Grandiosity

I just came across an amazing book, “Facing the Dragon,” a transcript of a series of lectures the Jungian psychoanalyst Robert Moore gave to students in Chicago, then published in 2003. In it, he discusses the human problem of grandiosity, one we see twisting domestic and global politics, as well as creating difficulties very often closer in our own lives.

The main claim is basically that there is an inflationary energy in the unconscious of all human beings, a deep desire to be and do great things. But this force, or power, or potential that Moore joins others in calling “grandiosity” can be a great blessing or a terrible curse, depending on whether it plays out in our lives unconsciously or is consciously faced with awareness and managed well. What we see in most of the world’s problems is a consequence of it’s not being consciously managed well.

Here’s the basic idea. All human babies are born without any clear sense of limits. We mature as we come to understand our limits and live well within them. But many people rebel against any perceived constraints and seek to magnify themselves and exercise their wills without clear limits.

We all need to feel appreciated and valued. Some of us get this from our parents and friends early in life. Others don’t. For those who don’t, this becomes a problem and a need, an inner “childhood wound” that results in acting out behaviors that often hide low self esteem with, at worst, bloated ego aggression and a parade of arrogance, or at best, with a desperate need to dazzle others, to please and garner success and praise throughout life. The wound can also come, ironically, from the opposite problem of being too coddled and privileged in childhood, as well as from being ignored or criticized. Childhood can prepare us well or badly for understanding and managing grandiosity.

Moore claims that a measure of the inner force of grandiosity is universal, and that it gets expressed in a wide variety of ways that can be very beneficial or tremendously problematic. It often expresses itself in a sense of special uniqueness, of being an exception to the rules, of being above or better than the run of others. And in other cases, it manifests itself in envy and resentment, a tendency toward bitterness, a proclivity to take offense or feel insulted or coerced by others, or else just a significant other, like a parent, spouse, boss or peer.

Many of us, Moore explains, unconsciously deflect our own grandiosity, which we don’t own out of shame or fear or many other reasons, and project it onto some other person or group or community that we convince ourselves is so great that any mere association with him or her or them will reflect our own greatness, but in a way we don’t have to manage. We just go along. This can be seen in certain political movements and circles of the present, where the person acting out his own grandiosity covets, seeks, and welcomes the projections of others onto him, and their egos are caught up in praise of him as what elevates them. It’s also seen in religious communities that loudly condemn everyone else beyond their tight borders.

In his introduction, Moore writes:

<<In the larger social sense, unconscious and uncontrolled grandiosity all too often leads well-intentioned groups into a malignant, pathological tribalism that wreaks havoc on their neighbors and threatens the rest of the world.>>

This sounds prescient, to say the least. At a later stage we get:

<<To summarize, there is a great dragon of grandiosity within us, and unconsciousness of that fact creates a very real enemy within. It is a human war and a real Armageddon, not against other humans, but against being swallowed by the great dragon of unconscious grandiosity. Our war is against the pathological infantile grandiosity that seeks to destroy the human species.>> (134)

The word ‘seeks’ here should of course not be understood as a purposeful, intentional thing, but as poetically expressing an unintended consequence if things aren’t done right. And yet, if we read Moore loosely, we can understand the personifications as he continues:

<<Our grounded and creaturely human egos are not the enemy. The enemy is that unconscious grandiosity within us that constantly tries to persuade us to forget our limits and forget that we need help, to forget that we need others, or as the Native Americans are able to say, to forget that we are all related and all of one family.>>

< The bad news is that every single person has this dragon within …>>

And on page 144:

<< I love to teach comparative psychotherapy, because all therapists are trying to help you do that same type of thing, to be more realistic, to be less totalistic in your claims, to do less exaggerating, to do fewer behaviors based on some sense of entitlement or special exemptions, and to help the individual to face limitations.>>

<<We need to realize that the human propensity to grandiosity is universal.>>

<<We need to understand the universality of this propensity to unregulated grandiosity. I never met anyone who did not have a struggle with it. I have met a lot of people who didn’t think they did.>>

Then on page 200:

<<Remaining unconscious of the dragon’s presence would insure that we spend most off not all of our waking hours experiencing what Paul Tillich called “existential estrangement” from our best, optimum potential selves.>>

<<We must always begin with the assumption that the dragon of grandiosity is present and awake within us. The question is not, “Is there any grandiosity in me?” but “Where are my grandiose energies manifesting without my being aware of them?>>

I just posted on the concept of enough, so I should conclude that this is enough. An important issue for our time. For the book, go HERE .