Megalomania: Do You Play God?

“I interrupt to point out that I feel extraordinarily well. Maybe it’s delirium ”. This phrase from Samuel Beckett could be a trait of megalomania. Thus, two of the most salient characteristics of this psychopathological condition are exaggerated pride and a deliriously optimistic image of oneself. You want to know more?

Characters of the stature of Salvador Dalí or Napoleon Bonaparte are considered megalomaniacs. It could be that everyone in their own way wanted to play god. But to be clear, we better delve more into the various issues that concern this personality trait. Let’s start the journey.

What is megalomania?

Do you think that you are going to eat the world and that you will be the next Steve Jobs, Bill Gates or Donald Trump? Perhaps you are not mistaken, or perhaps you are sinning from megalomania. It all depends on the prism with which we look at it. Megalomania is a distinctive trait of people who obsess over enormous feats. The term derives from the Greek, combining the words mega , that is, great, and mania , which would be an obsession.

So if you are obsessed with great ideas, have an excessively high view of yourself and believe that the world has no limits or you will overcome them all beyond your means, maybe you are a megalomaniac. Or maybe you know someone like that, who knows?

What signs identify a megalomaniac?

Like all excesses, megalomania does not usually bring anything good. In this case, it is considered a characteristic that is part of Narcissistic Personality Disorder. In other words, it is a psychopathological condition and at the same time a criterion for the diagnosis of a major disorder.

In this sense, there are a series of symptoms that we can find in megalomaniacal people. In general, they tend to present ideas that border on delirium and even falsify reality. They may believe that they have more power than they hold, they are presumptuous and often hurt both themselves and the people around them. What’s more:

• They consider themselves with unlimited strength and ability. However, far from being real, it is a reason for them to find themselves in trouble that really exceeds their abilities or their resources on a constant basis.
• They like to test themselves. Their presumed omnipotence encourages them to push capabilities that they do not really have to the limit.
• Megalomaniacal people are characterized by their inability to learn from their own mistakes. Experience is not used as a tool to get to know yourself better. They are convinced of its unlimited strength.

• They have an idealized image of themselves. Usually they pretend a lot, since their own perception is totally unreal.
• They are unable to understand their own mistakes, but they do react even virulently to those of others. They reject those who react negatively to their opinions and consider that other people have the problem.

Megalomania according to Freud and its currents

One of the professionals who studied megalomania the most was Sigmund Freud. He considered it as a differential characteristic of personalities with neurotic features. He himself treated his patients suffering from neurosis and an inability to maintain control.

After Freud, the psychodynamic current defined megalomaniacs as people who used this disorder as a defense mechanism. In this way, reality countered his need to satisfy his impulses immediately. Therefore, unlimited power was a good tool.

Since our psyche, subconsciously, dreams of having omnipotence, the tendency in these cases was to distort reality to simulate that we do have this power. But this fact would only really generate constant frustration. However, Freudian theories such as psychodynamics today have little weight in the treatment of megalomania.

In conclusion, to say that this concept of megalomania can be dangerous. Beyond the professional field, many people tend to trivialize and confuse it. Today there are profiles with a high ego and a self-esteem that exceeds the average, but this is not comparable with the central psychopathological condition in this article, as it is part of a much more complex disorder.

So there is neither an epidemic of hyper-optimistic megalomaniacs about themselves, nor is it an overly widespread problem. That is why it is not good to confuse, but it is good to be alert. Think that if the symptoms are real, it is important to treat them as soon as possible.

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