MISTER MYSTERY RESPONDS

In the Roaring Twenties, New York City was a hotbed of neurotics. There were neurotics of all kinds: obsessive-compulsive, compulsive-obsessive, hypochondriac, manic-depressive, depressive-manic, manic-compulsive, obsessive-depressive, depressive-obsessive, compulsive hoarding, hysterical... In short the whole spectrum of craziness. Then, there were the complexes. Some more than other, everyone was hung-up. Over weight, over height, over poor intelligence, over too much intelligence, over acne, over this or over that. The variety of complexes was infinite, it can not be enumerated. But the three-level podium was for the Oedipus complex (discovered by Freud); the Guilt complex (discovered by a child named Artie who, while ordering an old attic of his family, discovered it hidden among a pile of old clothes); and perhaps the favourite of every neurotic: the inferiority complex (discovered by Alfred Adler while wearing boots with artificial soles to look taller). The inferiority complex ...

If we talk about one of the most popular complexes of all time (the inferiority complex), we must refer to a paradigmatic case that was analyzed by the very discoverer of this complex, Alfred Adler. Its protagonist was a young pianist from Hungary who we will call Sandor. Sandor's talent at the piano had been extolled by the most famous composers of his time. For example, the prolific composer of Broadway musicals Karl Massin ("The world is a giant egg", "I have a damned headache from loving you so much", "I was rich until I stopped being", "The potty of a mother") said of him that "I do not know another pianist who knows how to play with the ten fingers at the same time." (This praise contained a veiled criticism of his last musical’s pianist who was the producer’s protegé and who played the piano using a single finger and it was a while before he found the corresponding key.) Well, this young man of such promising future suffered ...