Egomania - Can It Be?

[dark]

I am wondering, and I will keep this short, are there any other types that have as much of an ego problem as ENTPs? We do think we are awesome, and we think everyone else does too.

Also I am not sure where this goes but I placed it here. Also this is partly into me trying to fix my own ego problem. I realize I have one, always have, but I know it destroys everything I touch. I can't but help one-upping everyone I met. A couple years ago there was this really cute girl was better than me at math, I fell in "love" instantly, but I had to one-up her which she didn't like haha. Have lost countless friends because of this, had one friend in high school who is very good at fighting video games, I would play for hours trying to get better, I would always loose, I didn't care I was learning from him, eventually I got to the point where he could never beat me and so I ended up showing off to everyone, well we didn't talk for 6 months. He is now married so we don't talk at all now.

There is my reason for wanting to know this (one of them), I am not sure how it will help me but I am curious.

 

[ApostateAbe]

I am thinking your closest competition would be ENTJ.

 

[Deleted member 1424]

This isn't true for the ENTPs I know. They merely spout a lot of self-aggrandized rhetoric, since the majority recognize that acting overconfident is a sure way to get people to follow their lead. However the ones I have observed are very self-critical, even insecure, when not preforming for others. Although I'm certain a least a few of these observations of mine were social ploys by the ENTPs, to get past my skeptical nature. The lot of them are extremely guile, if rather difficult to take seriously in my experience.

In short, I don't think egotism is integral to ENTPs, but there could be a difference in general prevalence among each type. I could see XNXJs carrying a penchant for egotism.

 

[EyeSeeCold]

Step 1: drop acid
Step 2: experience ego death
Step 3: ???
Step 4: Profit!

 

[s0nystyle]

This could just be me speaking, but is there an observable difference in sounding confident and legitimately being confident in oneself? I have a horrible problem with people listening to my advice in my math class because i "sound confident", but in reality i'm just as clueless to the solution as they are (or well not so much clueless, more so too lazy to work out the problems).

 

[gnome]

Step 1: drop acid
Step 2: experience ego death
Step 3: ???
Step 4: Profit!

That will do it. Its hard to find LSD these days though. Its like $10 a hit too usually. I have done acid a handful of times always alone with no trip sitter. A couple of times I fought it and it was a bad trip. One trip I was drinking a ton of jagermeister and beer and just listening to music and I "blacked out". It was ego death. True ego death is bizarre. You don't even remember the trip because your ego is completely gone. There are trips where you realize your ego is plastic and you kind of resist it, but you can indeed have ego death. True ego death though you don't remember ANYTHING. That's the problem with true ego death, you really don't remember it. When I had true ego death on LSD I "came to" and I was on the ground playing with things like a child. I wasn't right for a good 3 days. I remember I'd listen to the radio and music just sounded alien.

It really sucks how you can't put psychedelic experiences into words. But yeah I've done a lot of psychedelics and LSD is indeed the way to experience ego death if you ask me. I'd recommend doing LSD alone with no trip sitter. Mushrooms in my experience are just a way to make self discoveries. They will show you how superficial some things in your life are.

The thing I have to say though is ego death is kind of over-rated when induced by a drug. I think there are monks who put decades of their life into meditation etc to discover ego death and we find it from 5 hits of LSD in 1 day. I'd compare it to say a body builder who worked 10 years to do what he did and there is another guy who used steroids and made as much progress in 1 year.

If you can't find LSD order some 2c-i online its legal. Most compare it to MDMA meets LSD.

 

[Anthile]

Yes, NTs with an underdeveloped F-function have a tendency to not know "when to stop".


On another note, I find it very disconcerting how often people on this forum suggest doing drugs to solve rather mundane problems.

 

[Bird]

Its hard to find LSD these days though.

This definitely depends on
location.

 

[onthewindowstand]

Step 1: drop acid
Step 2: experience ego death
Step 3: ???
Step 4: Profit!

Step 1: Take viagra
step 2: get a boner
step 3: ???
step 4: Profit!

