@Teri_Kanefield It might seem strange to quote a musical in this context, but Sondheim’s “Assassins” elucidates this self-aggrandizing psychology better than anything else I can think of. Specifically the lyrics of John Wilkes Booth after he’s murdered Lincoln: “Hunt me down, smear my name,
say I did it for the fame,
What I did was kill the man who killed my country.” The victimhood, the manufactured pathos, the wrong-headed narcissism — its all there.