The Grandiose Character, Primary Type

[Sobbing] I've always been a spoiled brat and been able to do whatever I wanted to do. Now I'm in an adult world and can't handle adult situations—because I never had to when I was growing up. I'm trying to teach my children discipline and how can I when I never had discipline when I was growing up. I feel so immature and like a baby. I'd like to grow up. But how can a 28-year-old grow up overnight.

The concept of the grandiose character, primary type, has been “around” for a long time, at least by implication, but it has not been formally introduced and elucidated. What has been introduced and elucidated, although under several names, is the grandiose character, reactive type. The grandiose character, reactive type, is someone who utilizes primary grandiosity for defensive purposes. But this definition quickly returns us to consideration of primary grandiosity. Moreover, the question arises as to whether primary grandiosity and primary narcissism are not one and the same. The answer is that they are not one and the same, and the distinction between them will be taken up in the next section on definitions. It is clear from the foregoing that primary grandiosity needs to be formalized and studied. The purpose of this article is to formally introduce the grandiose character, primary type, to elucidate its properties and its formative object relations, to demonstrate its basal relationship to other diagnostic entities, and to follow the course of its treatment.