1st Edition
Arrogance Developmental, Cultural, and Clinical Realms
Arrogance as a specific constellation of affect, fantasy, and behavior has received little attention in psychoanalysis. This is striking in light of the enormous amount of literature accumulated on the related phenomenon of narcissism. Rectifying this omission, the book in your hands addresses arrogance from multiple perspectives. Among the vantage points employed are psychoanalysis, evolutionary psychology, cross-cultural anthropology, fiction, as well as clinical work with children and adults. The result is a harmonious gestalt of insight that is bound to enhance the clinician's attunement to the covert anguish of those afflicted with arrogance.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
ABOUT THE EDITORS AND CONTRIBUTORS
INTRODUCTION
PROLOGUE
CHAPTER ONE
The realm of arrogance
Salman Akhtar
PART I: DEVELOPMENTAL REALM
CHAPTER TWO
An evolutionary hypothesis on arrogance
Kathryn Baselice and J. Anderson Thomson, Jr.
CHAPTER THREE
Arrogance of children and adolescents
Ann Smolen
CHAPTER FOUR
Defensive arrogance in adult philanderers
Jerome Blackman
PART II: CULTURAL REALM
CHAPTER FIVE
Arrogance in text and in context
Apurvah Shah
CHAPTER SIX
Literary portrayals of arrogance
Nilofer Kaul
PART III: CLINICAL REALM
CHAPTER SEVEN
Arrogance and aloneness
Kathleen Ross
CHAPTER EIGHT
Arrogance in countertransference
Dhwani Shah
CHAPTER NINE
Managing arrogance in child analysis
Susan Sherkow
EPILOGUE
CHAPTER TEN
The realm of humility
Salman Akhtar
REFERENCES
INDEX
Biography
SALMAN AKHTAR, MD, is Professor of Psychiatry at Jefferson Medical College and a Training and Supervising Analyst at the Psychoanalytic Center of Philadelphia.
ANN SMOLEN, PhD, is a Training and Supervising Analyst at the Psychoanalytic Center of Philadelphia.
"In this wide-ranging book, Salman Akhtar, Ann Smolen, and their invited contributors greatly deepen our understanding of arrogance. They demonstrate that arrogance affects men more than women, that it is found in analysts as well as in patients, that it serves both discharge and defensive functions, and that is has adaptive as well as pathological features. Some of us may arrogantly believe they have no need to read this book, but those who do read it will be enriched by the experience." --Richard Waugaman, MD, Training and Supervising Analyst (Emeritus), Washington Psychoanalytic Institute
"This book provides a timely psychoanalytic focus on the multifaceted realm of arrogance. Its distinguished contributors move from evolutionary theory through cross-cultural perspectives and from literature to clinical considerations at all phases of development. The resulting discourse gives much food for thought about attitudes toward arrogance. The inclusion of a full-length essay on the opposite of arrogance, namely, humility, adds further nuance and clinical usefulness to the text. This book will be useful for all psychotherapists and is well worth reading." --Frederick H. Lowy, MD, Psychoanalyst, former Dean of Medicine, University of Toronto
