Superiority Complex

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great thread!

i also got this feeling, and i think its pretty common for aspies as we excell at some logical stuff but fail greatly by other areas, and its pretty much a defense mechansim of our brain. Later we learn that you can't compare things and people in this way, because its comparing two completely different things, own strenghts with other's weaknesses.

Aspies seem to base their superiority feeling often on their higher moral standards compared to others, or their above-average intelligence. Intelligence is rather complex and relative, so having a superiority feeling there is pretty without good reason, and no good. And once in a while then you meet someone who is also superior in intelligence, and then this makes you feel worthless too, then you realize perhaps that intelligence might not be everything.

So far we discusses alot about superiority in general, but not about superiority due to higher moral standards. However, and i think this was the real question of the OP, the question is if adhering to higher moral standards makes someone a better person. I think it does, but it only makes oneself a better person. If i do something ethically correct, then i am a better person that that one that i would be if i did otherwise.

However, though it made me myself a better person, you probably may not compare your better choice with a respectively similar bad choice of another one, as everthing elsething else is different (again).

I think there is some philosophical question concerned in here: If there is no free will, and you do what you do because you do so, then feeling of superiority is also not justified, elsewise it might be.

thanks
anton

This is an interesting topic. When I was younger I used to have a bit of a superiority complex, but I've mellowed as I've got older and realised that other people can have points of view on things as well. I'm usually right, but I'm not always right.

I think it is a theory of mind issue to a certain extent. If you can see something so clearly and it makes perfect sense to you, it can be hard to understand why someone else would take a different view. You can fight to the death and try and prove that you are right, never wavering in your faith in your own perspective, but sometimes it is easier to be humble and allow someone else to have their say and express their view, even if you feel thoroughly and completely that they are wrong.

Considering that you are above homeless drug addicts, serial killers, child abusers, rapists, or people sitting in seats of power smiling as the poor suffer and die, you are doing nothing wrong. Given the quota of what IS wrong in these United States especially in this day and age, you ARE above average. If people are insulted by truth, don't even acknowledge it. Some people just have higher moral followings and you are an example for anyone that should seek to do right.

I spent much of my life feeling quite superior to others - even got a credential or two to help rationalize that belief.

Then life "blessed" me with a reality check. It took me a few years to recover from that.

Now I find that I am much happier when I can remember that, sooner or later, getting into a one-up / one-down mindset usually results in my experiencing negative emotions of one sort or another. I do better when I allow myself to remember that, ultimately, I am just another bozo on the bus.

Just my experience.

I agree. In life you play the cards that you have been dealt, some of us are luckier than others. But, it all depends on your perspective and what you value about humanity. Do you philosophise that your value system is beyond improvement? Do you consider that we grow and change throughout life? Do you dismiss values, attributes and other forms of intelligence that you do not possess/rate yourself? You were given a wonderful brain, capable of many things. Be secure in that fact and be mindful of the different wonderful attributes that others have to offer.

Is the OP still around? Are you OK?

Superior to what or whom?

There are people to whom I am superior in playing tennis, poker, or knowledge of electronics. There are people to whom I am inferior in those same ares. There are those with whom I am so closely matched, that any measurement could go one way or the other on any particular day.

This process of measurement gets even more complicated when you consider various things that can be measure applied in different situations. For example, most people would consider being tall an advantage (superiority). However, there are not many tall old people so it might not be an advantage in regards to longevity.

As a Christian I find that we are not to think more highly of ourselves than we ought. If we see ourselves in truth, we do not have the problems that those who have high or low self-esteem have.