People feel the need to be “special”. Even people who don’t think they are better than others have some way of identifying themselves as being special, even if

People feel the need to be “special”. Even people who don’t think they are better than others have some way of identifying themselves as being special, even if that’s just feeling especially unlucky or downtrodden. “My suffering is unique” is not really different in its search for uniqueness than “my gifts are unique”. Even people who are aware that specialness is mostly an illusion seem to feel proud of that awareness, because it makes them special. All of this is to say that you are correct.