Jehovah complex

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Jehovah complex is a term used in Jungian analysis to describe a neurosis of egotistical self-inflation.[1] An example of the term in non-psychiatric use is the following by Charles Adams, (quoted by economic historian of the University of Maryland, Thomas J. DiLorenxo): "Lincoln’s Jehovah complex gave the war a psychopathic Calvinistic fatalism, with God directing the whole affair and punishing both North and South for tolerating slavery."[2]

The term seems to derive from the Masoretic Old Testament wherein, by certain interpretations, Jehovah is depicted as a blood-thirsty genocidist who seeks the extinction of every man, woman, and child of enemy tribes and who tolerates "no other gods before me." Thus, in popular usage, the Jehovah complex is a metaphor for bigotry within a specific religion and for a take-no-prisoners enforcement of conformity.