensate for their own physical characteristics that people consider to be "inferior" to those of other people..

In other words, overcompensation is the tendency to try to exaggerate a series of capacities that a person possesses in order to cover up or compensate for other capacities or characteristics that he or she considers to be inferior to those of other people, whether these are real or even imaginary, the result of an exaggeration created in his or her imagination.

In the process of overcompensation it can also happen that a person has any type of physical or cognitive impediment and tries to correct it in an excessive way. to correct it in a disproportionate and even exaggerated way..

Overcompensation and inferiority complex in psychology

The inferiority complex is composed of a series of attitudes, mental representations and behaviors related to a feeling of inferiority in relation to other people. It could be said that the inferiority complex is a personal sense of inadequacy..

Adler in his theory of individual psychology used this construct to give a central meaning to that form of self-perception that some people have, relating some aptitude or physical characteristic, which they considered to be inferior with respect to the functionality that they consider they should have (e.g., a person has a complex with his arms because he thinks that they are "too thin" and that they will not allow him to pick up heavy objects, and may even underestimate his own strength).

So, in his theory he meant that people try to overcompensate for that physical characteristic that causes them the complex or feeling of inferiority (e.g., to "compensate" for the complex he has with his arms, he always wears long-sleeved shirts).

Adller became particularly interested in the study of inferiority complex and the negative and positive effects of self-esteem during the time he worked with children who had some form of physical disability, in whom he observed notable differences in the ability of his patients to achieve.Some of them achieve great success in sports, seeing in them a great motivation to surpass their own abilities day by day. At the same time, other patients felt depressed by their disability and had no motivation to try to make progress. Therefore, Adeler understood that these differences were due to the self-esteem of each of them,

In psychoanalysis, there are manuals on the subject that explain that the inferiority complex has been characterized by a struggle to reach certain unrealistic or unattainable goals, thus provoking insecurities and complexes in the person.

Freud considered that the inferiority complex was a symptom to be analyzed in psychotherapy sessions in reference to the possibility that there were two types of causes for this complex: real or imaginary. Likewise, Freud referred to the inferiority complex, regardless of whether its cause is real or imaginary, as a series of thoughts about oneself that could trigger feelings of guilt or even depression, being in any case a negative evaluation of oneself.being in any case a negative evaluation of oneself.

Individual psychology of Alfred Adler

In order to better understand overcompensation, it is useful to know more about Adler's theory of individual psychology, which in its psychological approach emphasizes studying and understanding people, with all their characteristics, as a whole that is in contact with the environment in which they live, since Adler conceives the human being as a unitary being that is fixed in its environment. That is to say, that is influenced by what happens in the community in which he lives.. Freud, on the other hand, gave less importance to the environmental context and focused more on the intrapsychic life of individuals.

In turn, Adler sees the human being as an entity concerned with his future, and not so much with his past, as Freud did, which guides him by his own instinct for self-improvement, which keeps people motivated to set in motion a series of tasks that allow the achievement of goals that have previously been proposed.

Thus, there are two fundamental ideas in Adler's theory: the drive for superiority and people's sense of community..

This sense of community is given by the fact that people are social beings who need relationships and unity with other people for their survival. On the other hand, the desire for superiority is the motivation that people have to improve throughout their lives and is also related to the sense of perfectionism. So this desire for superiority and perfectionism are produced in the social context, since by nature human beings tend to be competitive and to compare themselves with others.

At the same time, this drive for superiority and perfectionism is often triggered by people's attempts to compensate for some feeling of inferiority, by perceiving some kind of weakness or weakness of their own in comparison with that of others around them, and this could be seen as a way of overcompensation. According to Adler, all people suffer from this feeling of inferiority at some point in their lives and to some extent, so they try in some way to overcompensate for this feeling of inferiority..

Adler considers that this feeling of inferiority could be very pronounced and cause great discomfort in those people who suffer complicated problems throughout their childhood that make them feel insecure or also in those who suffer a physical limitation of any kind. The importance that Alfred also gave to the impact of experiences during childhood The influence that Freud had on him in adulthood comes from the fact that Adler also considered that certain complicated events in childhood could condition the rest of life.

Its relationship with people's lifestyle.

According to Adler's theory of individual psychology, all human beings live driven by a drive for self-improvement.He calls it a lifestyle, which can be understood as all the choices and all the acts that a person makes throughout his or her life in order to overcompensate for the feelings of inferiority that the person experiences.

So people, according to Adler, usually lead a lifestyle that gives meaning to their beliefs and at the same time allows them to progress towards their goals.

Here again we see Adler's premise that people function as a whole that is trying to achieve a promising future and overcome the current situation. that tries to achieve a promising future and that overcomes the current situation in which they live, so that a constant improvement in different areas that each person in which they live, so that there is a constant improvement in different areas that each person considers important and that also serve as a way of overcompensation of some feeling of inferiority.

Adler's theory of lifestyle has three central concepts:

• Fictitious finalism: people are finalists since they are always seeking to achieve certain goals.

• Ideal self: this is constituted by the set of goals for the future that each person has.

• Creative self: part of the personality that gives sense to the past, corrects mistakes and uses them to look for a better future.

• Example of overcompensation

  In childhood and adolescence it is very frequent the comparison with other people, at the same time that people tend to be more insecure in these stages of life due to lack of maturity, among other factors.At the same time, people tend to be more insecure in these stages of their lives due to lack of maturity, among other factors, while their self-concept and personality are not yet fully developed.

  When a child feels inferior, having the perception that he/she is surrounded by other children who are smarter and stronger, this inferiority motivates him/her to do certain things in order to Excel and achieve specific goals, which could be a form of overcompensation.

  It should be kept in mind that if that child has a psychological balance, achieving success could be beneficial and consolidate self-confidence, whereas if he does not have a mental balance, achieving success does not alleviate his feelings of inferiority, so he could develop an inferiority complex.