Don Quixote as Moral Narcissist: Implications for Mid-Career Male Ministers

This essay uses the figure of Don Quixote to explore the mid-career crisis experienced by many male ministers. It proposes that Don Quixote is less problematic than Don Juan for ethical reasons, but employs psychoanalytic interpretations to reveal the complexity of his self-structure, focusing especially on his moral narcissism, proneness to paranoia and melancholia, and his fictive personality. While evidence of his disordered mind, these diagnoses also testify to his nobility under trying circumstances. Heinz Kohut's concept of the transformation of narcissism is introduced and implications for the future destiny of Don Quixote are drawn. These implications have relevance to the issue of survival in ministry after the effects of the mid-career crisis have been absorbed. Pastoral Theology at