Having my own stage:

The house lights dim. The centre floods come on and behold there stands another! I can not have the centre. I will not play a supporting character for I must have the lead. What shall I do? Oh yes, I know. I shall not storm the beach at Normandy. I shall have it to myself in Greenland where there is no competition. I shall play in "a nearby theater" where I can be the king. There is only room for one king in my domain and I shall be it. In German, the battle may be moved to a "Gegenschauplatz" ... a nearby theater. There the very discouraged person may rather play to an audience of one than support the role of others. Depression makes a useful theatric device to such a persons perception. What can the world expect from one so sad. They will all watch me and expect nothing of me. I can play my little charade and they will be none the wiser and I have their undivided rapt attention. Or perhaps I can be the audience in an imaginary attack as all the self created voices direct their malignant venom against my powerless frame. Then I can be a GREAT HERO in a battle they will not know that I created. (That is the world of psychosis.) This Adler calls the vanity of the neurotic and it is a trick. It excuses the neurotic or psychotic from bringing a benefit to this life. They are very busy after all, in their own private (or not so private) battle to overcome this secondary foe!

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George Neeson M.D.