What is a good word for someone who feels the need to be glorified for going to college and being intelligent. A person who IS indeed intelligent & educated, but for some need he is always talking about things that people do not know about so he can prove/show how smart he is. He wants people to even think of him as one of the smartest men on Earth.
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I'd have to go with ... me ...– David MCommented Sep 26, 2019 at 3:49
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A legend in his own lunchtime ? Note the deliberate use of the male pronoun, it's always a man.– High Performance MarkCommented Oct 26, 2019 at 6:59
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1 Answer
Superiority complex seems to fit this situation.
It is defined as a defense mechanism that is used to offset an underlying inferiority complex. As coined by Alfred Adler:
If a person is a show-off, it is only because he feels inferior because he does not feel strong enough to compete with others on the useful side of life. That is why he stays on the useless side. He is not in harmony with society. It seems to be a trait of human nature that when individuals – both children and adults – feel weak, they want to solve the problems of life in such a way as to obtain personal superiority without any admixture of social interest. A superiority complex is a second phase. It is a compensation for the inferiority [feeling] complex.
