| 释义 |
inferiority|ɪnfɪərɪˈɒrɪtɪ|
[f. L. type *inferiōritās (see inferior and -ity), prob. in med.L., cf. Sp. inferioridad (Minsheu, 1599), It. inferiorità (Florio, 1611), F. inferiorité (Oudin, 1642).]
1. The quality or condition of being inferior; lower position or state:
a. in degree, rank, quality, amount, etc.
1599Minsheu Sp. Dict., Inferioridad, inferioritie, the lower part. 1611Florio, Inferiorita, inferioritie, a lower state. 1641Bp. Hall Def. Humb. Remonstr. 124 A superiority and inferiority betweene Officers of different kindes, will not prove a superiority and inferiority betweene Officers of the same kinde. 1751Johnson Rambler No. 149 ⁋10, I may feel the stings of inferiority. 1830Lyell Princ. Geol. I. 110 The inferiority of heat in the temperate and arctic zones south of the line. 1856Macaulay Biog. (1867) 69 [Goldsmith] was painfully sensible of his inferiority in conversation. 1886Ruskin Præterita I. xi. 345 With these farther inferiorities to Davie.
b. in local position. rare.
1833Lyell Princ. Geol. III. 208 The inferiority of the Blaye limestone to the Miocene strata.
2. attrib. and Comb. inferiority complex, generalized and unrealistic feelings of inadequacy caused by a person's reactions to actual or supposed inferiority in one sphere, sometimes compensated for by aggressive self-assertion; colloq., exaggerated feelings of personal inadequacy; also inferiority feeling.
1922A. G. Tansley New Psychol. (rev. ed.) xix. 214 Thus the ‘*inferiority complex’ may account for a whole series of well-known human traits. 1924C. Mackenzie Heavenly Ladder xxiii. 288, I could psycho-analyse all Bloomsbury now. They all suffer from an inferiority complex. Either they feel themselves intellectually inferior to Newton or physically inferior to Sandow or morally inferior to Christ. 1925N.Y. Times 20 Sept. ix. 12/2 Those psychic disturbances which Freudians attribute to repressed sex impulse Adler attributes to a deficiency in the mechanism of self-assertion—to the ‘inferiority complex’, which today is on the tongue of thousands who have no idea of what they are talking about. Ibid. 12/3 Dr. Adler replied: ‘Individual psychology holds that the most important key to the understanding of both personal and mass problems is the so-called sense of inferiority, or inferiority complex, and its consequences.’ 1926W. McDougall Outl. Abnormal Psychol. xxvii. 433 The inferiority complex is an important factor in some neurotics. 1933W. J. H. Sprott tr. Freud's New Introd. Lect. Psycho-Anal. 88 A writer who brings in the expression ‘inferiority-complex’ thinks he has satisfied all the demands of psycho-analysis... As a matter of fact the phrase ‘inferiority-complex’ is hardly ever used in psycho-analysis. 1947N. L. Munn Psychol. xi. 224/2 Alfred Adler..popularized the terms ‘inferiority and superiority complex’ which are regarded as outcomes of, respectively, unsuccessful and successful exploitation of the ‘will to power’. 1954L. Carmichael Manual of Child. Psychol. (ed. 2) xviii. 1118/2 Such a child..will develop an inferiority complex and will soon slow down in his attempts to cope with his environment. 1974Daily Tel. 9 Mar. 15/3 Mrs Thompson seemed to have an inferiority complex. Strangers were made to feel unwelcome.
1934H. C. Warren Dict. Psychol. 137/2 *Inferiority feeling. 1937C. Day Lewis Starting Point i. ii. 32 I'd not be sure that I wasn't doing it from false motives—from envy..or inferiority-feeling. 1961J. A. C. Brown Freud & Post-Freudians iii. 39 In order to compensate for inferiority feelings, each child develops..his own particular strategy. |