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By Barbara McAllister
Word of the Day: Primogeniture
“Primogeniture” refers to the state of being the first-born child. It’s from the Latin primus, first, and geniture, birth or beget. It also refers to the right of inheritance belonging to the eldest or first born, a law developed in Europe to preserve a family’s wealth. It’s not widely used now to pass down property, but remains in use to determine royal succession. The first born typically has the right to the throne.
The opposite of primogeniture is ultimogeniture, from ultimo, last, or the youngest born. It’s a far less common form of inheritance, but was once used in Japan to hand down the house and land to the youngest child, who was expected to care for the aging parents.
Psychologist Alfred Adler, a contemporary of Sigmund Freud, proposed a theory that birth order influences intelligence. Adler thought firstborn children may have better thinking skills than their siblings because they received more mental stimulation and undivided parental attention during their early stages of development. As a result, the oldest child may be the “smartest.” Adler wrote the youngest child is typically spoiled, self-centered and less intelligent than their siblings, while the middle child is the peacekeeper who needs to define a place by being competitive or rebellious. Adler was the second oldest in a family of seven children, and had a lifelong sibling rivalry with his older brother. He felt that he could never match his brother’s accomplishments and always felt his brother was favored by their mother. It’s probably why Adler developed his theory that humans experience feelings of inferiority as children and spend the rest of their lives trying to compensate for those feelings. Today many psychologists agree that birth order does have a major impact on personality development. Adler is considered the founder of the school of individual psychology, notable for writing, “The only normal people are the ones you don’t know very well.”
