L'eroismo come valore e come patologia : per vocazione, per professione, per caso

The concept of heroism lacks a specific statute in psychoanalysis; and when it is mentioned is mostly to lead it back to childhood or adolescent fantasies of omnipotence and innocent megalomania. We are rather interested in investigating the intrapsychic mechanism that generates the aspiration to the sublime of heroism, based on the individual need to correspond to an ideal image of the Ego. That is, to the own 'Ideal of the Ego'. The social dimension is however always decisive, because there is a need for an audience that applauds the hero's virile deeds. [Publisher's text].