Egotism

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Egotism is defined as the drive to maintain and enhance favorable views of oneself and generally features an inflated opinion of one's personal features and importance distinguished by a person's amplified vision of one's self and self-importance. It often includes intellectual, physical, social, and other overestimations. [1] The egotist has an overwhelming sense of the centrality of the "me" regarding their personal qualities. [2]

Contents

Characteristics

Egotism is closely related to an egocentric love for one's imagined self or narcissism. [3] Egotists have a strong tendency to talk about themselves in a self-promoting fashion, and they may well be arrogant and boastful with a grandiose sense of their own importance. [4] Their inability to recognise the accomplishments of others [5] leaves them profoundly self-promoting; while sensitivity to criticism may lead, on the egotist's part, to narcissistic rage at a sense of insult. [6]

Egotism differs from both altruism  – or behaviour motivated by the concern for others rather than for oneself – and from egoism, the constant pursuit of one's self-interest. Various forms of "empirical egoism" have been considered consistent with egotism, but do not – which is also the case with egoism in general – necessitate having an inflated sense of self. [7]

Development

In developmental terms, two different paths can be taken to reach egotism – one being individual, and the other being cultural.

With respect to the developing individual, a movement takes place from egocentricity to sociality during the process of growing up. [8] It is normal for an infant to have an inflated sense of egotism. [9] The over-evaluation of one's own ego [10] regularly appears in childish forms of love. [11]

Optimal development allows a gradual decrease into a more realistic view of one's own place in the world. [12] A less optimal adjustment may later lead to what has been called defensive egotism, serving to overcompensate for a fragile concept of self. [13] Robin Skynner however considered that in the main growing up leads to a state where "your ego is still there, but it's taking its proper limited place among all the other egos". [14]

However, alongside such a positive trajectory of diminishing individual egotism, a rather different arc of development can be noted in cultural terms, linked to what has been seen as the increasing infantilism of post-modern society. [15] Whereas in the nineteenth century egotism was still widely regarded as a traditional vice – for Nathaniel Hawthorne egotism was a sort of diseased self-contemplation [16]  – Romanticism had already set in motion a countervailing current, what Richard Eldridge described as a kind of "cultural egotism, substituting the individual imagination for vanishing social tradition". [17] The romantic idea of the self-creating individual – of a self-authorizing, artistic egotism [18]  – then took on broader social dimensions in the following century. Keats might still attack Wordsworth for the regressive nature of his retreat into the egotistical sublime; [19] but by the close of the twentieth century egotism had been naturalized much more widely by the Me generation into the Culture of Narcissism.

In the 21st century, romantic egotism has been seen as feeding into techno-capitalism in two complementary ways: [20] on the one hand, through the self-centred consumer, focused on their own self-fashioning through brand 'identity'; on the other through the equally egotistical voices of 'authentic' protest, as they rage against the machine, only to produce new commodity forms that serve to fuel the system for further consumption.

Sexuality

There is a question mark over the relationship between sexuality and egotism. Sigmund Freud popularly made the claim that intimacy can transform the egotist, [21] giving a new sense of humility in relation to others. [22]

At the same time, it is very apparent that egotism can readily show itself in sexual ways [23] and indeed arguably one's whole sexuality may function in the service of egotistical needs. [24]

Social egotism

Leo Tolstoy, used the term aduyevschina (after the protagonist Aduyev of Goncharov's first novel, A Common Story ) to describe social egotism as the inability of some people to see beyond their immediate interests. [25]

Etymology

The term egotism is derived from the Greek ("εγώ") and subsequently its Latinised ego ( ego ), meaning "self" or "I," and -ism , used to denote a system of belief. As such, the term shares early etymology with egoism.

Egotism vs. pride

Egotism differs from pride. Although they share the state of mind of an individual, ego is defined by a person's self-perception.[ citation needed ] That is how the particular individual thinks, feels and distinguishes him/herself from others. Pride may be equated to the feeling one experiences as the direct result of one's accomplishment or success. [26]

Cultural examples

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fantasy (psychology)</span> Mental faculty of drawing imagination and desire in the human brain

In psychology, fantasy is a broad range of mental experiences, mediated by the faculty of imagination in the human brain, and marked by an expression of certain desires through vivid mental imagery. Fantasies are generally associated with scenarios that are impossible or unlikely to happen.

