Yeah, that's a good question. I think those with schizoid tendencies may suffer from this problem. Well, I think your first observation is certainly more reasonable: the borrowed genius is really just a way to allow one to get past one's self-imposed limitations. By pretending to have the abilities we desire, we help facilitate their actualization. Whether or not you're actually borrowing anything from anyone is a matter of interpretation. I think a more rational view is simply that there is the potential for greatness in all of us, and we allow ourselves to tap into it when we realize that it is there in the first place, and one way to do that is by way of the borrowed genius exercise. It's just an exercise in creative imagination, and gives us permission to expand beyond our self-imposed limitations.
