Megalomania

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Megalomania (from the Greek word μεγαλομανία; megalo-, meaning large, and mania) is a historical term for behavior characterized by an obsession or preoccupation with wealth, power, genius, or omnipotence—often generally termed as delusions of grandeur or grandiose delusions. Megalomania denotes an obsession with having and/or obtaining, grandiosity and extravagance (especially in the form of great fame and popularity, material wealth, social influence or political power, or more than one or even all of the aforesaid). It may be a symptom of manic or paranoid disorders.^{[citation needed]} However it is not considered a distinct mental disorder of itself according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

Delusions of grandeur, commonly seen in psychosis, may be seen as distinct from megalomania: a megalomaniac's overwhelming and excessive preoccupation with his or her own importance, though it may be considered pathological, is not necessarily delusional. A delusion of grandeur, if it is a true delusion, must meet the psychiatric criteria for delusion. Whereas it is possible, in the case of megalomania, for an actually important man/woman to be preoccupied with his/her own actual importance, a person suffering from delusions of grandeur would stubbornly entertain patently false, generally fantastic and often highly complex ideas of his/her own importance, often with a supernatural or science-fictional bent. A person suffering from delusions of grandeur may actually be an important figure, as in the case of the mathematician John Nash, who once rejected a prestigious academic chair on the grounds that he was due to be enthroned as the Emperor of Antarctica.^[1]

Delusions of grandeur would seem to be one of the two main—and possibly connected—delusions of paranoid schizophrenia. And, it is interesting to note, delusions of grandeur, though constituting psychotic ideation, are possibly largely recreational in nature and represent irrational and compelling but not unpleasant or disturbing fantasies. In a PBS interview, John Nash said the following about his own delusions of grandeur:

I think mental illness or madness can be an escape also. People don't develop a mental illness because they are in the happiest of situations usually. One doctor observed that it was rare when people were rich to become schizophrenic. If they were poor or didn't have too much money, then it was more likely. And this is natural, if things are very good, you can find satisfaction with the world as it is, as it seems to be. If things are not so good, you may be one to imagine something better.

For me, I was able to imagine myself as in a role of greater importance than I would seem to be ordinarily. At the time, I had some recognition. I was making some progress professionally, but I wasn't really at the top. I didn't have top level recognition, and so when I started thinking irrationally, I imagined myself as really on a Number 1 level. I was the most important person of the world, and people like the Pope would be just like enemies, who would try to put me down in some way or another, or the president.

—John Nash^[2]

What is salient in delusions of grandeur is not just that the grandiose self conception is usually fantastic but also that the ordinary and laborious channels of achievement are completely circumvented and a shortcut route is taken to a "success" which is exaggerated to the point of caricature, as in the case of John Nash maintaining that he was to be Emperor of Antarctica. Sigmund Freud once said that "It might be maintained that... paranoid ideation is a caricature of a philosophical system."^[3] In delusions of grandeur the sense of caricature is present without the sense of grand rationale that is provided in delusions of persecution. What may go overlooked, because of the psychotic context of the delusory belief, is that delusions of grandeur are not only venal but evince a desire for success without effort, a common element of criminal thought patterns.^[4] Looked at in this light, delusions of grandeur may be indicative of either a comorbid personality disorder or of the integration of personality disorder and thought disorder in paranoid schizophrenia. That is to say that delusions of grandeur, as described above by John Nash, may not constitute a discrete thought disorder (i.e. paranoid schizophrenic ideation) that is visited on an otherwise well personality. There is a sense of personal complicity in delusions of grandeur and it is possible that paranoid schizophrenia involves significant and possibly prior personality disorder. John Nash was described by many who knew him as insufferably narcissistic before he became schizophrenic.^[5]

Delusions of persecution may be intrinsically related to—and the flip-side of—delusions of grandeur in that the very idea that one is being persecuted by a complex of conspirators involves a sense of greatly elevated self-importance. Delusions of persecution, though generally disturbing and unpleasant—i.e. affectively different—can be seen to similarly arise from a grandiose self-conception.

Contents 1 Megalomaniac paranoia 2 See also 3 References 4 External links

[edit] Megalomaniac paranoia

The mixed condition of megalomania with paranoia is a classic psychiatric description.^[6] Among the recent psychiatric publications discussing the subject is DSM-IV.^{[page needed]}

The relationship between megalomaniac paranoia and the concept of dementia praecox has been discussed by Domingo (2008).^[7]

Among the historical figures that have been defined as paranoid megalomaniac are Alexander the Great^[8], Vidkun Quisling^[9] and former dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu.^[10]

In literarure, megalomaniac paranoia is the central "operative emotion" behind Thomas Pynchon's novel Gravity's Rainbow.^[11]

[edit] See also

• Hubris
• Malignant narcissism
• Narcissism
• Narcissistic personality disorder
• Superiority complex
• Victory disease

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Look up megalomania in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.