Omnipotence is a concept that is often attributed to a deity or an all-powerful being. It denotes the ability to have unlimited power and control over all things. In many religious and mythological traditions, gods are portrayed as possessing omnipotence, enabling them to perform extraordinary feats and possess magical skills. Magical skills, on the other hand, are commonly associated with individuals who possess supernatural abilities and can manipulate the forces of nature to achieve specific outcomes. These skills are often depicted in fictional stories and folklore, where characters with magical powers can cast spells, perform enchantments, and create magical objects. The relationship between omnipotence and magical skills is complex and varies across different narratives.
The sense of omnipotence that arises in the fundamental misapprehension of reality which is central to the period of primary narcissism, during which the infant hallucinates its original love-object, persists into childhood and is found among prehistoric and prelite-rate peoples who overestimate the power of wishful thinking and the real-world effect of psychic acts. Infantile omnipotence is also a feature of obsessional pathology, in which it appears as superstitious or magical thinking; in psychosis, as delusions of grandeur; and, finally and to a lesser extent, in creative people who are able to momentarily escape reality and manipulate a world of fantasy. Sigmund Freud treated the concept of omnipotent thinking at length through investigations of primitive peoples and their beliefs in telepathic and animistic thought, and also through pathologies such as obsessional neurosis and psychotic megalomania. Although Freud did not discuss it in these terms, narcissistic regression in sleep may be viewed as putting the dreamer in a situation typical of infantile omnipotence, able to realize frustrated desires of the previous day and, on a deeper level, to fulfill repressed wishes. Dreams revive the earliest situation of the nursing infant who seeks to re-experience satisfaction through primary process thinking — that is, to use hallucination to short-circuit reality. Perceptual identity is achieved by means that are rapid, regressive, and interior to the psychic apparatus. "It was only," wrote Freud, "the non-occurrence of the expected satisfaction, the disappointment experienced, that led to the abandonment of this attempt at satisfaction by means of hallucination" (1911b, p. 219). Omnipotence in this sense is essentially indistinguishable from the capacity of the psychic apparatus to ignore reality and has universal purchase as an archaic function of the psyche. For the child, learning the limitations that the reality principle imposes on the pleasure principle is in effect a limitation on its sense of omnipotence. However, as Melanie Klein (1921 [1919]) noted, the child's sense of omnipotence is also tied to that which it endows its parents and with which it identifies. Reality opposes it in either case. The "decline of the omnipotence-feeling that is brought about by the impulse to diminish parental perfection (which certainly assists in establishing the limits of his own as well as of their power) in turn influences the impairment of authority, so that an interaction, a reciprocal support would exist between the impairment of authority and the weakening of the omnipotence-feeling" (p. 17). In her view, the child's experience of omnipotence as increasing or diminishing will determine whether he or she will become bold and optimistic or fearful and pessimistic. However, she added: "For the result of development not to be boundless utopianism and phantasy but optimism, a timely correction must be administered by thought" (p. 24). A compromise thus emerges between the pleasure principle that regulates wishes and fantasies and the area in which the reality principle prevails in the sphere of thoughts and established facts. Donald W. Winnicott showed how the young child's mental activity can transform a "good-enough" environment into perfect surroundings. This transformation is necessary for object constancy not to be disturbed. By contrast, a defective environment is harmful because faulty adaptation overwhelms the psyche-soma of the young child and prematurely forces it out of the its narcissistic universe. In terms of the illusion of creating the object and what he calls "transitional objects," Winnicott (1952) wrote: "We allow the infant this madness, and only gradually ask for a clear distinguishing between the subjective and that which is capable of objective or scientific proof. We adults use the arts and religion for the off-moments which we all need in the course of reality-testing and reality-acceptance" (p. 224). Omnipotence does not disappear as childhood ends, but it delimits itself to specific areas and coexists with the recognition that reality imposes limitations upon it. Literary fiction and especially Romanesque adventure permits safe enjoyment of omnipotence through all manner of imagined danger. "It seems to me, however," wrote Freud (1908a), "that through this revealing characteristic of invulnerability we can immediately recognize His Majesty the Ego, the hero alike of every day-dream and of every story" (1908a, p. 150). Moreover, parents transmit omnipotence to the child inasmuch as "they are inclined to suspend in the child's favour the operation of all the cultural acquisitions which their own narcissism has been forced to respect, and to renew on his behalf the claims to privileges which were long ago given up by themselves. . . Illness, death, renunciation of enjoyment, restrictions on his own will, shall not touch him; the laws of nature and of society shall be abrogated in his favour; he shall once more really be the centre and core of creation — 'His Majesty the Baby', as we once fancied ourselves" (1914c, p. 19). Sophie de Mijolla-Mellor See also: Alpha function; Amplification (analytical psychology); Anxiety; Arrogance; Borderline conditions; "Claims of Psychoanalysis to Scientific Interest"; Dead mother complex; Dependence; Ego ideal; Ego ideal/ideal ego; Encopresis; Inferiority, feeling of; Good enough mother; Holding; Illusion; Infant observation (direct); Mania; Megalomania; Narcissism; Narcissistic defenses; Narcissistic elation; Omnipotence of thought; Paranoia; Pregnancy, fantasy of; Psycho-Analysis of Children, The ; Quasi-independence, Transitional stage; Rite and ritual; Self (true/false); Self esteem; Silence; Squiggle; Suicidal behavior; Technique with children, psychoanalytic; Termination of treatment; Transference/counter-transference (analytical psychology); Transgression; Transitional phenomena; Transitional object; Transitional object, space.
