The Great Megalomaniac

Adolf Hitler, the chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945,the man responsible for World War II and the Holocaust, is the textbook definition of a megalomaniac. While at the age of eight Hitler had father issues as his father, Alois, wanted his son to follow his footsteps in working at a customs office. Hitler developed German Nationals ideas at a young age. He expressed loyalty only to Germany despising the declining Habsburg monarchy and its rule over in ethnically variegated Empire. Although technically Austrian Hitler voluntarily enlisted in the Bavarian Army at the outbreak of World War 1. So major battles he was a part of was the first battle of Ypres, the battle of the Somme in the battle of passchendaele. After World War 1, Hitler join the DAP, later known as the National Socialist German Workers Party (Nazi party). He quickly rose through the ranks of the party eventually becoming its leader. And the rest is history. He was power hungry, believe to be omnipotent and had an inflated self-esteem. Now, I could say that a character from The Great Gatsby it's similar to Hitler,but it would look like Hitler was trying to be like one of the characters from the book, as this book came out in 1925,8 years before he became Chancellor. Today I would like to talk about how one of two likely characters from the book would be classified as a megalomaniac, by their extreme rudeness, they're superiority complex and their hunger for power.

But before we talk about who the megalomaniac is, we must first understand what a megalomaniac is. As defined in Sigmund Freud's 1914 paper titled megalomaniac, and his psychoanalytic theory, megalomania is a psychopathological condition characterized by delusional fantasies of power, reverence, omnipotence, and by inflated self-esteem. Technically the disorder is called narcissistic personality disorder,but the first use of megalomania was used and popularised by Heinz kohut in 1968.Examples would be Kim Jong un Saddam Hussein Donald Trump in Alexander the Great.

So out of all the characters in the book, the two most prominent candidates would be Jay Gatsby and Tom Buchanan. And while I must confess that Gatsby is definitely power hungry, feels invincible, and will stop at nothing to get what he wants, there's a slight difference between Gatsby and Tom that completely stops Gatsby from being a megalomaniac. And that is, that he’s charming. A very subtle difference but a difference nonetheless. And you may be thinking how is Tom not Charming he's able to get tons of lovers to love him but here's the problem he's not inherently Charming he uses his wealth as a substitute for charm, exactly something a megalomaniac would do. As said by Bertrand Russell, I quote”the megalomaniac differs from the Narcissist by the fact that he wishes to be powerful rather than charming, and seeks to be feared rather than loved. To this type belongs many lunatics and most of the great men in history.” And this perfectly fits the bill for Tom Buchanan. Ramani Durvasula,Ph.d had to say this about Tom Buchanan “so much of the mythology, film, and television in our culture is peppered by these Larger than Life megalomaniac impresarios….Tom Buchanan…. They're fun to watch, not so fun to live with.”

To start, Tom is extremely rude, and it doesn't matter who he's talking to, even Daisy,while in front of guests. During the dinner party at Tom and Daisy's, Daisy tells Nick about the books that Tom reads. “ He reads deep books with long words in them. What was the word we-’ ‘well these books are all scientific’” (p.13). even though women weren't as respected back then, it was still uncommon, especially