Are you working in my old job? ... and taking solo personal credit for everyone else's work (he did virtually none). One time was particularly amusing. Scene: employee meeting, micro-company. The other workers mentioned how they were thrilled with one of the changes I'd made, creating faster turn around time and better teamwork. His next sentence? "How can we fix that?" Everyone's eyeballs fell out. You mean, it's working great, how can we make it not work?! Lol, how can you not laugh at that kind of stupidity?

Observation? people who treat others like that are compensating for their own inadequacies. To little avail. It's pretty transparent. He treated everyone like this, actually making it easier not to take personally (though I have a huge problem with that in general). So I made a point of detaching and observing this behavior as some kind of human behavioral experiment. Made it almost amusing.
Yes. Like above, by treating people like this they think it makes them look like a bigshot. (Why on earth do people think that tearing others down will build themselves up?! The eternal question.) Swapping stories, smirks and eyerolls helped share the burden. Another trick I employed? To never ever ask a question of him when I could ask anyone else (who were more skilled anyway). This helped to minimize insulting interaction. (Because otherwise, given a simple direct question, he'd start in as if you didn't know the alphabet, never actually answering it. Or giving an answer designed to set you up for failure.) Or asking preference on two options, would say either is fine. But when you actually did it, it was wrong. Whichever option you'd chosen. Control freak clue #1.

Yes, I did eventually get "fired". In the indirect form of not getting any hours (passive aggressive much?). (It probably didn't help that I had "stolen" one of our biggest artists, when she discoverd working with me produced excellent turn around times. He'd always talked a good story, then never carried through, and they were always late. She saw the light. ) He knew he had no actual case against me, being an excellent worker. (An older job called with a situation, so it all worked out.)The other worker still there at that point lamented my departure, as with OCD tendencies, the place had risen to wildly unprecedented levels of organization and cleanliness.

Thing is, I loved the work itself. Here is something to consider. Yes, he was an ***. But in going for other jobs in the same field, I used his wife (co-owner) as reference. Hehe. She's wonderful and understood the dynamic (He treated her like a moron. It was heartbreaking.) If it comes to it, be sure to look to someone else for a reference.

There are also some good books on dealing with difficult people/bosses. They've got some good ideas. (Wish I could recall atm, even though read a bunch!)

Good luck. It's an ongoing challenge. Keep us posted, ok Can't Stop Crying?