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
Importance is a property of entities that matter or make a difference. For example, World War II was an important event and Albert Einstein was an important person because of how they affected the world. There are disagreements in the academic li ...
distinguished by a person's amplified vision of one's self and self-importance. It often includes intellectual, physical, social, and other overestimations. The egotist has an overwhelming sense of the centrality of the "me" regarding their personal qualities.
Characteristics
Egotism is closely related to an egocentric love for one's imagined self or
narcissism
Narcissism is a self-centered personality style characterized as having an excessive interest in one's physical appearance or image and an excessive preoccupation with one's own needs, often at the expense of others.
Narcissism exists on a co ...
– indeed some would say "by egotism we may envisage a kind of socialized narcissism". 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
In the field of psychology, the term grandiosity refers to an unrealistic sense of superiority, characterized by a sustained view of one's self as better than others, which is expressed by disdainfully criticising them (contempt), overinflating ...
sense of their own importance. Their inability to recognise the accomplishments of others leaves them profoundly self-promoting; while sensitivity to criticism may lead, on the egotist's part, to
narcissistic rage
Narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) is a personality disorder characterized by a life-long pattern of exaggerated feelings of self-importance, an excessive need for admiration, a diminished ability or unwillingness to empathize with other ...
at a sense of insult.
Egotism differs from both
altruism
Altruism is the principle and moral practice of concern for the welfare and/or happiness of other human beings or animals, resulting in a quality of life both material and spiritual. It is a traditional virtue in many cultures and a core as ...
– or behaviour motivated by the concern for others rather than for oneself – and from
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 normative ...
, 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.
Development
In developmental terms, two rather different trajectories can be distinguished with respect to egotism – the one individual, the other cultural.
With respect to the developing individual, a movement takes place from egocentricity to sociality during the process of growing up. It is normal for an infant to have an inflated – almost a majestic – sense of egotism. The over-evaluation of one's own ego regularly appears in childish forms of love – in large part because the baby is to himself everything,
omnipotent
Omnipotence is the quality of having unlimited power. Monotheistic religions generally attribute omnipotence only to the deity of their faith. In the monotheistic religious philosophy of Abrahamic religions, omnipotence is often listed as one of ...
to the best of their own knowledge.
Optimal development allows a gradual reconciliation to a more realistic view of one's own place in the world – a lessening of the egotistical swollen head. Less adequate adjustment may later lead to what has been called defensive egotism, serving to overcompensate for the fragility of the underlying concept of self.
Robin Skynner
Robin Skynner (16 August 1922 in Cornwall–24 September 2000 in Islington, London) was a psychiatric pioneer and innovator in treating mental illness.
As a young man during World War II, Skynner was a Royal Air Force (RAF) pilot who flew the ...
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".
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. Whereas in the nineteenth century egotism was still widely regarded as a traditional vice – for
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Nathaniel Hawthorne (July 4, 1804 – May 19, 1864) was an American novelist and short story writer. His works often focus on history, morality, and religion.
He was born in 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts, from a family long associated with that t ...
egotism was a sort of diseased self-contemplation –
Romanticism
Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...
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". The romantic idea of the self-creating individual – of a self-authorizing, artistic egotism – then took on broader social dimensions in the following century.
Keats
John Keats (31 October 1795 – 23 February 1821) was an English poet of the second generation of Romantic poets, with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley. His poems had been in publication for less than four years when he died of tuberculos ...
might still attack
Wordsworth
William Wordsworth (7 April 177023 April 1850) was an English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with their joint publication ''Lyrical Ballads'' (1798).
Wordsworth's ' ...
for the regressive nature of his retreat into the egotistical sublime; but by the close of the twentieth century egotism had been naturalized much more widely by the
Me generation
The "Me" generation is a term referring to Baby Boomers in the United States and the self-involved qualities that some people associate with this generation. The 1970s was dubbed the "Me decade" by writer Tom Wolfe; Christopher Lasch wrote about th ...
into the
Culture of Narcissism
''The Culture of Narcissism: American Life in an Age of Diminishing Expectations'' is a 1979 book by the cultural historian Christopher Lasch, in which the author explores the roots and ramifications of what he perceives as the normalizing of pat ...
.
In the 21st century, romantic egotism has been seen as feeding into techno-capitalism in two complementary ways: 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
Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating psychopathology, pathologies explained as originatin ...
popularly made the claim that intimacy can transform the egotist, giving a new sense of humility in relation to others.
At the same time, it is very apparent that egotism can readily show itself in sexual ways and indeed arguably one's whole sexuality may function in the service of egotistical needs.
Social egotism
Leo Tolstoy
Count Lev Nikolayevich TolstoyTolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; russian: link=no, Лев Николаевич Толстой,In Tolstoy's day, his name was written as in pre-refor ...
, used the term ''aduyevschina'' (after the protagonist Aduyev of
Goncharov's first novel, ''
A Common Story
''The Same Old Story'' (russian: Обыкнове́нная исто́рия, translit=Obyknovennaya istorya) is the first novel by Ivan Goncharov, written between 1844 and 1846 and published in 1847.Mashinsky, S. The Works by I.A.Goncharov in 6 ...
'') to describe social egotism as the inability of some people to see beyond their immediate interests.
Etymology
The term egotism is derived from the Greek ("εγώ") and subsequently its Latinised ego (''
ego
Ego or EGO may refer to:
Social sciences
* Ego (Freudian), one of the three constructs in Sigmund Freud's structural model of the psyche
* Egoism, an ethical theory that treats self-interest as the foundation of morality
* Egotism, the drive to ...
''), meaning "self" or "I," and ''
-ism
''-ism'' is a suffix in many English words, originally derived from the Ancient Greek suffix ('), and reaching English through the Latin , and the French . It means "taking side with" or "imitation of", and is often used to describe philosoph ...
'', used to denote a system of belief. As such, the term shares early etymology with
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 normative ...
.
Egoism vs. Pride
Egoism differs from pride. Although they share the state of mind of an individual, ego is defined by a person's self-perception. 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.
Cultural examples
*
A. A. Milne
Alan Alexander Milne (; 18 January 1882 – 31 January 1956) was an English writer best known for his books about the teddy bear Winnie-the-Pooh, as well as for children's poetry. Milne was primarily a playwright before the huge success of Winni ...
has been praised for his clear-eyed vision of the ruthless, open, unashamed egotism of the young child.
*
Ryan Holiday
Ryan Holiday (born June 16, 1987) is an American author, modern Stoic,
public-relations strategist, owner of the Painted Porch Bookshop and host of the podcast ''The Daily Stoic.'' Prior to becoming an author, he served as the former director of ...
described our cultural values as dependent on validation, entitled, and ruled by our emotions, a form of egotism.
See also
References
Further reading
*
*
External links
* by
George Santayana
Jorge Agustín Nicolás Ruiz de Santayana y Borrás, known in English as George Santayana (; December 16, 1863 – September 26, 1952), was a Spanish and US-American philosopher, essayist, poet, and novelist. Born in Spain, Santayana was raised ...
B. J. Bushman/R. F. Baumeister, 'Threatened Egotism...'
{{Narcissism
Egoism
Narcissism
Philosophy of life