What makes an Egotist? Why do Egotists act the Way they Do? What causes Egotism? (An Analysis Including Physiological Implications)

Yet  another huge topic that many so willingly are enticed by, oh the mind of an egotist. 

A mind certainly perpetuated by the 'cultural conditioning' and made tangible by it's re-occurrence.

Yet here we are, on a mission to explore the 'why' and the 'how'. I will say this before beginning, the human mind is beyond fascinating...and exploring the epitome of extreme personalities is even more rewarding. 

To add value to the mission today - I'm going to also explore the PHYSIOLOGICAL IMPLICATIONS of egotism and narcissism. That is, the chemical patterns , causes or consistencies that relate to this personality trait. Of course, genetics, chemicals or what not DO NOT determine the rise or initiating of the egotist ...

They merely influence 'presets' of arousal and specific behavioral traits in terms of their 'tuning'. Much of which is external , physical, or just perhaps leveling the degree of the 'imposing' factor..or perhaps to a degree - the inquiries of objective oriented thinking..

Egotism being a personality trait, is a very sticky one...so let's start with this.

Ego Tism starts with the flare of self-reinforcement, driven by a sort of resilience in said individual. However, the resilience is not kind-hearted, and is a medium, one that stretches from the left to the right, but barely stays in the middle...nor neutral.
In other words, egotism is a sort of unmeditated, or at least emotionally driven willpower. Egotism is branched out to become a defense in the weak, or an addition to the powerful psychology of the ruler. 

Egotism does not discriminate to it's holder, both weak and seemingly strong people can hold it, but the edginess of being on edge often facilitates it...or it could be the person who becomes such is more or less, incontent with the level of excitement around them.

egotism becomes unbridled by resentment and reinforced by displacement...

alternatively.

Egotism is holstered by Wisdom, but verified by objectification. 

Egotism is, in it's finest sense, a trait adapted by our culture; fed and prompted by attention to detail. Specifically, in effort to seek what we find worthy to to obtain, egotism is often arisen then crazed by a lack of serenity in our hearts and minds.

Egotism often occurs AFTER we obtain though, because we overthink the struggle that was encountered on our way to obtain, and then we hold on to the irritations made mid-path, and so afterwards - our FEAR is losing what we have obtained - or our fear  is of decreasing in capacity in response to a potential stressor - thus fear evokes egotism to an extent.

But egotism is a persistent trait, because we decide our values, our ideologies, we decide that everyone can be ignorant, and everyone can be opposing to our way of life ...egotism at times, can be a self-initiated insurance policy, a type of psychological protection against distress...even if there is no danger in range...because we hold on to this reinforcing 'rush' - often whether in stress or not, because inside...the egotist actually desires to be, from a certain point of view, on edge. 

Egotism if often parallel to or coicnciding with the 'relentless' mindset/trait - AKA "I will never back down, I won't stop until I get what I want" ....thus egotism is also reinforced by the knowledge that there are other egotists..and sometimes is realistic enough to where it seems both fashionable and warranted. 

However, egotism rarely provides balance...and though there may times for what we call "bridged egotism" - in other words, becoming temporarily semi-egotistic in order to protect the mind or one's own reputation against damage, the actual personality trait of egotism as in the egotist..is more , permanent...in many cases.

Egotists rarely let go - because of their '12 points of reinforcement' - which is a sort of psyche trick - which basically is approximately 6 psychological justifications for being so , either direct or subconscious, scripted or remembered, and other 6 being situation examplification justifications..where remembers 6 situations that their egotism perceivably got them through, or that reinforces the other 6 reasons in the paradigm..now this number is not conceivable for everyone, but it is often about right...not all justifications are outwardly relevant..and certainly not noticeable to those exposed to the egotist...but egotists will always reinforce themselves by perpetually reiterating to themselves the reasons they must be so.

so much results in what we call "self-conditioning", which has a track record for being very similar to military conditioning in terms of how significant the self-conditioned mind can be...basically unremovable/irreversible.

ARE ALL EGOTISTS forvever going to be so?

No, not necessarily, but it must be the person in questions decision to change...a lot won't, some will.