Sigmund Freud treated the concept of omnipotent thinking at length through investigations of primitive peoples and their beliefs in telepathic and animistic thought, and also through pathologies such as obsessional neurosis and psychotic megalomania. Omnipotence does not disappear as childhood ends, but it delimits itself to specific areas and coexists with the recognition that reality imposes limitations upon it.
The relationship between omnipotence and magical skills is complex and varies across different narratives. In some stories, gods are portrayed as having access to magical abilities as a result of their omnipotent nature. They can manipulate reality at will, create or destroy worlds, and control mortal affairs.
INFANTILE OMNIPOTENCE
The sense of omnipotence that arises in the fundamental misapprehension of reality which is central to the period of primary narcissism, during which the infant hallucinates its original love-object, persists into childhood and is found among prehistoric and prelite-rate peoples who overestimate the power of wishful thinking and the real-world effect of psychic acts. Infantile omnipotence is also a feature of obsessional pathology, in which it appears as superstitious or magical thinking; in psychosis, as delusions of grandeur; and, finally and to a lesser extent, in creative people who are able to momentarily escape reality and manipulate a world of fantasy. Sigmund Freud treated the concept of omnipotent thinking at length through investigations of primitive peoples and their beliefs in telepathic and animistic thought, and also through pathologies such as obsessional neurosis and psychotic megalomania. Although Freud did not discuss it in these terms, narcissistic regression in sleep may be viewed as putting the dreamer in a situation typical of infantile omnipotence, able to realize frustrated desires of the previous day and, on a deeper level, to fulfill repressed wishes. Dreams revive the earliest situation of the nursing infant who seeks to re-experience satisfaction through primary process thinking — that is, to use hallucination to short-circuit reality. Perceptual identity is achieved by means that are rapid, regressive, and interior to the psychic apparatus. "It was only," wrote Freud, "the non-occurrence of the expected satisfaction, the disappointment experienced, that led to the abandonment of this attempt at satisfaction by means of hallucination" (1911b, p. 219). Omnipotence in this sense is essentially indistinguishable from the capacity of the psychic apparatus to ignore reality and has universal purchase as an archaic function of the psyche. For the child, learning the limitations that the reality principle imposes on the pleasure principle is in effect a limitation on its sense of omnipotence. However, as Melanie Klein (1921 [1919]) noted, the child's sense of omnipotence is also tied to that which it endows its parents and with which it identifies. Reality opposes it in either case. The "decline of the omnipotence-feeling that is brought about by the impulse to diminish parental perfection (which certainly assists in establishing the limits of his own as well as of their power) in turn influences the impairment of authority, so that an interaction, a reciprocal support would exist between the impairment of authority and the weakening of the omnipotence-feeling" (p. 17). In her view, the child's experience of omnipotence as increasing or diminishing will determine whether he or she will become bold and optimistic or fearful and pessimistic. However, she added: "For the result of development not to be boundless utopianism and phantasy but optimism, a timely correction must be administered by thought" (p. 24). A compromise thus emerges between the pleasure principle that regulates wishes and fantasies and the area in which the reality principle prevails in the sphere of thoughts and established facts. Donald W. Winnicott showed how the young child's mental activity can transform a "good-enough" environment into perfect surroundings. This transformation is necessary for object constancy not to be disturbed. By contrast, a defective environment is harmful because faulty adaptation overwhelms the psyche-soma of the young child and prematurely forces it out of the its narcissistic universe. In terms of the illusion of creating the object and what he calls "transitional objects," Winnicott (1952) wrote: "We allow the infant this madness, and only gradually ask for a clear distinguishing between the subjective and that which is capable of objective or scientific proof. We adults use the arts and religion for the off-moments which we all need in the course of reality-testing and reality-acceptance" (p. 224). Omnipotence does not disappear as childhood ends, but it delimits itself to specific