Hi, Mama, I've read a lot of your posts here, and I'm always happy to read what you have to say. I personally use the word "phony" as the most general term for someone representing himself as something that he clearly is not. He may, as you say, just be fooling himself, or he may be deliberately fooling other people for his own personal gain. So I guess in my mind, the progression goes something like:
Phony > Deluded > Fraud > Exploiter > Predator
I didn't have that last one in my mind clearly until just now, but it's right on the mark.
