The madder, the more mad person will suffer from a superiority complex, because he will always choose those things which make him feel superior. But he knows that he is playing a trick. How can he deceive himself? He knows that he has chosen only those points which make him feel superior; he knows what he has not chosen – that is there on the margin, he is perfectly aware of it. So his superiority complex is always shaken. It is made on sand, the house can collapse any moment. He suffers from anxiety because he has made a house on the sands.
Jesus says: Don’t make your house on the sand; find a rock.
The saner person will suffer from an inferiority complex, because he will look all around, will be available to all that is happening all around, and will start collecting ideas that he is inferior. But both are shadows of the ego, two sides of the ego. The superior person deep down carries the inferiority complex, and the person who suffers from an inferiority complex, deep down carries a superiority complex; he wants to be superior.
I have heard – I don’t know how far it is correct – that Morarji Desai asked a psychoanalyst – of course in privacy – “Why do I suffer from an inferiority complex?”
The psychoanalyst went into deep analysis: days and days with Morarji Desai lying on his couch free associating. And then one day, bouncing with joy, the psychoanalyst declared, “Sir, I certify that you don’t suffer from an inferiority complex, you need not be worried about it.”
And Morarji Desai was also happy. He said, “But I had always thought that I suffer, and now you say I don’t suffer. You must be right, but can you give me the explanation as to how you say it so confidently?”
And the psychoanalyst said, “Sir, you don’t suffer from an inferiority complex – you are simply inferior!”
Except politicians, I don’t think anybody is inferior. I make an exception for politicians. In fact, if somebody does not suffer from an inferiority complex he will not go into politics at all. Politics is the arena for those who suffer from an inferiority complex, because they want to prove to themselves and to the world that they are not inferior: “Look, I have become the prime minister, or the president! Now who can say I am inferior? I have proved that I am not inferior.” Politics attracts the people who are very egoistic and suffer from inferiority complex.
Artists are just on the other polarity: they suffer from a superiority complex. They know they are creators, they know that they have come with a special quality to create something in the world. Politicians suffer from an inferiority complex, and try to reach to higher and higher power posts to prove to themselves and to others that it is not so. Artists suffer from a superiority complex; that’s why artists constantly quarrel amongst themselves. No artist ever agrees that another artist has contributed anything to the world. They are continuously criticizing each other; they cannot be friends, they are all superior people!