Did you ever have a friend who was an expert in EVERYTHING all the time, no matter how obscure the subject? Whatever you mention to them they always have a rejoinder like,”Oh, yes, I read several books about that years ago.”
Or
“I actually took a course on that in college.”
Or
“I actually TAUGHT a course on that in college.”
Or
“Yes, I had an affair with Professor Crumbley who’s the leading expert on that and we discussed it many times while we were having sex in the most IMAGINATIVE positions.”
Bring up anything – quarks, inflation, ancient Roman gods, the cotton content in Victoria Secrets thongs – they already know all about it and also manage to convey that you are somewhat intellectually deficient for just finding out about what they’ve known for years.
In my original definition for the Nine of Cups I wrote this:
“This card indicates an individual who is rather smug and self satisfied. He is very well pleased with his position in the world and doesn’t mind telling you about how great he’s doing. There is a warning against going too far and appearing to be arrogant.”
On an intellectual level, that’s an expert.
I’ve had several of those people in my life lately and started to think of them as having a personality disorder that I refer to as, “expert syndrome.” Just for grins I ran it through the search engines and found that a few other people have noticed it, too.
Having a conversation with someone who has expert syndrome can be extremely frustrating. I admit that I’m an idea junkie: I have a high degree of intellectual curiosity and I get excited when I discover a new concept or explore a new subject. I look forward to discussing them with other people.
And then I run into an expert.
“Oh . . . yawn . . . is THAT what you’re excited about? Really? Yes, I explored all of that quite some time ago . . .”
They literally can’t hear you because their brains are already stuffed with their own opinions and self-importance. That’s the frustrating part.
That’s also the part that’s very sad: they literally can’t hear you. At some point in their lives they adopted the intellectual posture that they are smarter and know better than anyone else, so why should they listen to anyone else?
Psychologists refer to it as, “the Dunning–Kruger effect,” and it’s an illusory perception that you are intellectually superior to, well, just about everyone. It’s not an over-compensation for an inferiority complex as you might think and, oddly, it afflicts both people who are extremely bright and people who are dumb as stumps.
The bottom line on it is that the second they adopted that posture, they stopped growing intellectually or spiritually. They can’t take in anything new if they’re convinced that they already know it.
The Nine of Cups certainly represents smugness and self-satisfaction. It also represents the kind of energy stasis that we see in expert syndrome. There’s no growth, no expansion, no seeking out what’s new or different. And that’s a very sad place to be.
“Just the Tarot,” by Dan Adair, a book of basic Tarot definitions available on Amazon.com.
Just the Tarot 