The DOI matches its Crossref record; 40 of the 40 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Loving Thyself: A Kohutian Interpretation of a “Limited” Mature Narcissism in Evangelical Megachurches
Abstract
Evangelical megachurches across the United States provide a subculture for core and committed members who immerse themselves in these communities of faith. This article argues that American evangelical megachurches fail to mitigate "the narcissism epidemic" in the dominant secular culture. Using object relations theory, I discuss splitting as a psychological foundation for narcissism, and I employ Heinz Kohut's self-psychology to analyze idealized, mirroring, and twinning self-objects in evangelical megachurches. Finally, given Kohut's categories for a mature narcissism, I find that Evangelicals achieve creativity, empathy, transience, humor, and wisdom, in part, but their ideological frameworks, organizational characteristics, and beliefs challenge a transformation to mature narcissism.
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“According to Dyer (2012), this issue is especially prevalent in evangelical megachurches, as congregants look to pastors as self-objects through idealization (viewing the pastor as a celebrity to nurture their ideals), mirroring (desiring affirmation from the pastor to encourage their ambitions), and twinning (aspiring to emulate the pastor to receive approval).”
From Humility and Servant-Leadership: Toward a Solution of Pastoral Narcissism (2024) · cites this paper as Dyer (2012)
In the citing paper
“The authors pointed to the notion that pastors of megachurches may tend to be narcissistic (Dyer, 2012)”
From Humility and Servant-Leadership: Toward a Solution of Pastoral Narcissism (2024) · cites this paper as Dyer, 2012
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Cited by
Humility and Servant-Leadership: Toward a Solution of Pastoral Narcissism
Bryant, L. W. R. (2024) · International Journal of Servant-Leadership · doi:10.33972/ijsl.417
Metadata
- Authors
- Dyer, J. E.
- Venue
- Journal of Religion and Health
- Published
- 2012-03-07
- Volume
- 51
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 241-255
- ISSN
- 0022-4197
- 1573-6571
- Cited by
- 0
- References
- 40
- Language
- en
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
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