I remember, I used to follow someone on Instagram who would always post pictures of herself and write captions on it about how beautiful she thinks she is. I know it sounds like perhaps, she was just being humorous but she certainly wasn't. Alright, she's a pageant girl but that's exactly it--shouldn't she be no longer expressing her "beauty" in that loud manner anymore since she has already proven it onstage in front of judges and people with different standards of beauty?
Speaking of being neurotic, this idealized self-image really causes that to happen. One example of that is:
Neurotic pride is an unhealthy expression of pride. It is loud as to protect one's image that is based on unrealistic standards and to assure the proclaimed glory of the self. It is simply flashy as hell but even worse because it is based on a rigid standard of perfection.
Are celebrities like this? SOME of them, yes. We know a lot of celebrities who claim to be gods, kings, queens, etc. that may start off as just a figure of speech but slowly work its way into people's heads and their own as the ideal image. Now that's also why most of them are messed up.
Celebrities either feed themselves or are asked to swallow unrealistic things for them to achieve which of course they may take regardless of its nature because it is disguised as the ultimate key to greatness, glory. Horney believed that such mentality is the main reason why we never have that sense of genuine accomplishment among ourselves-we get summoned by standards and somehow end up neurotic like this.
To give you more ideas about neurotic pride, here are differences between it and the healthy pride:
I would say, this generation cannot be easily labeled as neurotically proud. However, it certainly is one cocky generation. Still, it's just a generalization. Perhaps, this generation's flashiness could be neurotic pride as well, yet we'll never know really know just from their Instagram posts from the beach or the coolest clubs.
