Comparison
Comparison is the habit of constantly measuring oneself against other people, often on the basis of very little real information or a single isolated observation, leading the person to feel either superior or inferior depending on how the comparison happens to fall.
Illustration
Scrolling through a former classmate's holiday photos, a man immediately feels his own life is inadequate by comparison, despite knowing almost nothing about what that classmate's life actually involves day to day beyond the handful of curated images in front of him.
References
- Casey, P. & Kelly, B. (2019). Fish's Clinical Psychopathology, 4th ed. Appendix II, 'Defences and Distortions'.