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Egopathy (noun):
The condition or mindset characterized by an excessive, self-centered belief in one’s ability to understand and interpret the thoughts, feelings, and motivations of others. An egopath’s egopathy is marked by a persistent distortion of others’ intentions through the lens of their own biases, insecurities, or desires, often leading to misjudgments and misunderstandings. This condition reflects a lack of genuine empathy, replacing it with self-serving projections.
The influencer’s egopathy led her to mistake projection for perception, confidently explaining motives she had no way of knowing.
Egopathy by Logomancer78 July 7, 2026
Related Words
A self-focused person who tends to commit one of four egopathic behaviors: 1. moving aggressively against someone, physically or verbally; 2. moving away from someone without a conscience about how hurtful that is; 3. talking maliciously behind a person's back in order to arrange or hasten the victim's pain or demise; 4. presents information with is false, altered or incomplete in order to achieve a narcissistic goal and has no remorse about doing so.
The new boss is an egopath but I think he can do some good for us before the board votes him out.
egopath by Cedric S Wood March 22, 2017
A person whose unresolved developmental issues from his/her childhood trigger them to become hyperjudgmental and, without a conscience, move against others in a hostile manner, causing them pain.
Man, Bob is such an egopath. He started yelling at that guy right in front of his girlfriend and he didn't even care. Now he refuses to apologize.
egopath by drcedwood April 25, 2008
Someone who thinks about himself first, has a thin skin, and will promise retribution if slighted or crossed. Finds it difficult to care about anyone's feelings, their problems, and their point of view. After he refused to see it from my point of view and just kept defending his version of the details of the conflict with no insight or compassion for how much it hurt me, I realized he must be an egopath.
After he refused to see it from my point of view and just kept defending his version of the details of the conflict with no insight or compassion for how much it hurt me, I realized he must be an egopath.
Egopath by Cedric S Wood October 26, 2016
Egopathy is more socially acceptable than psychopathy, as self-interest is encouraged and praised in countries where liberal capitalism is the central economic system...but it is certainly not limited only to these types of systems.

It is a general condition of human beings.

On the "pure-self-interest --group-solidarity/altruism" scale Egopaths skew strongly to egocentrism and self-interest;
I didn't think that the DSM definition of Narcissistic Personality Disorders quite fits the bill and this apparently widespread phenomenon needed a new category: definitely under the DSM Cluster B Group (Anitsocial-Borderline-Histrionic-Narcissistic), but with a more social-/group-mentality component to it.

The term "egopath" popped into my head one morning, but discovered it already had a definition.

There is in my definition the whole aspect of wanting to control and defend, however one has defined it, one's "integrity" -- bodily, cognitive, spiritual, destiny related -- against forces encroaching on, pushing for this integrity's demise, disintegration.

We are all on this continuum, but egopaths tend to be more cowardly, fearful, self-interested and self-preserving.
N.B. Egopathy seems to be a) widespread and b) quite socially acceptable in many countries.

For example, in German-speaking Switzerland, they say, "Geiz ist Geil!".

Translated: "Greediness is Great/Cool!"
1) During the Covid pandemic, my best-friend turned out to be a total egopath, not wanting to even visit us despite our double-vaccination and social-distancing, for fear of her getting it herself or somehow losing her sense of smell.

2) They were such egopaths during the pandemic that they flew to a vacation in Croatia by plane, but then drove back in a mini-bus accross the Italian border to avoid the stringencies of the controls at their home airport.
Egopath by Pen-Dragon December 15, 2021
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