William Guschwan (2026). The Iliad as Leadership Curriculum: A Mythopoeic Framework Through LARP. In: Thomas, A., Meyer, M., Zank, M. (eds) Serious Games. JCSG: Joint International Conference on Serious Games 2025. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 16243. Springer, Cham.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-032-10518-9_30
Abstract
This paper proposes a live action role-playing game (LARP) curriculum that unites philosophical reflections on the gnomic self, as articulated through Michel Foucault’s hermeneutics of the self, with a mythic-embodied pedagogy modeled on Achilles’ journey through the stages of ego-death. By framing Achilles’ transformation in The Iliad as a metaphor for leadership maturity, the work situates ancient myth within a modern framework of conscious business. True leadership, it is argued, is not a function of control but the radical alignment of truth and will—a process enacted through self-observation, symbolic death, and ritual embodiment. Using the LARP structure and emotional-introspective exercises, I develop a praxis for cultivating responsibility, emotional mastery, and agapic leadership.
Foucault News 