Napoléon complex

English

Noun

Napoléon complex (plural not attested)

1. Alternative spelling of Napoleon complex.
   • 1999, Harriet Welty Rochefort, French Toast: An American in Paris Celebrates the Maddening Mysteries of the French, New York, N.Y.: Thomas Dunne Books, →ISBN, page 63:

     The quality of the driving seems to be inversely proportional to the size of the car, the worst drivers being in the smallest cars, the Renault 5s and the Peugeot 205s. Do French cars also have a Napoléon complex?

     The 1st edition (1997) has “Napoleon complex”.

   • 2003, Adrian Nicole LeBlanc, Random Family: Love, Drugs, Trouble, and Coming of Age in the Bronx, Scribner, →ISBN, page 83:

     Said Rocco, “He had that Napoléon complex, because he was short.”

   • 2005, Shane L. Windmeyer, editor, Brotherhood: Gay Life in College Fraternities, Alyson Books, →ISBN, page 12:

     He was a good-looking guy who suffered a bit of a Napoléon complex—he was short in stature but loud.

   • 2005, Harry Hunsicker, Still River: A Lee Henry Oswald Mystery, St. Martin’s Paperbacks, published 2006, →ISBN:

     I left her there, crying softly in the doorway of a home filled with bitter old women, an egotistical, abusive husband, and one musclehead with a Napoléon complex, currently cleaning tomato aspic out of his ears.

   • 2015, Douglas H. Ruben, Behavioral Guide to Personality Disorders (DSM-5), Charles C Thomas, →ISBN, page 188:

     He also teased the shorter men of having a Napoléon complex and teased the women for never wearing make-up.

   • 2015, Brian Freemantle, The Cloud Collector: A Thriller, Thomas Dunne Books, →ISBN, page 5:

     Dodson, who’d actually consulted reference books for the diagnosis, decided Monkton’s behavior was a classic example of a Napoléon complex, the insignificantly small man’s constant need to bully.

   • 2016, Michael Gross, Focus: The Secret, Sexy, Sometimes Sordid World of Fashion Photographers, Atria Paperback, published 2017, →ISBN, pages 188 and 364:

     Then they had sex, and “I realized he wasn’t kidding,” she says, “and therein lies his Napoléon complex. It was so small that to this day, I’ve never again encountered anything like it. […]” […] In another interview, Terry [Richardson] admitted, “I inherited all the schizophrenia, depression, anxieties, and a Napoléon complex, even though we’re both six feet tall.”

   • 2016, Murray S. Y. Bessette, “The Philosophic Background of Alexandre Kojève’s “Tyranny and Wisdom””, in Timothy W. Burns, Bryan-Paul Frost, editors, Philosophy, History, and Tyranny: Reexamining the Debate between Leo Strauss and Alexandre Kojève, SUNY Press, →ISBN, page 65:

     Slaves are ‘reasonable’ in their assessments of relative capacities and would diagnose such a masterly type as suffering from a Napoléon complex. […] However, it is also possible that, like the individual who from the slavish perspective ‘suffers’ from a Napoléon complex, the Master fails to recognize the ‘reasonable’ limits of the particular circumstances.

   • 2016, Celia Bonaduce, Slim Pickins’ in Fat Chance, Texas, Lyrical Press, →ISBN, page 157:

     “I think Elvis has a Napoléon complex.” “No, he doesn’t,” Pappy said. “He does. He won’t behave. He does whatever gets into his head. He comes in when he wants, he goes out when he wants, eats when he wants.”

   • 2016, Glen Weldon, The Caped Crusade: Batman and the Rise of Nerd Culture, Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, published 2017, page 25:

     In November 1939’s Detective Comics #33, Batman tackles the Dirigible of Doom—an airship armed with a death ray and piloted by a madman with a Napoléon complex.

   • 2018, Kristin von Kreisler, A Healing Justice, Kensington Books, →ISBN:

     “So what’s Franz like?” Tom asked. “A shrimp. Napoléon complex. Reactive. […]”

   • 2018, Robert Hilburn, Paul Simon: The Life, Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, published 2019, →ISBN, page 371:

     [Art] Garfunkel returned a year later in an interview with Nigel Farndale of the Sunday Telegraph in England in which he was asked whether Paul [Simon] might have a Napoléon complex; was there a height thing between them?

   • 2018, Delilah Devli, editor, Pirates: A Boys Behaving Badly Anthology #3, Twisted Page Inc, →ISBN:

     “I thought you’d be shorter. Pirates usually have a Napoléon complex.”

   • 2022, Varnadore Vaughn, Bleudark, →ISBN, page 48:

     The Dwarf especially enjoyed getting in close and eviscerating his victims, and he always went over the top. His face showed a millennium of scars endured from getting into the muck with his enemies. It was clinical Napoléon complex behavior.