 

[EyeSeeCold]

^ That would only worsen his ego problem, just look what happened to Bob

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cR5fYm4Pcdc

 

[Reluctantly]

On another note, I find it very disconcerting how often people on this forum suggest doing drugs to solve rather mundane problems.

lol.

OP, I think your problem has more to do with enneagram or your motivations than the cognitive functions you identify most with. Contrary to popular belief, some ENTPs aren't very narcissistic.

 

[dark]

"This is Bob..."

I don't think I want to take drugs, they seem pointless, yeah they make me feel good for a while, but I realize it is superficial and is only an escape.

Damn so how would one develop the underdeveloped F-function if that is at all consciously possible? My ego had led me to believe it was well developed, but because it was telling me that I should have known better.

I do talk about myself as though there are more than one of us I think.

My parents have told me since I can remember, which is around 4 that I have always had egomania. I am a narcissist. Almost as bad as the god in the bible, maybe that is why I think he should answer to me someday, haha. May also explain my disregard to authority. Or maybe it doesn't I have no clue, I just know I have an ego problem.

 

[gnome]

"This is Bob..."

I don't think I want to take drugs, they seem pointless, yeah they make me feel good for a while, but I realize it is superficial and is only an escape.

Damn so how would one develop the underdeveloped F-function if that is at all consciously possible? My ego had led me to believe it was well developed, but because it was telling me that I should have known better.

I do talk about myself as though there are more than one of us I think.

My parents have told me since I can remember, which is around 4 that I have always had egomania. I am a narcissist. Almost as bad as the god in the bible, maybe that is why I think he should answer to me someday, haha. May also explain my disregard to authority. Or maybe it doesn't I have no clue, I just know I have an ego problem.

Do a heroic dose of LSD and your mindset will change. That egomania you talk about is actually a defense mechanism. We all know you're a puny human full of insecurities. The only person you're fooling is yourself.

 

[dark]

@ gnome, first off, I am not going to take any drug, secondly I know and understand that I am human, I have flaws, etc etc, so I am not fooling myself. If I had not asked how to fix the ego problem, which I tend to have at times, I would then be fooling myself or something along that order. I understand my biggest problem is my ego, which I think is common among ENTPs which is why I asked.

I can see myself as multiple people wanting different results, which I am sure is the same with most. It is similar to the angle and devil but with more complex characters trying to influence our lives. Everything we do, think, feel etc, is all processed through our functions of thought, within this I believe our minds judge the outcomes of everything and forms motives depending on what we would normally do and what would prove the best for our situation. I am not sure where I am going with this.

There is part of me that wants to help others, to be selfless, but there is also the part that wants to just do what I want, to be selfish. Both seem to have conflicting egos of the other sort.

Also I am not sure I want to experience ego death, I like my ego, it helps to keep things like depression out. It is not an illusion, but a constructive form that helps keep homeostasis within. But as with all things, to much becomes a problem and begins to destroy itself, because it becomes anti-homeostatic.

Maybe that is what depressed people need, an ego. I think it makes one feel good about their selves. Makes them feel needed or wanted even when they aren't. It is a powerful item in the mind, and if you really want to kill something that helps you, I sort of feel sorry for you, but my ego tells me it is your fault so I shouldn't, but of course my other self tells me I am probably wrong, so it tells me to doubt myself but I don't think I will.

Maybe I don't have an ego problem, maybe I just need to realize that the ego isn't bad to have. Isn't it like any other brain function?

But if this is a problem and I am talking myself into a loop, is there a way to dim the ego to a point to not offend others as much etc, without having to take drugs? Also I refuse to consciously censor myself, honestly I am not sure I could.

 

[gnome]

Reality is for people who can't handle drugs.

 

[James Black]

Drugs are for people who can't handle reality.

 

[Bird]

Multiple personalities
are for people who
cannot handle reality.

 

[warryer]

Bird drugs
reality.

(am I doing it right?)

