ABSTRACT
Aspiring to be a great leader is a natural impulse to feel accomplished and important, but potential leaders should take care because it can be a dangerous role. Organizations, whether businesses or psychoanalytic institutes, often resemble what Freud described as the “primal horde,” the earliest human social groups. These hordes were characterized as controlled by a powerful male leader. The leader had exclusive access to the females in the group, and though the sons idealized the powerful father and were grateful for his protection, they also harbored an unconscious wish to kill the father and take his power for themselves. This chapter argues that behind all idealization of powerful leaders lies primitive aggression: the wish to eat the leader up, thereby incorporating his power. The author recommends techniques that can mitigate these murderous impulses.