areas and coexists with the recognition that reality imposes limitations upon it. Literary fiction and especially Romanesque adventure permits safe enjoyment of omnipotence through all manner of imagined danger. "It seems to me, however," wrote Freud (1908a), "that through this revealing characteristic of invulnerability we can immediately recognize His Majesty the Ego, the hero alike of every day-dream and of every story" (1908a, p. 150). Moreover, parents transmit omnipotence to the child inasmuch as "they are inclined to suspend in the child's favour the operation of all the cultural acquisitions which their own narcissism has been forced to respect, and to renew on his behalf the claims to privileges which were long ago given up by themselves. . . Illness, death, renunciation of enjoyment, restrictions on his own will, shall not touch him; the laws of nature and of society shall be abrogated in his favour; he shall once more really be the centre and core of creation — 'His Majesty the Baby', as we once fancied ourselves" (1914c, p. 19). Sophie de Mijolla-Mellor See also: Alpha function; Amplification (analytical psychology); Anxiety; Arrogance; Borderline conditions; "Claims of Psychoanalysis to Scientific Interest"; Dead mother complex; Dependence; Ego ideal; Ego ideal/ideal ego; Encopresis; Inferiority, feeling of; Good enough mother; Holding; Illusion; Infant observation (direct); Mania; Megalomania; Narcissism; Narcissistic defenses; Narcissistic elation; Omnipotence of thought; Paranoia; Pregnancy, fantasy of; Psycho-Analysis of Children, The ; Quasi-independence, Transitional stage; Rite and ritual; Self (true/false); Self esteem; Silence; Squiggle; Suicidal behavior; Technique with children, psychoanalytic; Termination of treatment; Transference/counter-transference (analytical psychology); Transgression; Transitional phenomena; Transitional object; Transitional object, space.
In other narratives, magical skills may be distinct from omnipotence, with mortal beings or supernatural entities possessing limited, but still significant magical abilities. These individuals may have acquired their magical skills through training, inheritance, or by making pacts with powerful beings. It is important to note that not all narratives equate magical skills with omnipotence. While both concepts involve the ability to wield power, the scale and scope of that power may differ. Omnipotence implies absolute control, without limitation, while magical skills often come with limitations and constraints. However, the presence of magical skills does provide characters with the ability to influence events beyond the capabilities of ordinary mortals. They can alter reality, bend the laws of nature, and accomplish tasks that would be otherwise impossible. This imbues them with a sense of power and authority, often leading to conflicts and struggles for control. In conclusion, omnipotence and magical skills are intertwined concepts within mythology, religion, and fiction. While omnipotence represents ultimate power and control, magical skills allow individuals to manipulate the forces of nature and achieve extraordinary feats. The relationship between these two concepts varies across narratives, but both contribute to the portrayal of characters with immense power and influence..
Reviews for "Embracing the Supernatural: Embodying Omnipotence and Magical Skills"
1. Jane - 2 stars - I was really excited to read "Omnipotence and magical skills" because I love fantasy novels, but I was extremely disappointed. The characters were one-dimensional and lacked depth, and the world-building was practically nonexistent. It felt like the author was trying to cram too much into the story without giving enough attention to the essential elements that make a fantasy novel captivating. Overall, I found it to be a shallow and underdeveloped read.
2. Mike - 1 star - I couldn't even finish "Omnipotence and magical skills" because the writing was simply unbearable. The grammar and punctuation errors were abundant, making it difficult to understand what was happening in the story. Additionally, the plot seemed fragmented and disjointed, with no clear direction. I found myself constantly confused and frustrated, and eventually gave up on trying to make sense of it all. This book was a major letdown.
3. Sarah - 2 stars - I had high hopes for "Omnipotence and magical skills" based on the intriguing synopsis, but unfortunately, it fell flat for me. The pacing was incredibly slow, and it took forever for anything significant to happen. The author seemed more focused on describing minute details and unnecessary scenes, rather than moving the story forward. This made it difficult to stay interested and engaged. I was ultimately left feeling unsatisfied and unfulfilled by this book.