You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
Anthony Storr has had a long career of contributing thoughtful and well written books which offer reflections on important topics relating to psychiatry, psychoanalysis, and culture. Feet of Clay is a useful addition to his growing corpus of writings. In this series of essays on charisma, gurus, and the human tendency toward destructive idealizations, Storr has drawn upon a wide variety of sources in an attempt to offer insight into the human longing for gurus, the dynamics of the guru/chela relationship, and the fine line between creative charismatic leadership and charlatanry.
Among the ‘gurus’ discussed are Gurdjieff, Rajneesh, Steiner, Jung, Freud, Ignatius, and Jesus. Storr points out the existence of common elements in the leadership of such figures - the claim of special knowledge, a sense of certainty, and a charismatic impact on a group of followers who reinforce the guru's claims of specialness. He is very concerned to emphasize that the more dangerous figures exemplify, in every case, a combination of a narcissistic self-absorption and a tendency toward authoritarianism - a formula which all too often leads to a catastrophic abuse of power by the guru.
Perhaps the greatest strength of this book is Storr's emphasis on the widespread impact of idealizing projections and transferences. The study of idealization in psychic processes is an extremely important topic and one which requires a great deal of further careful work. Given the important contributions of Kohut and psychoanalytic self psychology to the study of idealization, I was surprised that Storr did not draw more