Literary notes about egocentric (AI summary)
The term "egocentric" is frequently deployed in literature to depict characters or ideologies marked by an excessive focus on the self, often implying a degree of isolation or moral failing. Authors use the word to criticize an inward-looking, self-serving disposition that can hinder empathy and understanding, as seen when it describes personalities that are selfish and unsociable ([1], [2], [3]). In philosophical and sociological reflections, “egocentric” can denote a limitation of perspective, suggesting that personal biases and self-interest color one’s interpretation of external reality ([4], [5]). At times, the label is applied to individuals whose self-centered attitudes not only affect personal relations but also echo broader cultural or intellectual trends, emphasizing vanity and authoritarian tendencies ([6], [7], [8]).
- It is thus exquisitely egocentric, selfish, personal, and antisocial.
— from Studies in Forensic Psychiatry by Bernard Glueck - It is the lack of any self criticism combined with an abnormal egocentric trend of thought that biases their judgments concerning themselves.
— from Pathology of Lying, Accusation, and Swindling: A Study in Forensic Psychology by Mary Tenney Healy - For they were, despite their scientific powers, too stupid for pity, too insensitive for compassion, and too egocentric for tolerance.
— from The Giants From Outer Space by Robert W. Krepps - 57 The term "egocentric predicament" (cf.
— from Creative Intelligence: Essays in the Pragmatic Attitude by George H. Mead - The discoveries of natural laws led to a new conception of external reality, independent of man's wishes and egocentric theories.
— from The Age of the Reformation by Preserved Smith - Many moral philosophers, those of the Kantian school without exception, labour under the delusion of this same, egocentric view.
— from Morals and the Evolution of Man by Max Simon Nordau - His egotism, or egocentric method, is the fundamental fact about his work.
— from Whitman: A Study by John Burroughs - “It’s nothing but egocentric vanity to consider our form of life as unique among those on the millions of worlds that must exist.”
— from The Blue Star by Fletcher Pratt
