Hello, I’m Wang Fang. Adler called a person’s way of facing inferiority and pursuing superiority their lifestyle, effectively personality, and Individual Psychology analyzes it. Like Freud, he examined early memories and unconscious dreams. But he added a distinctive route: birth order.

The topic once seemed untimely in one-child China. With second and third children now permitted and family structures changing, it has new relevance. Adler was the first psychologist to theorize birth order’s personality effects systematically.

With or without siblings, most people can describe stereotypes of the eldest, youngest, middle, and only child. Television gives us self-sacrificing, responsible eldest siblings; pampered, unconventional youngest children whose messes others clean up; and less visible middle children who feel squeezed and occasionally rebel.

Do these stereotypes contain truth? Siblings in one family do not actually share the same environment, as Episode 13 explained. Different birth positions can create distinct family experiences and motives.

Adler therefore proposed that being only, first, last, or middle profoundly shapes lifestyle. More important than biological order is perceived position—where you feel you rank—though we use objective order for convenience.

The eldest begins as the only child, monopolizing parental love and attention, then is displaced by a newcomer. Adler said firstborns often dream of falling from a height, symbolizing anxiety about losing superior status.

Like a deposed monarch, the firstborn may experience inferiority and use demands or disruption to regain attention. If parents prepare the child and shift affection gradually, however, the eldest may become a social “deputy parent,” helping care for siblings and developing the familiar steadiness and responsibility.

Having lost power, firstborns may appreciate authority more, support and rely on it, or spend life restoring lost status through achievement. Adler even called them most prone to maladjustment—perhaps a private jab at his exemplary older brother, and not supported by modern evidence.