INFERIORITY - FROM COLLECTIVE STATUS TO DEFICIENT INDIVIDUALITY

This article analyses 'inferiority' as a symbolic dimension of social inequality. In addition to being a position in the social hierarchy, i nferiority signifies a feeling of deficient self-esteem, which has gre at significance for the understanding of social inequality. After exam ining the social preconditions of feelings of inferiority in class soc iety, typical syndromes of feelings of inferiority will be investigate d. As social inequality has become 'individualised', the social refere nce system of inferiority has become modernised as a symbolic construc tion of deficient individuality.