Just to support what I am saying in the "Movement Posting" here is a direct quote from The Neurotic Character (CCWAA Volume I, Pages 54 and 55 as translated by Cees Koen for the translation project that Henry Stein has undertaken for the benefit of us all ....
"We have described the guiding personality ideal as a fiction, and consequently denied its reality, yet we must maintain that despite its non-reality, it is nonetheless of the greatest importance for the process of life and the development of the psyche. This apparent contradiction has been expounded most brilliantly by Vaihinger in his Philosophy of As If; and he recognized fiction as being opposed to reality, yet indispensable for the development of science. I was the first to point out this curious relationship within the context of the psychology of neuroses, and I was notably stimulated and supported in my opinion by Vaihinger's work. Therefore I am at present in a position to call attention to some aspects of the fiction of the feeling of self-worth that shed more light on its essence and importance, as well as on the form in which it appears in the psyche. First and foremost, it is an abstraction and should be regarded in itself as an indication of an anticipation. It is, so to speak, the marshal's staff in the knapsack of the insignificant soldier and consequently payment on account demanded by the primitive feeling of insecurity. The construction of the fiction takes place as disturbing inferiorities and obstructive realities are cast aside in the ideal style as it always happens when the psyche is trying to find an escape and security from its distress. The insecurity, painfully experienced as it is, will be reduced to the lowest possible, yet apparently causal level and this will be transformed into its crass opposite, into its antithesis, and taken to serve as the fictitious goal, which is then turned into the guiding point of all desires, fantasies and striving. Then, for reasons of clarity, this goal must be made concrete. Real deprivation, for instance the restriction of food during childhood, will be experienced as an abstract 'nothing,' as a deficiency, against which the child will long for 'everything,' for abundance, until it brings this goal nearer, in an abstract way, in the person of the father, in the figure of a fabulously wealthy person, of a mighty emperor. The more intensely and longer this deprivation is experienced, the stronger and higher the level of the fictitious, abstract ideal will be set, and from this the formation and arrangement of the given psychic powers into preparatory attitudes, dispositions and characteristics will begin. Then the individual will 'wear' the characteristics demanded by the fictitious goal just as the characteristic mask—the persona—of the ancient actor had to fit until the very end of the tragedy."
Notice at the very end of this quote, the reference to the "ancient actor" lest you should feel I have stepped outside of Adler's ideas with "poetic licence".
Note also Adler's special sensitivity to the "painfully experienced sensitivity". The inferiority feeling is a profoundly hurtful sensation in the suffering souls we see, and the act they play out is to cover this pain from others and even from themselves.
Soon we need to talk about the "
aggressive attitude" of the compensatory striving toward mankind and the
counterfiction used to conceal it. 
I shall try to undertake this discussion before too long.