Why “egomania” is a great word
An obsessive preoccupation with oneself, characterized by excessive vanity and a consumptive sense of personal grandeur. From ego- (from Latin ego, "I, self") + -mania (from Greek mania, "madness, frenzy"), first recorded in English use in 1825. Unlike "egoism," which can denote a cool philosophy of self-interest, or "narcissism," which often implies a fragile, reflected self-image, egomania is a loud and delusional frenzy of the self. It is the monologue that brooks no interruption, the signature scrawled so large it obliterates the text, and the thunderous silence while awaiting a turn to speak—a performance of the self so total it becomes a cage, a lonely kingdom where the sole subject and sole audience are the same.