The Boy Who Would Be King

WHAT THE RISE OF DONALD TRUMP HAS SHOWN US IS THE MAGICAL POWER a massively inflated ego has to attract “wounded” people who fear loss and diminishment, that is, people who have developed the so-called “victim mentality.” Inflation, however, is not enough by itself to explain the magical power of the attraction. An unconscious archetypal …

The Trouble with Following “the Leader”

THE PROBLEM IS PROJECTION — AND THE DARK SHADOWS IT CASTS. For anyone to ascend to the heights of popular power in a society, he (or, rarely, she) must provide an adequate “hook” on which the mass of people can hang their archetypal projections. The primary archetypal image at play here is the Sovereign. Like …

Looking Past “Me-or-You” and “Us-or-Them”

A CORE CHRISTIAN TRADITION ASKS US TO RESOLVE A FUNDAMENTAL TENSION in human life. When you read the biblical texts in which it appears, however, you might not feel the full force of the tension. The core tradition I’m talking about is the so-called second great commandment: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Mk. …