-----

Dark you have to decide if you want your ego or not. Pick your stance and stay with it. If you choose ego and somebody calls you and egomaniac embrace it. If you choose ego death then do that. You can't have both at the same time.

The important thing is that you take the time to think through what each of these stances means to you and pick.

 

[dark]

What exactly is ego death? This seems odd and scary. Also if this is not achievable without drugs I wont attempt. If any of you know anything about the Sioux vision quest, I have been wanting to attempt something as this, but with the current weather it wouldn't be possible, but maybe I could just sit in my room, build a box and sit there for 3 days. That would be hell, but I think I need something like that.

My ego isn't a problem all the time, I benefit from it quite a bit. But I don't know how to control my self sometimes. I get so caught up in things I hurt people, is that an ego problem or something completely different, and how would one go about teaching themselves to control something like that? Would I have to learn to censor myself? If so I am not sure that is possible, but it is worth a try.

 

[EyeSeeCold]

I was just kidding lol.

You have an ego, so what. You'll live.

 

[gnome]

I was just kidding lol.

You have an ego, so what. You'll live.

Btw I knew you were being facetious, I just love to talk about drugs.

 

[a detached retina]

If there's one thing I hate, it's arrogance.
Which is probably why I hate myself so much...

writing as an xNTP

 

[Adymus]

Drugs are for people who can't handle reality.

Reality is overrated.


And if you think Egomania is an ENTP thing, then you are probably mistyping your Ni dom friends.

 

[Meer]

We all know you're a puny human full of insecurities. The only person you're fooling is yourself.

srsly.

 

[yoopernation]

I used to talk in great length, for many hours about the ego. That was back when I lived near a friend who could really understand most of what I was into regarding religion, reality, etc. My favorite simple reference to the ego is an Indian god ( Kali I think ), who is almost always seen with a foot on top of a 'guy' who represents the ego. Read almost any religion, and you will see some reference to the subjugation of the ego.

The following is a story (Indian) I found on the net ...

----------------------------
There was an egoistic king. Once when he went to the forest to hunt, he met a sage. The sage was deeply engrossed with his eyes closed. The king said, ‘I have fought so many great emperors, won over many lands and have annexed them to my kingdom.

My treasury overflows with riches that I have brought from various places. In my palace, there are many wonderful and pretty women from different regions, at my beck and call, ready to please me. Yet I am not happy. When will I become happy?’

The sage, opening his eyes, screamed at him, ‘You will be happy only when I die!’ and went back to meditation. In a rage, the king drew out his sword to kill him, saying, ‘I am a great king! How dare you insult me thus?’

The sage opened his eyes again and said, ‘You fool! I did not mean myself when I said ‘I.’…I meant the ego. When the ego dies, you will be happy!’

Hindu scriptures mention God as ‘Ananda’ meaning ‘joy.’ The word ego could be expanded thus – Edging God Out – that means, moving God or joy away from us is the state of ego.

In Hindu tradition, people break coconuts in front of God to symbolize breaking of ego. While breaking the coconut, we indirectly signify to ourselves, ‘Oh, God! I am breaking my ego – ‘I’, in front of you!’

Just as sweet water comes out of the broken coconut, so does joy emerge when one surrenders his ego.
------------------------------------




I used to think about this stuff a lot when I had people to talk to about it. This whole understanding of ego and it's role in your 'reality' (it's really hard to describe), is really a key to mysticism. Once you start getting outside of viewing things in terms of I or 'me', you can start seeing reality in a whole new (totally new) way. It's aggravating that I can't explain this stuff! I find Joseph Campbell's 'The Power of Myth' to be a good introduction to stuff like this.

The way I view ego ... you need it to develop as a person until you don't need it anymore, and are ready to discard it like an old security blanket. Obviously, there aren't many people at all who approach this level of being.

You want to hear ego??? I remember when I was in my 20s, telling a young woman I knew enough to be comfortable with that I should have lots of kids because the world would be a better place for it. It was said somewhat in jest, but not totally!