God complex
A God complex is a term used to characterize arrogant, individuals prone to stupid actions, despite their being highly educated, worldly, or powerful. A person with a God complex is said to suffer from the delusion he or she is, at the very least, the Almighty's gift to the world. Terms such as group think, expert worship, and 'God complex' have been coined to explain various incarnations of this phenomenon.
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God complexes and man-made disasters
In direct proportion to a given disparity of wealth and power, the opportunities escalate for individuals to assume inhuman, and sometimes inhumane, dominion over others. God complexes are sometimes blamed for monumental man made disasters, including global warming, the Bhopal chemical spill, and incessant flooding in China. As wealth and power is consolidated into the hands of individuals at the helm of ever larger organizations and nations, it has become increasingly evident that powerful, and generally very intelligent, people sometimes do incredibly stupid things that contribute to man-made disasters, or compound the tragedy of natural disasters.
Scholarly research
There are few academic works specifically addressing God complexes, although a great deal can be found about narcissism.
Psychiatry has offered alternative terminology, such as 'compensatory narcissistic personality disorder', which corresponds to Ernest Jones's 'narcissistic God Complex', Heinz Kohut's 'narcissistic personality disorder', and Theodore Millon's 'Compensatory Narcissist'.
In the book All Mighty: A Study of the God Complex in Western Man, by Horst Richter (ISBN 0897930282), authoritarian compulsions are related to the rebellious stage of childhood development. Richter examines how the arrested development of such compulsions leads to denial of suffering, self-doubt, and death, and an expectation of servility for women and minorities.
Quotes
- "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former." (Attribution unverified) Albert Einstein
- "Stupid is as stupid does." Forest Gump
- "The AmigaOne is an inexpensive, powerful and bug free hardware." Mike Bouma, known respected amiga journalist.
- "On Schedule And Rocking." Amiga Inc.
External links
- FragileEcologies - 'Chinese Floods: A Natural or a Man-Made Disaster?' Michael Glantz (August 29, 1998)
- LaRouchePub.com - '"God Complex" Helps Bush Deal with Anxiety' issue of Executive Intelligence Review Interview with Dr. Justin Frank (February 4, 2005)
- McLemee.com - 'The Shrink with a God Complex' Ronald Hayman Newsday, (April 22, 2001)
- News-Service.Stanford.edu - 'Did Caligula have a God complex? Stanford, Oxford archaeologists find evidence that depraved tyrant annexed sacred temple', John Sanford (September 10, 2003)