While shyness is an embarrassment if there is awareness that it shows...

While shyness is an embarrassment if there is awareness that it shows, an inferiority complex is an agony. It is not fairly easy to adjust to if it begins in childhood, mostly cultivated in the child by the parents unknowingly. It affects the personal' the child when an adult. It is only fair that parents are advised in detail on the subject, which is known generally more by its name than substance. The length of discussion will necessitate presentation to be in three separate parts.

The complex in a person is not as much a feeling of inferiority or "seeing onself small" -as believing that others see him so. This belief is not always true. It take a form of an obsession in rare cases if the condition is severe originating childhood.

Flattered Let us consider one example: A boy is flattered when a group of older boys eng in smoking -and to him they are an 'elite group' because not many of that age s cigarettes -"favours" him with a few puffs -the first spell in his life -and he tries to suppress the bouts of coughing attendant with nausea. He finds himself a happy boy without having to tolerate any more puffs. But then, the elite group who exhibit the supposed manhood-personality will see him as "inferior" to them.

This presumption braves him for more spells of smoking to set him on the path of habitual smoking. As no sane person is perfectly and fully sane; no person is also fully or entirely free from the condition under discussion. However, the condition becomes a "complex" and known as such only when It exceeds the normal level In a person. The feeling of being "small" is natural and right with a small child when he finds him- self truly so in size in the family.

The family is his only world and the father the only hero he idolizes. So he likes to imitate the behaviour and actions of his father (girl with those of the mother) as his model (hero) to counter the feeling of being small and to impress himself and others in the family that he is catching up with his model in behaviour and actions, if not in size.

A Tale of Slippers Let us consider a pertinent example: The father with severe coughing is alarmed to find that his small child has also started coughing. He is not only relieved but also amused when assured by the doctor that the child was imitating him -and what a "natural" actor for his age! Another example: The small child clumsily walks with a pair of father's slippers on, and often loses balance.