ABSTRACT
Grandiosity does indeed interfere with the assessment of reality. If the normal infantile omnipotence is rejected and subsequently repressed because of parental hostility or jealousy, apparently realistic anxiety results in grandiosity in other parts of the personality. Although filled with guilt, they also believe they are morally superior to everyone else and that grandiosity informs the resistance to reducing the strength of their superego. The interconnections between grandiosity and projective identification are usually there to be discovered, provided one can get an initial foothold. A patient will readily explain how having an indissoluble connection with a parent made him feel on top of the world, equipped him to endure no matter what. The therapist's job is to find the structures, part grandiosity, part projection, part fusion with the object that show where it has been hidden from sight.
