Grandiosity,Neoliberalism, and Neoconservatism

In this article, I argue that grandiosity, on both the individual and the collective level, is in part a response to dramatic cultural changes, particularly the solidification of neoliberalism in the ‘80s and ‘90s, which led to vast inequalities in income and to the increasing privatization of formerly public goods and services. Along with the income inequalities that have produced a lot of parental anxiety about their and their children’s class status, neoliberal practices have encouraged a denial of dependence and interdependence. This, in turn, has produced fragile self-states marked by, for example, oscillations between grandiosity and self-deprecation. The article looks first at the kinds of problematic relational dynamics that ensue from class inequalities and then goes on to explore connections between neoliberalism, neoconservatism, and narcissistic self-states. I suggest that manifestations of omnipotent grandiosity on both the individual and large-group levels are not reassertions of early states but, rather, are breakdown products of large-group and small-group relational failures.