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What Is Megalomania?
Megalomania could be defined as a delusional state where a person believes that he/she is superior to others. They may believe themselves to be gods, a famous person or a gifted athlete. They may feel they have great social, political or other powers. It is generally considered a symptom of either manic or paranoid disorders.
A megalomaniac person will exaggerate his/her talent in an unrealistic egoistic way, considering them as unique and will be self centered. According to experts, this mental disorder is related to Narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) which means self-love. How and why this type of illness develops may be because of different behavioural characteristics, childhood and nature of parenting during childhood days.
It can also be described as neurological symptoms, which is a disruption in the function of the will. The megalomania sufferers can’t control their desire. They always praise themselves, usually about immaterial matters (deed, for instance), since the truth is hard to check. In short, they fantasize. Moreover, the sufferer can’t appreciate others or what they have done. They refuse to accept another person’s’’ idea (their employees if they are bosses) although it’s good. They always humiliate, underestimate and harass others and think that they themselves are the best, most correct and cleverest. They are rude and say improper words such as: “Stupid!”, “Idiot!” and so on. They think that the success they achieve are because of their own effort, not their team’s. Those who claim to be Messiah are megalomania sufferers.
Megalomania is caused by, among others, families that are too worried about everything. Besides, at an early age they have gotten excessive compliments from their parents or, vice versa, never gotten any at all so that when they grow up, they become people thirsty for praise and want to get acknowledgment form others by praising themselves excessively.
Therefore, megalomania sufferers are immature. They don’t want to accept themselves for what they are. In other words, they don’t want to see the reality and stand on it. They fantasize and live in their fantasy world.
Some symptoms
1. Delusion of being superior or important to others
2. Delusion of greatness and or having great social and political power
3. Lack of empathy for anything, egoistic, violent tendencies and self centered
4. Want others to be afraid of him/her, high self confidence, manipulation over others
5. Exaggerations, feeling of being a famous person
6. Belief of being a god like figure, bad tempered and frequent depressions and mood swing
Treatments for megalomania depend on the underlying condition causing it, but can include medication and psychotherapy. Treatments for megalomania in personality disorders are a different matter. In many traditional views, personality disorders are thought to arise from some failure of development in childhood to create a whole self, often as a result of trauma or neglect.
This cannot be addressed with medication unless people have a co-morbid biological disorder. Psychotherapy is the main approach to personality disorders, and it can take several different forms. The classic therapeutic approach comes from the various Object-Relations schools of therapy. The empathetic therapist helps a client build this lost part of the himself/herself and learn to connect with and reflect upon narcissism as a defense.