In psychoanalytic theory, the id, ego and superego are three distinct, interacting agents in the psychic apparatus, defined in Sigmund Freud's structural model of the psyche. The three agents are theoretical constructs that Freud employed to describe the basic structure of mental life as it was encountered in psychoanalytic practice. Freud himself used the German terms das Es, Ich, and Über-Ich, which literally translate as "the it", "I", and "over-I". The Latin terms id, ego and superego were chosen by his original translators and have remained in use.

Perversion is a form of human behavior which deviates from what is considered to be orthodox or normal. Although the term perversion can refer to a variety of forms of deviation, it is most often used to describe sexual behaviors that are considered particularly abnormal, repulsive or obsessive. Perversion differs from deviant behavior, in that the latter covers areas of behavior for which perversion would be too strong a term. It is often considered derogatory, and, in psychological literature, the term paraphilia has been used as a replacement, though this term is controversial, and deviation is sometimes used in its place.

The concept of ego reduction is predicated on the use of Sigmund Freud's concept of the ego to describe the conscious adult self; and broadly describes the deflating of an over-inflated or egotistical sense of oneself - a curtailment of what Iris Murdoch called “the anxious avaricious tentacles of the self”.

In psychology, intellectualization (intellectualisation) is a defense mechanism by which reasoning is used to block confrontation with an unconscious conflict and its associated emotional stress – where thinking is used to avoid feeling. It involves emotionally removing one's self from a stressful event. Intellectualization may accompany, but is different from, rationalization, the pseudo-rational justification of irrational acts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ego ideal</span> Freudian concept

In Freudian psychoanalysis, the ego ideal is the inner image of oneself as one wants to become. It consists of "the individual's conscious and unconscious images of what he would like to be, patterned after certain people whom ... he regards as ideal."

In psychology, narcissistic injury, also known as narcissistic wound or wounded ego, is emotional trauma that overwhelms an individual's defense mechanisms and devastates their pride and self-worth. In some cases, the shame or disgrace is so significant that the individual can never again truly feel good about who they are. This is sometimes referred to as a "narcissistic scar".

Egomania is a psychiatric term used to describe excessive preoccupation with one's ego, identity or self 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 focus is an egomaniac. Egomania as a condition, while not a classified personality disorder, is considered psychologically abnormal.

Splitting is the failure in a person's thinking to bring together the dichotomy of both perceived positive and negative qualities of something into a cohesive, realistic whole. It is a common defense mechanism wherein the individual tends to think in extremes. This kind of dichotomous interpretation is contrasted by an acknowledgement of certain nuances known as "shades of gray".

Ego integrity was the term given by Erik Erikson to the last of his eight stages of psychosocial development, and used by him to represent 'a post-narcissistic love of the human ego—as an experience which conveys some world order and spiritual sense, no matter how dearly paid for'.

Identification is a psychological process whereby the individual assimilates an aspect, property, or attribute of the other and is transformed wholly or partially by the model that other provides. It is by means of a series of identifications that the personality is constituted and specified. The roots of the concept can be found in Freud's writings. The three most prominent concepts of identification as described by Freud are: primary identification, narcissistic (secondary) identification and partial (secondary) identification.

In psychoanalysis, decathexis is the withdrawal of cathexis from an idea or instinctual object.

In psychoanalytic theory, narcissistic supply is a pathological or excessive need for attention or admiration from codependents, or such a need in the orally fixated, that does not take into account the feelings, opinions or preferences of other people.

The concept of excessive selfishness has been recognized throughout history. The term "narcissism" is derived from the Greek mythology of Narcissus, but was only coined at the close of the nineteenth century.

Healthy narcissism is a positive sense of self that is in alignment with the greater good. The concept of healthy narcissism was first coined by Paul Federn and gained prominence in the 1970s through the research of Heinz Kohut and Otto Kernberg. It developed slowly out of the psychoanalytic tradition, and became popular in the late twentieth century.

Narcissistic leadership is a leadership style in which the leader is only interested in themself. Their priority is themselves – at the expense of their people/group members. This leader exhibits the characteristics of a narcissist: arrogance, dominance and hostility. It is a sufficiently common leadership style that it has acquired its own name. Narcissism is most often described as unhealthy and destructive. It has been described as "driven by unyielding arrogance, self-absorption, and a personal egotistic need for power and admiration".

