What is DELUSION of GREATNESS: symptoms, causes and examples

Surely you have met someone who continually believed to be special and do all kinds of things in a perfect way. Even that person tells stories of achievements that sound quite unreal. That person could be suffering from what is known as a delusion of grandeur although we want to insist on that in most cases you do not have a disorder and it is simply part of the personality of the person.

This is a kind of delusional disorder according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5, 2013), which would fall within psychotic disorders. The moment in which the person is believing that he has those qualities or that he has obtained said achievements that do not correspond to reality is known as delusion. However, despite the delusions, the behavior of the person is not excessively extravagant, so he can lead a normal life.

Next, in Psychology-Online, we will explain in more detail what is delusions of grandeur, what are its symptoms and causes and we will expose other types of delusions and related disorders.

Index

1. Types of megalomania
2. What is delusion of grandeur?
3. Symptoms of megalomania
4. Causes of delusions of grandeur
5. Other types of delirium

Megalomania is that psychological disorder that causes a person to have a very high concept of himself, narcissism and with a behavior similar to delusions of grandeur. Within this disorder, there are two different types:

• Megalomaniac Personality Disorder: they are people with a great concept of themselves and who also have a very high self-esteem. They are unable to see their mistakes, however, with therapy this can be worked. It is a type of problem that develops in childhood depending on aspects of upbringing or the context in which the individual has developed.
• Megalomanic delusional disorder: it would be the more serious type of both, since it is here when we would have the delirium. In this case, the inflexibility they have to recognize a reality other than what they believe marks the difficulty of the treatment. This type of delirium can develop in adulthood, more suddenly than the previous one. As we can see, the description is the same as in the delusion of grandeur, so they are usually treated as synonyms.

In DSM 5 megalomania would be part of the Narcissistic Personality Disorder.

As we said, delusion of grandeur or megalomania is a type of delusional disorder that consists in that the main theme of the delusion is that the person believes they have some talent or knowledge or have made an important discovery. All of this does not correspond to reality.

In addition, according to the DSM 5 manual, we can add the specification of extravagance if the delusion is very implausible. Similarly, depending on its frequency as an acute episode, in partial remission or in total remission. On the other hand, depending on the severity, it would be classified from 0 to 4 depending on how the delusions are, if the person's speech is disorganized, if there are psychomotor problems due to delusions, etc. 4 being the most serious stage.

Megalomaniacal people or delusions of grandeur they believe they have unlimited abilities and they often try to put them to the test. Furthermore, they do not learn from their mistakes as they are blinded by the image they have of themselves. Due to this distorted image, it seems that they are continually faking it. On the other hand, they take into account the opinion of others and the reactions of others to their actions. However, the moment they are criticized or opposed, believe and are convinced that others have the problem.

It is hypothesized that the causes of megalomania are, in addition to genetic, a childhood in which the person has been constantly praised and protected of all kinds of criticism and to which not enough limits have been set. In addition, it can also be due to a serious or chronic illness, infections, alcohol withdrawal or metabolic imbalances such as low sodium levels.

Despite what may be believed, these individuals have low self-esteem that they unconsciously try to protect through those continual self-praise. Due to this, despite the fact that reality shows them constantly that they do not have the qualities they think they have, they are unable to recognize it.

As we said, delusional grandeur disorder is just one of the types of delusional disorder. Next, we will discuss the other types of this disorder.

• Erotomaniac: the person believes that a third party is in love and obsessed with her.
• Celotypic: believes that his partner is unfaithful and performs all kinds of attitudes in order to prove it.
• Persecutory: in persecution mania there is a conviction on the part of the sufferer that they are conspiring against him, that he They cheat, spy on you, follow you, poison or drug you, defame you, harass you, or prevent you from achieving long-term goals.
• Somatic: Ee delirium involves bodily functions or sensations.
• Mixed: there is no specific subtype, but we are faced with a mixture.
• Not specified: when not all symptoms are met.

In this article you will find more information about types of delusions. For any of these types, there has to be a record about the delusions and an effort to want to show that the delusion is real. The fact that a person at one point in her life believes that they are unfaithful even though they are not, would not necessarily give her the Celotypic Delusional Disorder. In these types of disorders, the people around him suffer a lot and it is very complex for them to deal with these people, which is why they often have many problems in their interpersonal relationships.

This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

If you want to read more articles similar to What is delusion of grandeur: symptoms, causes and examples, we recommend that you enter our category of Clinical psychology.

1. American Psychiatric Association (APA). (2013). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders DSM-IV-TR.Barcelona: Masson.

• Fox, T. (2015). Megalovania: Undertale's more megalomaniac character song.
• Rose, L. (2005). How to Be a Successful Tyrant: The Megalomaniac Manifesto.
• Rosenfeid, I. (2001). Freud's Megalomania: A Novel.