By DR. ALFRED ADLER, Austrian Psychiatrist.
MOTHER love is the one thing, more than any other except physical handicap, that mars the character of many children, yet any mother can avoid that catastrophe if she learns the behavior tenets.
Mothers are too likely to destroy, or minimize courage in their babies. The child learning to walk totters, reaches out for mamma and falls in her arms instead of on the floor. Depending on mamma. The child gets hurt, a bump. Mamma soothes. Mamma does everything. The result is an inferiority complex. The child feels the mother’s superiority, becomes a coward, sometimes. Cowardice is a vicious trait. It stops proper development of the social character, leads to suicide. Suicide is cowardice.
Then there is the inferiority complex that is developed in the first born because of the second born. For maybe one year, two years, three years, the first born has been the center of the home, receiving all attention. Unprepared for the coming of the second child he finds his place usurped. Hurt, not understanding, the first born becomes spiteful, mean, sullen.
The later children are the best equipped. They never get to be the center of the home; mother love isn’t lavished upon them. They have to fight, they have to develop independence. And how often, indeed, we see the last born outstrip the older brothers and sisters.
Fuente: Coronado Eagle and Journal (Coronado, California), 12 de abril de 1927, artículo sindicado firmado. Transcripción hecha sobre la imagen de la página en la California Digital Newspaper Collection (CDNC, CJ19270412.2.96), cotejada con el OCR de la plataforma. Otras copias sindicadas: La Jolla Light and La Jolla Journal, 14 de abril de 1927 (CDNC, LJJ19270414.2.30); posiblemente Contra Costa Times, 25 de marzo de 1927 (CCT19270325.1.6, sin verificar).