Friday, April 4, 2008

Our Max is a paranoid megalomaniac

Here are the definitions of Paranoia and Megalomania from Wikipedia:

Paranoia is a disturbed thought process characterized by excessive anxiety or fear, often to the point of irrationality and delusion. Paranoid thinking typically includes persecutory beliefs concerning a perceived threat. In the original Greek, paranoia simply means madness (para = outside; nous = mind) and, historically, this characterization was used to describe any delusional state.


Megalomania is a historical term for behavior characterized by delusional fantasies of wealth, power, genius, or omnipotence - often generally termed as delusions of grandeur. The word is a collaboration of the word "mania" meaning madness and the Greek "megalo" meaning "very large", "great", or "exaggerated", thus combining to denote an obsession with, either in the form of irrational perceived need for or preoccupation with in one's own estimation 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) and accompanying complete desirous and bombastic abandon; a common symptom if not the key diagnostic feature of megalomania. It is often symptomatic of manic or paranoid disorders.

1 comment:

Brian M said...

I would have to concur with your assessment. His paranoia is evident by the numerous locks he has on his doors, his need for solitude, etc. and his megalomania is present in pretty much everything he does.