Egomania is a psychiatric term used to describe excessive preoccupation with one's ego, identity or selfdictionary.com and applies the same preoccupation to anyone who follows one's own ungoverned impulses, is possessed by delusions of personal greatness & grandeur and feels a lack of appreciation. Someone suffering from this extreme

egocentric Egocentrism refers to difficulty differentiating between self and other. More specifically, it is difficulty in accurately perceiving and understanding perspectives other than one's own. Egocentrism is found across the life span: in infancy, ear ...

focus is an egomaniac. Egomania as a condition, while not a classified

personality disorder Personality disorders (PD) are a class of mental health conditions characterized by enduring maladaptive patterns of behavior, cognition, and inner experience, exhibited across many contexts and deviating from those accepted by the culture. ...

, is considered psychologically abnormal. The term "egomania" is often used by laypersons in a pejorative fashion to describe an individual who is perceived as intolerably self-centered.

Narcissistic personality disorder Narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) is a personality disorder characterized by a life-long pattern of grandiosity, exaggerated feelings of self-importance, an excessive need for admiration, and a diminished ability to empathy, empathize w ...

is the clinical condition that most resembles and is most often associated with this definition and usage of the term, though the two differ vastly according to the individual's responses to others.

History

Egomania was brought into polemical prominence at the end of the 19th century by

Max Nordau Max Simon Nordau (born Simon Maximilian Südfeld; 29 July 1849 – 23 January 1923) was a Hungarian Zionism, Zionist leader, physician, author, and Social criticism, social critic. He was a co-founder of the Zionist Organization together with Theo ...

, one of the first critics who perceived the centrality of the concept of

egoism Egoism is a philosophy concerned with the role of the self, or , as the motivation and goal of one's own action. Different theories of egoism encompass a range of disparate ideas and can generally be categorized into descriptive or normativ ...

for an understanding of

Modernism Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...

, with criticism on the ideology of egomania. Nordau distinguished egoism from the egomania. He described egoism as a lack of amiability while maintaining the ability to look after oneself, and egomania as a condition where one does not see things as they are, does not understand the world, and cannot take up a right attitude towards it. Nordau's attack was aimed at the

avant-garde In the arts and literature, the term ''avant-garde'' ( meaning or ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art, and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable ...

of the ''

fin de siècle "''Fin de siècle''" () is a French term meaning , a phrase which typically encompasses both the meaning of the similar English idiom '' turn of the century'' and also makes reference to the closing of one era and onset of another. Without co ...

''. He describes the self-proclaimed geniuses as criminals & madmen obsessed with culte du moi (the cult of self)''.'' Over a century later, the term egomania re-appeared with a positive gloss to mark the

post-modern Postmodernism encompasses a variety of artistic, cultural, and philosophical movements that claim to mark a break from modernism Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experi ...

quest for success and celebrity. "

Self-confidence Confidence is the feeling of belief or trust that a person or thing is reliable. * * * Self-confidence is trust in oneself. Self-confidence involves a positive belief that one can generally accomplish what one wishes to do in the future. Sel ...

is the key to all success..." By contrast, reticent personalities may be labelled: it may well be a form of egomania, if you aren't willing to take a chance".

Substance abuse

Egomania has also been linked with

alcoholism Alcoholism is the continued drinking of alcohol despite it causing problems. Some definitions require evidence of dependence and withdrawal. Problematic use of alcohol has been mentioned in the earliest historical records. The World He ...

. A recovering alcoholic may well look back at the past as "the land of

self-loathing Self-hatred is a state of personal self-loathing or low self-esteem. In psychology and psychiatry The term "self-hatred" is used infrequently by psychologists and psychiatrists, who would usually describe people who hate themselves as "people wi ...

, egomania, and decay". Additionally, addiction can also be significantly influenced by egotism. Unquestionably, the detrimental psychological traits of the substance abusers are a precedent to behaviours such as excessive alcohol and drug use. These individuals turn to alcohol or drugs as a coping mechanism in place of alternate methods of dealing with negative feelings, such as sadness and anxiety. The danger with the egomaniac is always that 'underneath the apparent over-confidence and bravado lies a fragile personality', driven by " grandiose fantasies of boundless success or power or perfect love"Reevy, p. 217 which cannot be fulfilled.

References

{{Narcissism Ego psychology Narcissism Mania

History

Substance abuse

See also

References