Otherwise, at some point he's going to have to do more than hang around, look cute, and do occasional odd jobs for free. I saw no evidence from the article that he's prepared for that aspect of adult life. It doesn't seem like his parents are even trying to prepare him.
I think the parents have done a pretty good job.
My official diagnosis is that he is a Factor 1 psychopath exhibiting symptoms of Narcissistic Personality Disorder for positive effect according to PCL-R Model of psychopathy.
Alex behaviour demonstrates a strong correlation with the known symptoms of psycopathy including: glib and superficial charm, grandiosity, need for stimulation, pathological lying, conning and manipulating, lack of remorse, callousness, poor behavioral controls, impulsivity, irresponsibility, failure to accept responsibility for one's own actions.
I recommend that he eats humble pie three times a day before he gets his just desserts, after all you are what you eat.
I'm off to pop a few jealously tablets.
That said, I agree that this kid needs a dose of humility, and I'm sure he's going to get it in spades over the next few years.
Can't find a link at the moment; maybe someone else has read about it?
One of its major symptoms is also mental retardation; while the article didn't delve too much into that sector, not mentioning mental retardation is a bit of a glaring omission.
Rather, what I'd take away (from a cursory level, anyways) is not his glibness and glaringly ostentatious demeanor-- it's his glibness and glaringly ostenation demeanor <em>at such a young age</em>.
Rarely would we encounter such a young individual with such brazen behavior that he feels not that he's merely <em>able</em> to operate with an adult's social capabilities, but that he's in fact <em>entitled</em> to operate in such capacities.
While I realize that this boldness and brashness can be jealously misconstrued as simple pomp... this kid has true (thought perhaps not intellectual) genius and is certainly nothing akin to anything as depraved as, say, a Paris Hilton.
