Megalomania and delusions of grandeur: playing God

The word megalomania comes from the union of two Greek words: megabytes, which means "big", and mania whose meaning is "obsession". Thus, megalomania is the obsession with the great, at least if we pay attention to its etymology.

Megalomaniac people: what traits characterize them?

Now, who doesn't know someone who, after thinking big, thinks he's going to take over the world? It is quite common to find, from time to time, people who are especially proud of themselves, with a clearly optimistic view of their own abilities and that they seem to believe they are capable of anything.

By way of criticism, it can also happen that someone (or perhaps ourselves) labels these people with the adjective "megalomaniac" or "megalomaniac", especially if the person you are talking about has some power to influence the lives of others, either because he is very popular or because he is assigned a high position.

In these cases, are we talking about megalomaniacs?

Clarifying the concept of the megalomaniac

What exactly is megalomania? Is it a word used only to describe cases of mental disorder, or can this word serve to designate the conceited or vain people that we meet in our day to day?

In a sense, the correct option is the second, and the fact that we use the word megalomania to describe all kinds of people is proof of that. In general terms, Megalomania is understood to be a tendency to overestimate one's abilities and the importance of the role that is played in the lives of others. Thus, a person who is used to being quite proud (perhaps too proud) about his abilities and his power of decision could be labeled with the term megalomaniac or megalomaniac, yes, using the word something to the light.

However, if we try to understand megalomania from the field of psychology, we will have to use this word in much better limited cases.

The origins: a megalomania in psychoanalysis

Freud has already taken it upon himself to speak of megalomania as a personality trait linked to neuroticism, something that he himself was in charge of treating the well-being class patients who came to his consultation.

Beyond the psychoanalysis of Freud, other followers of the psychodynamic current have come to define megalomania as a Defense mechanism carried out so that reality does not contradict the unconscious impulses that, theoretically, would lead us to behave trying to satisfy all our needs immediately, as if we had a power unlimited. Since, obviously, we do not have the omnipotence that that subconscious part of our psyche, these psychodynamicists said, we distort reality so that it seems that it does. we have: and hence the megalomania, which would help us avoid suffering continuous frustration.

However, the current dominant clinical psychology is on a path that has nothing to do with it. do with the psychodynamic current founded with Freud, and the notion of megalomania has also changed.

Symptoms and signs of this disorder

The term megalomania appears in the most recent edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V) and is included in the description of the Narcissistic Personality Disorder, but it does not have its own section and therefore cannot be considered in itself a mental disorder, but in any case part of the symptoms.

Thus, megalomania may play a role in a diagnostic picture, although currently the professionals of the mental health prefer to use a more precise terminology to talk about Narcissistic Disorder of the Personality.

Specifically, to know if megalomania is part of a disorder, special attention is paid to whether the person presents delusions or does not present them.

Megalomania and delusions

Delusions are those that are based on clearly inadequate logic, which only makes sense to the person who holds these beliefs, when they are unable to learn through experience the futility of these ideas, and when acting on these ideas is problematic or inadequate.

Thus, for megalomania to be part of a clinical picture, it must appear in these types of thoughts that distort reality, taking a toll on the person in question and / or their environment. Megalomania is equated with delusions of grandeur.

A person who has been diagnosed among other things for his tendencies to megalomania will tend to believe that they have more power than a person would have in their situation, and the fact that the fact of maintaining these beliefs causes you to fail and seriously harm you will not change your mind. The delusional ideation will remain there even after you have lost fights against several people at the same time, for example, or after being rejected by many people for having presented in a very presumptuous.

Also, since megalomania is related to Narcissistic Personality Disorder, you will most likely tend to worry about the image it gives.

All this, of course, if we understand by megalomania what is included in the DSM-V.

What are megalomaniacs like?

People who present a pattern of behavior clearly associated with megalomania can be of many types, but they obviously have some common characteristics.

• They behave as if they have virtually unlimited power, which can get them into serious trouble for obvious reasons.
• They take advantage of this supposed omnipotence, in the sense that they like to test their abilities.
• They don't learn from their mistakes and experience does not correct the behaviors associated with delusions of grandeur.
• They seem to be constantly pretending to give an idealized image of themselves.
• They pay close attention to the way others react to what they do or say, although if others reject them for their behavior, people with an extreme degree of megalomania will tend to think that the problem belongs to others.

Megalomania is a concept with chiaroscuro

Megalomania is a bit of an ambiguous concept... like almost all the concepts with which one works in psychology. Megalomania, in itself, can be applied to many cases, more extreme or more frequent, and it is not necessary to have a mental disorder to be worthy of the name. However, in DSM-V uses the concept of megalomania to designate extreme cases in which delusions of grandeur occur that isolate the individual and make him hold a very distorted view of things.

Often times, in the clinical and forensic context, people in charge of diagnosing people have to know recognize cases in which the tendency to megalomania is part of the symptoms of a disorder mental... which is not easy. That is, they have to distinguish between what is popularly known as "bravery" and pathological megalomania.

How do they do that? Well, part of the secret is in the years of experience, of course. If it were possible to diagnose cases of disorders that are expressed through megalomania, there would be no need for professionals to deal with it. On the other hand, diagnostic manuals include a series of criteria that serve to more or less quantify objectifies the degree to which megalomania approaches delusions of grandeur and narcissistic disorder of the personality.

A final thought

From the perspective of psychology, using the popular definition of the concept "megalomania" entails an obvious danger: on the one hand, trivialize with a series of symptoms that occur in clinical pictures and worsen people's quality of life who experience it, and on the other, build a false social alarm around a nonexistent epidemic. There are people who simply have much higher than average self-esteem and optimism, and there is nothing wrong with that.

Bibliographic references:

• Fox, Toby. (2015). Megalovania: Undertale's more megalomaniac character song.
• Rose, Larken. (2005). How to Be a Successful Tyrant: The Megalomaniac Manifesto.
• Rosenfeid, Israel. (2001) Freud's Megalomania: A Novel.