There are people who aspire to be something better than they are, These are of three types. One type of people make efforts to reach their goal. The other type of people just wish but make no efforts. The third type of people suffer from the Grandeur Syndrome, distinct from delusions of grandeur, which are due to a psychiatric illness.
We had two such persons in our department. I came to know about them when I came across letters sent to them from others in connection with their work. Both were desirous of being the Head of Department at that time. Unfortunately they could not owing to lesser merit, being lower in seniority list or whatever. They were holding charge of some work areas, and used to get independent correspondence for the same. They fulfilled their wish by sending and receiving letters as Head of Department. It did not change their designations to that of Head of Department, nor their salaries. But they must have got happiness. In due course they went away from the institute for greener pastures. One of them went to a star hospital, and the other to a public institute as a head of the department. The latter was heard to tell around that he was Dean of the institute. The concerned Dean did not hear of it, I suppose. I forgot about their suffering from the Grandeur Syndrome until a sales representative from a leading publishing house came along that day and gave me two books for our library. I was expected to review them. While going through the books, I discovered that one of our syndrome subject had written a chapter in one of the books, and had her designation written as Head of Obstetrics Gynecology Department of my institute.
"This person has never been head of my department" I emailed the publishing house. "She has left the institute and does not belong here any more. How come you have stated that she is Head of the Department? Please withdraw all copies and correct the error before redistributing the book."
"We will look into the matter and check truth of the matter" they wrote after a week. After another week they wrote "we have checked and found that there was an error. We will correct the error in future editions of the book."
That was not as per procedure. SO I wrote back "I suggest you correct the error now" because they were getting advantage of the prestige of our institute under false pretense. "Please let me know if it was your error or the concerned author gave you that information." I needed the information just to confirm that the syndrome continued the affect the said person.
They did not answer that email. I sent them a reminder, and I am yet to receive an answer for it.
