“Hubris Syndrome” in Those Who Have a Godly Ego

Hubris syndrome; It is when someone in a position of power develops an enlarged and embellished view of himself and his abilities. In this context, it is not surprising that arrogance, exaggerated pride and self-confidence emerge.

In fact, people with this syndrome can never see their own mistakes and shortcomings, they believe that they can never do anything wrong, and they may be disconnected from reality. Let’s take a closer look at this syndrome, which is possible for some celebrities and various politicians to come to mind as you read.

A person has Hubris syndrome if they experience at least 3 of the following symptoms in the psychological diagnosis book:

• They see their world as an arena to exert power and achieve victory.
• They take actions that seem likely to improve their self-image.
• They are disproportionately concerned about their appearance and expressions.
• They act almost like a messiah when talking about their current activities.
• They equate their point of view and interests with their nation.
• They tend to use the royal nobility ‘we’.
• They are overconfident in their own judgment and despise those of others.
• They think they can only be accountable to God, not to their colleagues or the public.
• They think that they will be absolutely right when they are judged by this higher will.
• Its ties with reality are severed.
• They exhibit restless, reckless and delusional actions.
• They base their practices on broad conceptions of morality and integrity.
• They create inappropriate policies as a result of overconfidence that things can go wrong.

For leaders in democratic countries, repeated electoral victories increase the likelihood of getting Hubris syndrome.

Conceited traits are triggered by reaching a position of power, holding power that deteriorates as you accumulate more power. In people with Hubris syndrome; crises, wars and economic collapses cause the syndrome to increase.

hold power; It can distort not only the perception of themselves, but also the perception of the team.

In a survey by Deloitte and Workplace Intelligence, 88% of executives said they thought they made excellent decisions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Only 53% of the employees agreed. As researches on this subject increase; It turned out that managers gave higher scores than their subordinates in every subject.

This inconsistency suggests that achieving a position of power can distort not only their perception of themselves, but their perception of their team and entire organization.

Hubris syndrome and narcissism should not be confused.

Overconfidence, arrogance, arrogance, superiority… Everything sounds like another term: narcissism. Narcissistic personality disorder, as the name suggests, is a personality disorder. It is a diagnosable mental health condition that typically occurs in late childhood or early adolescence.

arrogance syndrome; It is not a result of your particular personality, but a result of your environment. It only occurs when someone reaches power and usually subsides when there is no more power. Hubris syndrome should be seen as “not a personality disorder, but a positional disease as much as the person”.

There are many expressions in the 1984 book that we can associate with the arrogance syndrome.

George Orwell wrote in his 1984 book: “There will always be the intoxication of power, ever increasing and ever growing more cunning.”

While 1984 is a dystopian fiction novel, George Orwell describes the reality of arrogance syndrome as a problem that affects leaders, citing examples from CEOs, executives, presidents, and politicians.

We can list some famous names caught in the arrogance syndrome as follows:

It is not possible to give examples from today’s politicians due to impartiality, but when we look at the past periods; Napoleon, Hitler, George W. Bush, Tony Blair and Margaret Teacher; He can be counted among politicians who suffer from Hubris syndrome.

In addition to these, Victor Frankenstein, the scientist in the novel Frankenstein, is also an example of arrogance syndrome. Moreover, we have included this syndrome in our content below, where we examine the psychological state of Elon Musk: