「京大医学部４名合格講師」による受験対策講座（１０９）
We have said that feelings of inferiority are not in themselves abnormal. They are the cause of improvements in the human condition.
(Alfred Adler)
私は中学生の頃は成績優秀だと思われていました。しかし、高校に入ると自分より成績のいい子がたくさんいて、劣等感に悩まされた。大学に進学する頃には、自分より頭のいい人がいることが当たり前となり、気にならなくなった。
あれから40年。私は自分が凡才であると悟り、毎日努力を続けてきた。そして、自分よりずっと才能のある子供たちを教える機会に恵まれた。そして、遅ればせながら、
「続けられることも才能なんだ」
ということに気がついた。
続けることができるのも才能です。
私は「ウサギとカメ」のカメのタイプらしい。ウサギが寝ている間に、ゆっくりではあるけれども、進み続ける。そして、競技によっては、ウサギに勝つこともある。アドラーは、この劣等感が、人類全体を見たときにも、人間を進歩させるのだという。
When I was in junior high school, I was considered brilliant, but when I entered high school, I was plagued with a sense of inferiority because there were so many kids with better grades than me. By the time I went to college, it was natural that there were people smarter than me, and I stopped worrying about it.
Forty years have passed since then. I know I am an average person, so I have continued to work hard every day. Then, I have lived a life blessed with the opportunity to teach talented children who are much more gifted than I am. And I realized, belatedly, that being able to keep going is also a talent.
Being able to keep going is also a talent.
It seems I am the tortoise type in the story of the hare and the tortoise. I keep going, albeit slowly, while the hare sleeps. Then, in some competitions, I could even beat the hare. Adler says that this inferiority complex, even when looking at humanity as a whole, makes us progress.