ABSTRACT
An entire civilization may lapse into the sin of angelism or, if one prefers it, may be attacked by the folie des grandeurs. This might well have been the case, if people consider the matter, with our modern Western civilization. A church may be uplifting to believe that our group has a civilizing mission but go a step further, and people have fanaticism, the stake and the fire, and all the madness of the wars of religion. The desire to prevail is one of the great elementary motives of all human conduct. Some have thought that it was the supreme and essential motive and here people have Nietzsche's "will to power". The psychologist is well aware that the man who believes himself elect and sees himself above all others is the prey of this ulcerous infirmity, and harbours doubts of himself that verge upon despair.
