Essay: On Leading the Cheers for No.1

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Nobody need suppose that a bit of windy conceit is going to add up to self-destruction. Still, everybody knows at heart that boasting usually signals some pathetic private weaknesses. Psychology has never been mystified by braggadocio. Says Associate Director John Schimel of the William A. White Institute of Psychiatry: "It is a way of denying some form of insecurity." The rule is simple: the louder and more prolonged the bragging, the more profound and painful the secret doubts and distances that are being masked. Given this pattern, the self-glorifier deserves less than applause and more than mockery. Pity is perhaps the appropriate response.

—By Frank Trippett