The Superiority Complex

A Sense of Superiority Through the Lenses of Existentialism and Psychoanalysis

I. A sense of superiority is clearly a defensive state of isolation on high ground and inflated narcissism

Objectifying and belittling others forms a vicious cycle with projection: the lower you regard others, the more you objectify them and project onto them; the more you project, the lower you regard them.

One root of projection is blurred psychological boundaries. On the surface, a sense of superiority looks like avoidance and “boundaries,” but in fact the boundaries remain blurred. This is precisely how the ego relates to other egos and ids; it belongs to a broad pattern of personality splitting and dissociation. Disconnected from my own true nature and id, I must be superior to deserve to exist; I cannot exist as an ordinary person.

This deliberate “avoidance” actually affirms the other’s existence and the power and standards of the big Other. For example, someone says they look down on crows and insist on keeping their distance from them, then buys a pile of expensive equipment to observe, monitor, and measure their distance from the birds. This is clearly a form of proximity and entanglement. Hegel’s master–slave dialectic: the master depends on this relationship more than the slave does.

Take petty-bourgeois elitism: people feel superior while also resenting others for failing to strive. If they were truly superior, why would they resent others for failing to strive? An ordinary person looking at children in Africa would not resent them for failing to strive. This is clearly an outward projection of self-attack.

II. A sense of superiority and the big Other, Cthulhu

One early root of a sense of superiority is “conditional love.” A child does not receive the unconditional love they deserve and gropes their way through fear, nothingness, dissociation, and CPTSD—that is, through early existential suffering—until one day they discover “conditional love.” Only when they meet a certain “condition,” especially in terms of “academic performance,” do they receive “attention” and rewards. Moreover, the child senses that this is more than approval from their “parents”: it comes from the big Other, Cthulhu, on whom their “parents” depend and whom they fear. The child can naturally recognize that when their parents demand an answer sheet from them, it is so that the parents can submit an answer sheet to some “being” in the void.

A sense of superiority is a contract signed with the big Other, Cthulhu, through which one obtains the big Other’s “approval.”

III. A sense of superiority and capital

Anything used as a basis for comparison in a sense of superiority must be something in which people can be compared and differ from one another. It rests on differences between people, rather than everyone’s innate wholeness. It is necessarily centered on things, capital, and what is external, rather than on human beings.

One part is capital, including knowledge capital, cognition, and “levels of attainment.” The other is karmic obstructions: believing oneself happier, more joyful, and more elevated than others, while depending on some external thing—including a “level of attainment”—and failing to understand true happiness and joy.

Competition among women and competition among men are the culmination of alienation, competitive comparison, and a sense of superiority.

Under private ownership, differences between people are amplified into vicious competition, involution, and tournaments, and these are used to determine who ranks above or below whom. This would not happen under genuine public ownership.

This is also why the petty and very small bourgeoisie so often attach themselves to chauvinism: chauvinism gives them a cheap sense of superiority and a sense of existence.

IV. Marx-Zhuangzi psychology and a sense of superiority

So-called spiritual practitioners, Marxism enthusiasts, and those who pride themselves on being above worldly concerns often carry the karmic obstructions of superiority. Or it may be precisely these karmic obstructions that draw them toward spiritual practice or an interest in Marxism. Many Marxism enthusiasts believe that they alone are awake, promote enlightenment, and resent others for failing to strive. Many Zhuangzi enthusiasts believe that they alone are unsullied, regard everyone else as vulgar, and withdraw from the world in despondency. The philosopher-king complex.

*Petty-Bourgeois Malaise*: using a sense of superiority to fend off nothingness and a lack of a sense of existence, while in essence objectifying other people and treating them as NPCs. A sense of superiority necessarily precludes compassion and empathy.

Awakening means seeing everyone’s innate wholeness, beyond merely seeing one’s own, and also seeing the lava—the dialectic of karmic obstructions versus true nature. Thus, Marxists inevitably move toward Zhuangzi, and followers of Zhuangzi inevitably move toward Marxism. Only Marxism enthusiasts and Zhuangzi enthusiasts who have worked through the issue of superiority can set out on the path of Marx-Zhuangzi psychology.