Making a Great Man, Moses: Sustenance and Augmentation of the Self through God as Selfobject

Abstract

This study examines how external support can enhance an individual’s capability and allow him or her to become a greater man or woman. I propose that one surpasses one’s own natural ability when the self is augmented by selfobjects, allowing one to function on a level that could not have been achieved otherwise. The question of how we can become a greater woman or man thus necessitates the consideration of self-augmenting communal resources in the form of selfobject experiences. Drawing on Heinz Kohut’s self psychology, I closely examine the dynamic among self-state, external environment as selfobjects, and self-performance utilizing notions that I call self-preservation, self-loss, and selfobject-augmentation. I then apply these understandings from self psychology as a hermeneutical lens to interpret Moses’s life as depicted in the Scripture and to demonstrate God’s function as a selfobject providing selfobject-augmentation that turns an ordinary man into a great man. More specifically, God’s functioning as a selfobject strengthens Moses enough to allow him to overcome narcissistic injuries that manifest in shame and rage and ultimately to achieve greater things than what he had been capable of achieving by himself.