Although they may sound similar, and even their concepts may be similar, egotism and selfishness are not the same. Egotistic people are defined as those who give themselves excessive importance, hence this term comes from the word ‘ego’. What both words have in common is that these two types of people tend to put their desires above those of others, in order to obtain a benefit, regardless of who it is. But the nuance that exists between the two is that egotists also have an uncontrollable need to talk about themselves or put themselves in the spotlight as protagonists.
Egotists consider that their value is greater than the rest, therefore, their needs are also more important. And that leads them to present an evident lack of empathy. In fact, psychologist María Vélez explains that egotism represents a very distinctive characteristic of type B personality disorders, such as narcissistic and histrionic. In addition, they have a series of very particular features.
Identifying an egotistic person is not a very complicated task, especially when compared to other types of cases. This is because egotists have particularities in their personality that make them easier to differentiate, as psychologist María Vélez points out.
