1st Edition
Jungian Reflections On Grandiosity From Destructive Fantasies to Passions and Purpose
In Jungian Reflections on Grandiosity: From Destructive Fantasies to Passions and Purpose, Francesco Belviso presents a dual view of grandiosity as a destructive obsession that, when approached with curiosity and awareness, has the potential of fueling our lives with a sense of purpose, while being a positive force in the world.
Explaining Jungian psychological concepts in an engaging style, the book begins by examining the origins of grandiose fantasies in children, and how grandiosity persists well into adulthood, in our dreams, fantasies, and strivings. Exploring its relation to narcissism and delusions, the book describes how grandiosity can hijack many areas of our lives—as we chase fame, beauty, knowledge, youth, and even morality—often with disastrous consequences. The book’s second half explores how grandiosity can help us identify our passions and callings, ending with a discussion on how to pursue them with integrity and courage. Weaving stories from Greek mythology to Dante’s poetry, from the heroic lives of Rosa Parks to Captain Sully, from fairy tales to our everyday decisions about careers, finances, selfies, and dating, and from the lives and nighttime dreams of his patients and his own, Belviso invites us to explore the larger-than-life aspirations that stir us all.
This book offers ideas and tools to better understand our ambitions, challenging us to come to terms with our limitations and find personally meaningful paths forward. Jungian Reflections on Grandiosity will be essential reading for academics and students of Jungian studies, as well as analytical psychologists and analysts in practice and in training. It will also be of interest to those wishing to explore Jungian ideas and the role of grandiosity in public and private life.
Credits; Acknowledgements; Introduction; Part I: Grandiose Fantasies and Strivings; Chapter 1: What Do We Seek?; Chapter 2: Grandiosity in Children Feeds Self-Esteem and Creativity; Chapter 3: We All Have "Pockets" of Grandiosity; Chapter 4: Puer Type: Grandiosity Unrealized; Chapter 5: Sisyphus Type: Grandiosity in Action; Part II: Everything Can Be Hijacked by Grandiosity; Chapter 6: Stories of Fame, Knowledge, and Money; Chapter 7: Stories of Beauty, Youth, Perfection—and Narcissism; Chapter 8: Stories of Altruism, Morality, Victimhood—and Delusions; Part III: Callings; Chapter 9: Grandiosity as a Calling; Chapter 10: The Opposite of Grandiosity Is Laziness; Chapter 11: Ways to Identify Our Grandiosity and Callings; Part IV: The Courage of Our Insignificance; Chapter 12: The Courage to Abstain; Chapter 13: The Courage to Engage; Chapter 14: Wisdom and the Acceptance of Our Insignificance; Chapter 15: The Goal Is to Find Gold; Index
Biography
Francesco Belviso, PhD, PsyD, is an Italian-born psychologist in private practice in Chicago and a lecturer at The C. G. Jung Center of Evanston. He completed his clinical training (Doctoral Internship and Fellowship) at Northwestern University. In his previous professional life, he obtained a doctorate in economics from Princeton University.
"This is a work of alchemy! Dr. Belviso has transformed our concept of grandiosity by revealing the gold in what we most often think of as a pathological symptom. As he decodes the many guises in which grandiosity may appear, we learn that it can be an important and potent fuel in the search for meaning. Engagingly presented using stories of ordinary and not-so-ordinary people, and accessible to a wide variety of readers."—Robert J. Moretti, PhD, Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, and Supervising Analyst, C.G. Jung Institute of Chicago, USA
