"He's not feeling well". What's wrong? "He suffers from a need to be praised but he's getting none of it" . Incredible! All the world is celebrating him and pampering him and he is on everybody's lips. "Well, yes, but he has a problem hearing praise. When a friend praises him it sounds to him as if the friend praised himself; when an enemy praises him, it sounds to him as if the enemy wanted to be praised for it; when, finally, someone else praises him - and there aren't many of these as he is so well known - his is offended because they neither want him for a friend nor for an enemy and he says: what do I care for those self-righteous poseurs!"