History of Arrogance: Psychology and Limits of Development

Luigi Zoja

The history of Western civilization can be narrated also as a history of displacement of the agricultural lifestyle with its annual cycle of work, its satisfaction of constant needs and taboos of prescribed limits. But somehow we were transformed, we went to the unlimited expansion that absorbed even God, and an optimistic and arrogant belief in the endless development began to determine our consciousness. But why are we increasingly anxious about our future, and why do the apocalyptic scenarios become so popular and always profitable for cinemas and publishing houses? In order to answer this question, according to the author of the book, we should turn to the tools of deep psychology, as well as try to extract wise insights in arrogance and an inevitable requital for it from the Ancient Greek mythology and literature.