Comparison between First-Born and Second-Born Children Regarding Prevalence of Narcissistic Traits: An Appraisal of Adler’s Conjecture

The study of human personality or ‘character’ dates back at least to antiquity. In his ‘Characters’, Tyrtamus (371287bc) nicknamed ‘Theophrastus’ or ‘divinely speaking’ by his contemporary Aristotle divided the people of the Athens into 30 different personality types. The ‘Characters ’ exerted a strong influence on subsequent studies of human personality such as those of Thomas Overbury (1581-1613) in England and Jean de la Bruy è re (1645-1696) in France [1]. According to Jung, “Personality is the supreme realization of the innate idiosyncrasy of a living being. It is an act of high courage flung in the face of life, the absolute affirmation of all that constitutes the individual, the most successful adaption to the universal conditions of existence coupled with the greatest possible freedom for selfdetermination.” Also, according to Kierkegaard, “being an individual man is a thing that has been abolished, and every speculative philosopher confuses himself with humanity at large; whereby he becomes something infinitely great, and at the same time nothing at all. To be a particular individual is worldhistorically absolutely nothing, infinitely nothing and yet, this is the only true and highest significance of a human being, so much higher as to make every other significance illusory” [1].