ego trip

A display of self-importance, a vehicle for self-satisfaction: for example, “These annual art shows of hers are simply an ego trip; she has no talent whatsoever.” This pejorative term dates from the second half of the 1900s. It brands someone as an egotist, which Ambrose Bierce defined as “A person of low taste, more interested in himself than in me” (The Devil’s Dictionary, 1911).