Roberto Assagioli defines seven groups of glamours related to each of the seven psychological types in his study course: Meditation for the New Age. (Year Three)
A glamour is an emotional distortion of reality due to an identification with some aspect of the emotional life, defined below.
Categories of Glamour
To a certain extent, the different glamours can be grouped in certain categories. Many of them have some quality in common and they often overlap each other or arise from the same fundamental characteristics. It could be said that certain psychological types are prone to particular kinds of glamour. Broadly speaking there are seven such types as is illustrated in the following categories.
I. Firstly, there is a group which comprises the glamours of Superiority and Assertion. These include the glamours of:
Power
Imposition of authority
Ambition
Pride and conceit
Physical Strength
Self-cent redness
Surety of being right
Impatience and irritation
Separativeness, isolation and aloofness
Independence
Freedom.
II. Negative glamours are of an opposite type, such as:
Fear
Loneliness
Inferiority Complex
Sense of futility
Frustration
Depression
Self-pity
Anxiety
Inertia
Self-effacement
Self-sacrifice.
III. Glamours connected with Activity form a third group.
Among these are :
The glamour of ” being busy ”
Constant planning
Scheming to bring about desired ends
Deviousness and manipulation
Self interest
Preoccupation with practical matters at the
expense of spiritual
The glamour of efficiency.
IV. Glamours relating to artistic creativity form a group which is in a way opposite to the last. These are glamours which arise chiefly through sensitive awareness of beauty and the more abstract realities and the desire to bring them into expression and create harmony out of conflict. They include:
The glamour of vague artistic perception
The glamour of beauty
Tendency to diffusion
Impracticality
Lack of objectivity
Dissatisfaction with existing conditions because of a sense of that which is higher or greater
Inner and outer conflict.
V. Glamours arising from mental polarisation. These are on the increase owing to the present rapid mental development of a large section of society and they include:
The glamour of intellectuality
The glamour of analysing and dissecting
Criticism
Insecurity
The glamour of cold mental assessment
Over-emphasis of form.
VI. Glamours connected with relationships:
Personal devotion
Possessiveness
Rigid adherence to an existing form or model
Idealism
Fanaticism
Narrow vision
Sentimental attachment.
VII. Glamours linked with the expression of spirit in matter or meaning through form, for example :
The glamour of law and order
of organisation
of ceremonial and ritual
of the mystical and secret
of magical powers
Psychism, mediumship.
The Glamour of Idealism
Roberto Assagioli. (Assagioli Archives – Florence). Original Title: Annebbiamento dell’idealismo. Translated by Jan Kuniholm
Then there is the glamour of idealism. This is a more or less subtle obfuscation, but one that can have very ugly consequences. It is the illusion that the higher level, the ideal, must be pursued at all costs; that is, narrowly, fanatically or prematurely. Instead of this, there needs to be a wise gradualness in the appreciation and progressive materialization of ideals. And also an awareness that it is not possible to pursue all ideals at once.
If we have an ideal model of ourselves that is too high and unrealistic, it is only natural that we fail to achieve it; and this leads to a reaction of depression, or self-accusation and guilt. We must always remember that we are in an imperfect universe, that perfection is achieved only very, very gradually, and that the ideal must be seen as a point of arrival, and cannot be realized on the spur of the moment.
In a certain sense we should have a dual perspective, both long-term and immediate, as well as intermediate. We should see the ideal as placed at the top of a mountain to be climbed; then we have the intermediate vision of the path to get there, with the various steps to be taken to get to the top; and finally the close-up view of the next step to be taken, which makes us be very careful where we put our footing so as not to tumble.