Postponement of affect is a defence mechanism which may be used against a variety of feelings or emotions. Such a "temporal displacement, resulting simply in a later appearance of the affect reaction and in thus preventing the recognition of the motivating connection, is most frequently used against the affects of rage and grief".

Narcissistic mortification is "the primitive terror of self dissolution, triggered by the sudden exposure of one's sense of a defective self ... it is death by embarrassment". Narcissistic mortification is a term first used by Sigmund Freud in his last book, Moses and Monotheism, with respect to early injuries to the ego/self. The concept has been widely employed in ego psychology and also contributed to the roots of self psychology.

In psychology, narcissistic withdrawal is a stage in narcissism and a narcissistic defense characterized by "turning away from parental figures, and by the fantasy that essential needs can be satisfied by the individual alone". In adulthood, it is more likely to be an ego defense with repressed origins. Individuals feel obliged to withdraw from any relationship that threatens to be more than short-term, avoiding the risk of narcissistic injury, and will instead retreat into a comfort zone. The idea was first described by Melanie Klein in her psychoanalytic research on stages of narcissism in children.

Narcissistic defenses are those processes whereby the idealized aspects of the self are preserved, and its limitations denied. They tend to be rigid and totalistic. They are often driven by feelings of shame and guilt, conscious or unconscious.

References

  1. ↑ Robin M. Kowalski ed., Aversive Interpersonal Behaviors (1997) p. 112
  2. ↑ William Walker Atkinson, The New Psychology (2010 [1909]) p. 30
  3. ↑ Samuel D. Schmalhausen, Why We Misbehave (2004 [1928]) p. 55
  4. ↑ Kowalski ed., p. 1114
  5. ↑ Mark R. Leary, The Curse of the Self (OUP 2007) p. 91
  6. ↑ Kowalski ed., pp. 121–122
  7. ↑ Kowalski ed., p. 113
  8. ↑ J. C. Flügel, Man, Morals and Society (1973) pp. 242–243
  9. ↑ Sigmund Freud, On Metapsychology (PFL 11) p. 85
  10. ↑ Otto Fenichel, The Psychoanalytic Theory of Neurosis (London 1946) pp. 38, 57
  11. ↑ Robin Skynner and John Cleese, Families and how to survive them (London 1994) p. 91
  12. ↑ Skynner & Cleese, Families p. 63
  13. ↑ Kowalski ed., p. 224
  14. ↑ Robin Skynner and John Cleese, Life and how to survive it (London 1994) p. 241
  15. ↑ R. Bly and M. Woodman, The Maiden King (1999) p. 85–8
  16. ↑ Malcolm Cowley, ed., The Portable Hawthorne (Penguin 1977) p. 177
  17. ↑ Richard Eldridge, The Persistence of Romanticism (2001) p. 118
  18. ↑ Scott Wilson, in Patricia Waugh, ed., Literary Theory and Criticism (2006) pp. 563–564
  19. ↑ Henry Hart, Robert Lowell and the Sublime (1995) p. 30
  20. ↑ Wilson, pp. 565–566
  21. ↑ Schmalhausen, p. 153
  22. ↑ Sigmund Freud, On Metapsychology (PFL 11) p. 93
  23. ↑ Schmalhausen, p. 34
  24. ↑ Otto Fenichel, The Psychoanalytic Theory of Neurosis (London 1946) pp. 516–517
  25. ↑ "I.A.Goncharov. Biobibliography". Russian Writers. Biobibliographical dictionary. Ed. P.A.Nikolayev. Vol.1 Moscow, Prosveshcheniye Publishers. 1990. Retrieved 10 October 2011". 2011. Archived from the original on 2007-10-13.
  26. ↑ Chathu (2017-01-26). "Difference Between Ego and Pride | Definition, Features, Characteristics". Pediaa.Com. Retrieved 2022-12-05.
  27. ↑ Ann Thwaite, A. A. Milne: His Life (2006) pp. 123, 194 [ ISBN missing ]
  28. ↑ Holiday, Ryan (2016). Ego Is The Enemy. New York: Penguin Random House. p. 20. ISBN   978-0698192157.

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