Authority

Hercules was a legendary demigod and hero in Greco-Roman mythology with superhuman strength.

What is it good for?

Patriarchal societies frequently fetishise male physicality as a foundational source of authority. This physical projection reveals a common existential dilemma. As the psychiatrist Irvin D. Yalom observed:

"The human being either asserts autonomy by heroic self-assertion or seeks safety through fusing with a superior force: that is, one either emerges or merges, separates or embeds. One becomes one’s own parent or remains the eternal child."

This blog occupies the curious middle ground between these positions. I do not set myself up as an authority on authority, nor am I authoritarian about it. Instead, I will explore what authority might be good for, where it fails us, and how we can blend external authoritative structures with an internalised authority.

Defining the dynamic: power vs. authority

To understand authority, we must first isolate it from power. Authority is the legitimisation of power. Power is an asymmetric control over valued social resources and the capacity to influence or control others. It exists independently of its perceived legitimacy.

Authority requires "due process" the structures that make power acceptable, justifiable, and normative.

As established in legal frameworks like the United States Constitution, power exercised without due process is arbitrary, not authoritative. Ultimately, individual decisions, both conscious and unconscious, legitimise power. We constantly evaluate external controls, which means each of us possesses the psychological agency to grant or strip authority away from power. Philosopher Albert Camus framed this reclamation as a transition from the absurd to rebellion:

"The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion." 

This is a psychological journey of evaluating, rejecting, and dismantling arbitrary external controls.

When is authority helpful?

Our initial intersection with authority begins in infancy. When a child lacks capacity, skill, and knowledge, authority becomes a psychological necessity. Adam Phillips (2013) highlights this containment:

“...authority is a solution to frustration – a way of managing it, a way of bearing it, a way of stopping it turning into murder or suicide or torture...the parent can stay with the child with a view to containing him: stopping him harming himself, stopping him doing too much damage, but not trying to stop him having the tantrum.”

As we mature, our relationship with authority shifts. According to developmental models ( Maier, 2025 ) authority progresses through a three-stage trajectory: from externally derived authority to internally derived authority. Beyond childhood containment, structured authority can serve clear systemic functions:

• Shared Responsibility : Authority distributes the cognitive burden of system management. It facilitates the efficient specialisation of tasks most suited to exceptionally skilled individuals.

  
  

• Conflict Resolution : Authority provides arbitration in disputes, securing justice and the absence of war.

  
  

• Self-efficacy & control : Authority co-ordinates complex human systems so individuals can cultivate a predictable internal locus of control i.e. the belief that you, through your own actions, choices, and effort, directly influence the outcomes and events in your life.

  
  

When is authority unhelpful?

The hazards of institutionalized authority are severe. Psychologically, authority frequently operates through splitting and othering. It forces individuals into rigid, reciprocal relational roles ( e.g. controlling vs. controlled, judging vs. judged. ) This hierarchy can degenerate into a license for violence or an absolute demand for silence, visible in criminal cultures of omertà or mafia-style structures. These are the traps of systemic control.

• Invisible subjugation : As Fyodor Dostoevsky noted, "The best way to keep a prisoner from escaping is to make sure he never knows he's in prison." Systems often conceal power rather than risk a crisis of legitimacy by being subject to challenge.

  
  

• The spectacle of rank :  We often respect the rank instead of the person, acting as if the naked emperor is still wearing clothes. As George Eliot wrote in Middlemarch, "There is a pale shade of bribery which is sometimes called prosperity." illustrating how we may be silenced by those in power through access to their resources..

  
  

• De-individuation : Social psychology conformity studies show that when authority is state-sanctioned, ordinary individuals can act murderously with no prior history of violence. As illustrated in the holocaust by bullets in WW2 ( Halmburger & Oldenburg, 2022. )

  
  

• The tyranny of the majority : Monopolies on authority isolate singular figures, demandng narcissistic supply and validating the timeless adage: power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Narcissistic supply is the constant need for attention, admiration, validation, or emotional reaction that a person, or persons, with narcissistic traits demand from others. This can become tyrannical.

The authority shift across generations

Technological acceleration has disrupted traditional hierarchies. Baseline cultural shifts are happening rapidly, meaning historical lived experience carries less functional capital. Older generations have less default structural authority over the young than ever before, paving the way for diffuse, collaborative platforms of knowledge.

We are moving beyond the need to look up. If we let go of the idea that someone has to hold the authority. We enter a space of co-production and mutual responsibility. We recognize shared interests without establishing hierarchies. When we accept personal responsibility for our choices, actions, and existential positions, the absolute need for a protective or punitive figure to look up to disappears. So we can focus on looking around for inspiration and help.

Reclaiming personal authority

If we move away from a Kleinian paranoid-schizoid position ( viewing authority as entirely corrupt or always right ) toward a mature depressive position, we begin to recognise that both the governing and the governed possess complex internal psychologies. This is the start of breaking symbiotic, disabling cycles of rigid reciprocal roles involving authority ( Perry, 2020. ) In clinical practice, authority is never absolute. It is a temporary, highly specialised role appointed to the practitioner through the patient's informed and ongoing consent.

• Therapy interrogates the superego : Psychological treatment works to dismantle harsh internal critics, unwritten rules and implicit biases. Therapists help interrogate self criticism from our punishing superego commands ( Phillips, 2015. )

  
  

• The danger of ambition : As practitioners, setting ambitious goals for clients can inadvertently mirror oppressive authority. We must share responsibility rather than step into a rescuing or persecuting roles ( Karpman, 1968. ) Intersubjective psychotherapy is an explicit recognition of the authority held by both participants in therapy. Where we can move beyond the doer and the done to ( Benjamin, 2018. )

References

Benjamin, J. (2018). Beyond doer and done to: Recognition theory, intersubjectivity and the third. Routledge.

Cisłak, A. (2022). Power: Our fundamental concept. The Psychologist, 35(11), 28–29. https://explore.bps.org.uk/content/bpsfu/1/144/20

Eliot, G. (1993). Middlemarch. Wordsworth Editions. (Original work published 1871)

Halmburger, O., & Oldenburg, M. (Directors). (2022). Ordinary Men: The "Forgotten Holocaust" [Film]. Broadview TV; Netflix. https://www.netflix.com/gb/title/81672035

Karpman, S. B. (1968). Fairy tales and script drama analysis. Transactional Analysis Bulletin, 7(26), 39–43

Maier, D. (2025). The Architecture of Inner Authority [Blog series]. Supakind. https://www.supakind.me/blog/the-architecture-of-inner-authority-

McLeod, S. (2026). Kohlberg's Stages of Moral Development. Simply Psychology. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/387751558_Kohlberg's_Stages_of_Moral_Development

Perry, A. (2020, July 8). New relationships. Dr Andrew Perry - Clinical Psychologist. https://www.drandrewperry.org/post/new-relationships

Phillips, A. (2013). The magical act of a desperate person. London Review of Books. https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v35/n05/adam-phillips/the-magical-act-of-a-desperate-person

Phillips, A. (2015, March 5). Against self-criticism. London Review of Books, 37(5), 13–16. https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v37/n05/adam-phillips/against-self-criticism