--- Title: Don't Frighten Your Children, Warns Dr. Adler Description: Syracuse Journal (Syracuse, N.Y.), Monday, February 20, 1928, first page of the local news section. Unsigned report of an interview given that morning in Syracuse. Author: Alfred Adler URL: https://adler.school/archivo/adler/entrevistas/original/1928-02-20%20Don%27t%20Frighten%20Your%20Children%2C%20Warns%20Dr.%20Adler --- # Don't Frighten Your Children, Warns Dr. Adler "DON'T pamper your children if you would have them free from an inferior complex. Don't punish them until you know the reason for their action which you frown on. Don't let them have fear of small things. Don't tell them ghost stories." These don'ts for parents were given this morning by Dr. Alfred Adler of Vienna, one of the world's outstanding authorities on psychology and the originator of the inferiority and superiority complex theories. Dr. Adler came to Syracuse from New York to lecture at the Temple Society of Concord tonight. He will address a social hygiene class this afternoon. Inferiority and superiority complexes were defined by their originator as useless feelings of inferiority or superiority. Both are dangerous but both can be cured through proper methods. "Inferiority complexes are frequently seen and persons who have them always admit defeat in anything," Dr. Adler said. "An inferiority complex makes a man or woman useless to society. ### SIGNS OF COMPLEX. "Stammering is a sign of an inferiority complex. Cowardice is another. Fear is a feeling of inferiority which develops into a complex. That is why children should not be taught to fear nor told ghost stories to frighten them. "Hated children, deformed or colored children, have inferiority complexes. They are afraid to assert themselves, they imagine they are always faced with defeat. The complex makes them useless to society. "Criminals, neurotics, insane persons, problem children and problem adults all have inferiority complexes. A suicide has one. He thinks only of himself, he seeks to escape others. "The only way to understand criminals, neurotics, the insane, the problem children and problem adults is through a knowledge of psychology and these complexes. "I can read one line of a police record of a criminal; the first two or three cases in which he was involved, and I can tell what folowed in his criminal career. Through the inferiority complex I have learned the coherence of human emotions. ### WIDELY ACCEPTED. "My theories of these complexes have been accepted by psychologists throughout the world. They are being taught in our universities. "In Vienna I have established some 20 psychologival clinics where we carefully study probem children. We attempt to teach them that their feeling of inferiority is wrong and show them why. "We must be careful with children. We must educate them in useful ways for the interest of mankind. "A superiority complex is equally as harmful as one of inferiority. Persons possessing it are useless. Arrogance is a mark of superiority complex. A man who thinks he is without an equal in the world and brags of himself, although he has done nothing outstanding to prove his worth has this feeling of superiority. A fine example of a person afflicted afflicted with a superiority complex is the criminal who thinks he is smarter and better than the police. He has both inferiority and superiority complexes. "To eliminate these dangers we must understand the three great questions of life: society, occupation and love. Those are the only important questions of life. ### DON'T PAMPER TOTS. "Parents must realize that their children are most susceptible to inferiority complexes which will remain with them throughout their life unless cured through an understanding of individual psychology. The father and the mother shouldn't pamper their children. They some day will have to face the world alone, they have to understand the three great questions of life. Dr. Adler's books in English "Practice and Theory of Individual Psychology," and "Understanding the Human Nature," are widely used in teaching. "You have a slight inferiority complex," Dr. Adler unexpectedly told the interviewers. "You were frightened by something in your youth, and although you may be brave when real danger presents itself, you are afraid of small things and are particular about small things." The writer confessed that he was frigtened by a rooster and that all the other things Dr. Adler told him were absolutely true. Dr. Adler came to Amernca Feb. 1. He will return to Vienna in March. G. Carl Alverson, superintendent of public schools, and other Syracuse educators, attended a luncheon meeting at the Onondaga Hotel at 12:30 o'clock this afternoon at which Dr. Adler spoke. The meeting was conducted by the mental hygiene committee of the Onondaga Health Association and Dr. Adler's talk dealt with the actions and impressions of children. --- *Fuente:* *Syracuse Journal* (Syracuse, Nueva York), lunes 20 de febrero de 1928, primera página de la sección de noticias locales; noticia sin firma. Transcripción hecha sobre la imagen de la página (fultonhistory.com, «Syracuse NY Journal 1928 - 1645.pdf»), con ayuda del OCR de la plataforma. Se respetan las erratas del periódico («inferior complex», «folowed», «psychologival», «probem», «afflicted afflicted», «frigtened», «Amernca»); en «An inferiority complex makes...» el periódico imprime «ni-feriority», que se corrige. El periódico no cierra las comillas al final de algunas citas.