Is egotism genetic ?

No, egotism may have some initial rooting in terms of how quickly it gets fine tuned in some technically genetic factors..but genes do not determine the psyche, they just influence spike amplitude of neurons so to speak, and perhaps play a role in outcome adaptation to an extent..but egotism dependent on genetic qualities and the physioogical implications to not extend based on solely genetic basis. 

There are of course indices, that is , lists of examples and correlations that may draw in physiological factors  or make conclusions on such.

For example, one could argue that the frontal cortex is somewhat defective in narcissistic, egodriven individuals...one could argue overfiring or underfiring, respective to brain region specificity .

There is some evidence that somewhat similar to violent criminals, that narcissists and / or egotists tend to have significant brain noradrenaline discontentment or strange utilization...in other words, not low or high but noradrenaline that follows an abnormal pattern of firing consistent with behavioral changes...not to the extent of bipolar - but in some cases being immediately stabilized by an abnormal neural current. In other words, noradrenaline in narcissistic personalities tends to be directly programmed into the willpower, but yet never going to specifically over-fire in terms of peripheral effects , and yet absolutely maintaining a strange overexpression in certain, but not all brain regions. 

It's also possible , and evidenced in some situations, that egomania is consistent with reduced brain noradrenaline receptors , specifically the beta-2-adrenergic receptors or in some cases , the alpha-receptor pathway is overactive..but a much more plausible hypothesis is that egodriven individuals maintain either DECREASED norepinephrine transporters, or more commonly, INCREASED norepinephrine transporters...similar to or opposite to ADHD, depending on the paradigm in mention....the increased NET activity in an ego-driven brain results in noradrenaline being quickly used up and voided from the synapse, which results in a constant or near constant need to re-obtain the rush, and so the person may appear bipolar due to noradrenaline inconsistency and being quickly removed from utilization..in the decreased NET case, this accounts for noradrenaline being persistently elevated and not ridded easily, ironically, these people tend to be MORE stable, less likely to stray from their objective, and more focused overall. 

Although it's certainly possible the opposite can be maintained.

Another interesting biological routine, is dopamine receptors may be distorted in ego driven individuals, this is normally concurrent with lower glutamate levels but not low enough to cause psychosis....the lower glutamate usually accounts for lack of empathy and some of the disinhibition...in terms of dopamine receptors, presynaptic type 2s autoreceptors may be decreased in those with egomania..resulting in an exaggerated dopamine burst firing...because the type 2s ( BUT NOT TYPE 2L) is downregulated in some*, but not all egodriven individuals... it essentially means dopamine has less self-inhibition, thus dopamine no longer can pull the brakes on itself due to less autoreceptor activation....and thus this results in a flood of or increased firing of dopamine..especially in mesoencaphilic or mesocortical brain regions...however...this is not always the case, and in many cases, low dopamine seems to be an issue, especially in those with a more callous phenotype, and blunted affect and general lack of emotions...in this case, we are talking trending towards more or less, the bridge to actual psychopathy - which is an extreme form of behavioral disinhibition and / or dishonest, narcissistic and antisocial behavioral paradigm...  --- low dopamine usually accounts for, similar to but also different from, the glutamate deficiency effects..low dopamine and consistently low dopamine leads to a depression like and / or unempathic , antisocial function.

Less dopamine usually leads to introversion, and lack of emotional bonds...including so even the perceived inability to form emotional bonds..while the adrenaline or glutamate component, often interexchangeable empowers the motivation without inducing emotional affect of integration into motivational aspects..thus other neurotransmitter systems can largely replace dopamine in these terms...

Egotists and sociopaths both may also have dramatically increased 5-HT1A serotonin receptors...this accounts for , in part, the need for persistent rush as well as emotional blunting, often is part of the reason that egotists may experience insomnia and are prone to alcohol use...is due to over-activity at this serotonin receptor, or possibly elevated serotonin in general...serotonin thought to be pro-obsessional and either pro-compulsive or anti-compulsive, depending on the person in question and their personal utilization of serotonin...and this includes transporter levels and etc