Note: Page numbers enclosed in parentheses are citations from The Individual Psychology of Alfred Adler: A systematic presentation in selections from his writings. (H. L. and R. R. Ansbacher, Eds.). © 1964, Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc. Used by permission of Perseus Books Group.
Self-esteem is a confidence and satisfaction in oneself, synonymous with self-respect; self-concept is the mental image one has of oneself (both, Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 1993). These terms are related to inferiority feeling, superiority striving, and community feeling. Minderwertigkeitsgefühl is the German word for inferiority feeling, the feeling of having diminished worth or of being of less value, a universally experienced sense of limitation and mortality that generally moves people to strive in ways that enhance self and others. This basic awareness of imperfection can also turn people away from common sense and contribution, and toward self-aggrandizement, when they are discouraged, feel disrespected, or sense themselves to be unwelcome in the human community. Adler says, "The sense of worth of the self shall not be allowed to be diminished" (p. 358).
A personal estimate of oneself (self-concept) as worthwhile and valuable translates into self-esteem. A satisfactory self-concept and resulting self-esteem derive from activity on the useful side of life, that is, in line with community feeling. (This is not the same as Émile Coué's vacuous, but popular, late 19th and early 20th Century autosuggestion, “Every day in every way, I am getting better and better." The recently flourishing self-esteem movement, apparently failing to recognize that a healthy self-concept and its consequent self-esteem result from enhanced community feeling and contribution, seemed to promote various types of autosuggestion.) [See Life-Style.]
All neurotic symptoms have as their object the task of safeguarding the patient's self-esteem and thereby also the [style of life] (p. 263).
The only salvation from the continuously driving inferiority feeling is the knowledge and the feeling of being valuable which originate from the contribution to the common welfare (p. 155).
Valuable can mean nothing other than valuable for human society (p. 255).
See Sweeney (1989), pp. 47-54.
© Griffith, J., & Powers, R. L. (2007). The Lexicon of Adlerian Psychology: 106 terms Associated with the Individual Psychology of Alfred Adler (2nd ed.). Port Townsend, WA: Adlerian Psychology Associates (p. 91).
Definitions of concepts are used by permission of Jane Griffith. A comprehensive list of concepts and definitions can be found in The Lexicon of Adlerian Psychology: 106 Terms Associated with the Individual Psychology of Alfred Adler by Jane Griffith and Robert L. Powers, available for purchase on Amazon.com.
Sweeney, T. J. (1989). Adlerian counseling: A practical approach for a new decade (3rd ed).
Muncie, IN: Accelerated Development.