Famous narcissists – Peter Sellers
The famous British comedian Peter Sellers was a womaniser, hypocrite, master manipulator and bully. He was a self-obsessed hypochondriac and megalomaniac who undermined, ill-treated, and betrayed people and then blamed them for his cruelty. He was the most hated man in Hollywood because of his tantrums, treachery, and impossible demands. He was paranoid, always looking for slights, which he then viciously punished. He was so superior he believed that rules only applied to other people. During his time in the Air Force during the Second World War for example, he so recklessly disobeyed regulations and orders that he risked lengthy imprisonment if caught.
Sellers often self-pityingly lamented that he was unable to find a woman who would give him total and unconditional love, devotion, and support, something he was sure all other men managed with ease, as if fate or women in general conspired to deprive him of what he deserved. He wanted a woman who was a mother figure but also young, beautiful, and sexy. His last three wives were young enough to be his daughters yet he expected them to mother him as though he was their child. He demanded the undivided attention and total devotion of each of his four wives and threw temper tantrums if he didn’t get it.
He expected the same sort of devotion from his children. He expected them to praise and idolize him and was enraged when they didn’t. He could sometimes be a fun playmate to his children but he had no patience with their childhood ineptitudes and quickly became bored. His ultimate rejection was to leave his children a mere $2,000 in his will.
How did Peter Sellers get to be so difficult? Egotism ran in Peter’s family. His great grandfather was a famous prize-fighter, a reckless braggart who gained and lost several fortunes and served time in debtor’s prison. His grandmother was a flamboyant, formidable woman who dominated everyone around her including her daughter Peg, Peter’s mother, who inherited her controlling ways.
Peter’s shy and gentle father was no match for his overbearing wife who pushed him into the background so that she became the determining influence in Peter’s life. Peg doted on her son and along with his grandmother and aunt, spoiled him ‘rotten’. She was the quintessential Jewish mother and Peter was her only child, her only adored and dominated son. Peg made her boy into her best friend and constant companion and expected him to be a prodigy. He was indulged and pampered, never told ‘no’ and despite the family’s poverty, always attended private schools. According to relatives, as a child Peter was a spoiled brat, a ‘little horror’ who pushed a housemaid into a fire when she failed to treat him with the respect he considered his due .
Peter Sellers was a hollow, immature boy-man that no amount of money, fame, sex, luxury houses, fast cars, or love could fill. He had no self-control and no external controls were ever imposed upon him to stop his ego running riot.
© Ultimate-self.com 2008. All rights reserved.
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