Psychoanalytic Psychology, Vol 43(4), Oct 2026, 359-368; doi:10.1037/pap0000602
Grandiosity is a complex psychopathological problem: It cuts across numerous psychiatric diagnoses and imbues maladaptive and adaptive aspects. In this article I describe “the grandiose position,” a psychological organization that sheds light on the psychodynamics and interpersonal behavior related to grandiosity. Such theoretical description is based on my years-long reformulation of Melanie Klein’s notion of the depressive positions using extant (neuro)psychological science and a social–cognitive nomenclature. Specifically, M. Klein defined the position as an amalgamation of anxieties (paranoid vs. depressive/guilt ridden), defenses (primitive vs. neurotic), and object relations (part vs. whole). My reformulation substitutes anxiety with “affective tone,” defenses with affect-regulatory maneuvers, and object relations with schemas/scripts of self-with-others. This reformulation also adds a focus on lived interpersonal action and on projecting the self onto the (relational) future. Herein, I continue from where M. Klein left off in her initial charting of manic defenses and integrate this theorization with Heinz Kohut’s description of grandiose narcissism and Ronald Fairbairn’s notion of the exciting object. The result consists of (a) an elated, albeit condescending and dismissive, affect, (b) counter-vulnerability defense mechanisms, and (c) an inflated self that belittles deficient others while pursuing exciting ones. Clinical implications are discussed, primarily regarding differential diagnosis, management of rupture–repair in the transference–countertransference, and addressing suicidal and self-destructive behavior in therapy. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved)