Here is how I see the world and others. The question is: how different is it for others to experience the social interactions:

When I first meet someone I usually try to gently take over as the dominant one. The reasons I do is to quickly test the person and whether he or she is useful or useless. Also in almost any conversation I know that Im simply smarter so obviously I should lead the conversation. I know only 2 people who I genuinely think are on my level.

If the person is found to be useless then I will limit my interactions with her or him to zero or nearly zero.

If the person shows the potential to be useful (for example he has a business with an interesting product that I may help him sell for a %, a cop who may share information or its that rare someone who is able to maintain a high level conversation) then I will put on the mask of an interesting guy who the person should communicate with for mutual benefit. For example towards the businessman Id be playing the role of a great salesman with a vision and a natural talent in marketing "which can be used for mutual benefit", towards the cop I will show impressive knowledge of the stock exchange and so on.

Either way: with useful people I catch their minds and show my value.

As a result I have about 20 close buddies of both genders. New people come in (several a year) while some old who have become useless are discarded.

Im 41 and I live alone. There were about 10-12 girls who were into me during my life, I mean to the point of being ready to marry me. Yet none of them was what I truly wanted. Most of them got traumatised to a certain degree by how our relationships had ended. Right now Im single and my interest in women is declining, although I enjoy charming ladies here and there, but just for fun and to enjoy their frustrations. Oh yes I also used to torment girls as I was younger. To give them lots of hope only to ghost them later was my main trait. Sometimes I would come back to them and all of them would always welcome me back. But Id betray them again.

I visited a therapist to discuss my life 4-5 years ago, but she didnt really like talking to me so there was no second meeting.

So am I normal or not?