Roald Dahl, 2007 (reprint edition, 1972). Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator. Puffin Books: London, p. 83.1
No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.You'll notice that sanity is not actually a requirement for becoming President of the United States. Interestingly enough, I can't find evidence that sanity has ever been a requirement for someone to become a head of state. In fact, there are a remarkable number of rulers -- kings and queens and emperors and such -- who have been utter loons. Here's a sample:
US Constitution, Article 2, section 1.
- Emperor Caligula (12-41)
- Emperor Commodus (161-192)
- Emperor Elagabalus (203-222)
- Emperor Qianfei (449–465)
- Emperor Justin II of Byzantium (520-578) King Charles VI of France [Charles the Mad] (1368–1422)
- Henry VI of England (1421-1471)
- Queen Joanna of Castile [Joanna the Mad] (1479–1555)
- Tsar Ivan IV of Russia [Ivan the Terrible] (1530-1584)
- Eric XIV of Sweden (1533-1577)
- Tsar Feodor I of Russia (1557–1598)
- Ottoman Caliph Ibrahim I [Mad Ibrahim] (1615–1648)
- Queen Maria I of Portugal [Maria the Mad] (1734–1816)
- Empress Anna of Russia (1693-1740)
- Prince Sado of Korea (1735-1762)
- King George III of England (1738-1820)
- Alexandra of Bavaria (1826-1875)
- King Ludwig II of Bavaria [The Fairy Tale King] (1845-1886)
Just in case you were hoping that American democracy might be beyond such things -- sorry, no. A study published in 2006 concluded:
"Eighteen (49%) Presidents met criteria suggesting psychiatric disorder: depression (24%), anxiety (8%), bipolar disorder (8%), and alcohol abuse/dependence (8%) were the most common. In 10 instances (27%), a disorder was evident during presidential office, which in most cases probably impaired job performance" (Jonathan et al. 2006; see also Barclay and Frater 2010; Winch 2016).Keep in mind, this study only went as far as 1974. Which means there's been 42 more years to accumulate entertaining data.
Is there a relationship between madness and leadership? Ghaemi argues:
"... in at least one vitally important circumstance insanity produces good results and sanity is a problem. In times of crisis, we are better off being led by mentally ill leaders than by mentally normal ones." (Ghaemi 2012, p. 2).Gartner, in his book "The Hypomanic Edge: The Link Between (A Little) Craziness and (A Lot of) Success in America" reported that "One hundred percent of the entrepreneurs I interviewed were hypomanic" (2011, p. 6).
There have been a number of recent works looking at the allegedly positive effects of having psychopathic leaders:
"When you go down the road of [mental] disorders conferring advantages ... it's difficult to conceive of a condition that doesn't pay off -- at least in some form or another. Obsessive-compulsive? You're never going to leave the gas on. Paranoid? You'll never fall afoul of the small print" (Dutton 2013, p. xiv).However, despite this fantastically optimistic propaganda, it turns out that having insane people as leaders is not always beneficial:
"... corporate psychopaths are reported to be parasitic in that they feed off the good work of others ... [a] psychopathic CEO ... [strengthens] his own position and external reputation while weakening the organisation that employs him, especially in terms of its human resource capability and overall performance" (Boddy 2015).In fact, psychopaths are frequently horrible people that destroy any organization unlucky enough to have them. Robert Hare has described them as "snakes in suits" and says they "use arrogance and superficial charm" to get what they want. He has described them as "social predators ... self serving individuals" and "lacking in empathy" (BBC 2004).
"Beneath the cleverly formed façade—typically created by psychopaths to influence their targets—is a darker side ... They can be pathological liars who con, manipulate, and deceive others for selfish means. Some corporate psychopaths thrive on thrill seeking, bore easily, seek stimulation, and play mind games with a strong desire to win... psychopaths are driven by what they perceive as their victims’ vulnerabilities... they seem to get perverted pleasure from hurting and abusing their victims ... They display emotions only to manipulate individuals around them. They mimic other people’s emotional responses. Some lack realistic long-term goals, although they can describe grandiose plans. The impulsive and irresponsible psychopath lives a parasitic and predatory lifestyle, seeking out and using other people" (Babiak and O'Toole 2012).
Hasson summarized the apparent and the actual characteristics psychopaths manifest:
 |
| Source: http://www.salkforum.se/kurs10/Hasson.pdf |
Few of us are trained in psychology or psychiatry. How can we determine if we are being lead by the mad?
Stillman (2015) listed 11 things to look for:
- Charming
- Egocentric
- Grandiose
- Lack of remorse
- Lack of empathy
- Deceitful
- Shallow emotions
- Impulsive
- Hot-headed
- Thrill seeking
- Lack of responsibility
In 1985 Dr. Robert Hare, a Canadian criminal psychologist, introduced the Hare Psychopathy Checklist Revised (PCL-R), sometimes called the "P-Scan." It's a simple assessment tool designed to determine the level (or category) of psychopathy in patients. Despite problems (including the need for a trained mental health professional to administer the test and some serious criticisms [see for example Walters 2004; Lewis et al. 2004]) it has become the standard way to assess criminal psychopaths. More recently, a "B-Scan" test has been developed (it is still in the process of being finalized). It is:
"a measure of behaviors, attitudes and business judgments that are relevant to performance in business situations" (Babiak and Hare 2016).Though not completely validated, the B-Scan test has been tested. Or rather, the B-Scan tests have been tested. There are two: a self-administered test, and a test which is given to colleagues (the B-Scan 360). People are evaluated on the basis of four "Factors," and there are five items in each Factor (see Whitbourne 2015) :
- Factor 1: Manipulativeness (lack of ethics)
- Ingratiates him/herself
- Is glib
- Uses charm
- Claims expertise
- Rationalizes
- Factor 2: Unreliability/lack of focus
- Not loyal
- No planning
- Unfocused
- Impatient
- Unreliable
- Factor 3: Callousness/insensitivity
- Insensitive
- Rarely shows emotions
- Cold inside
- Remorseless
- No empathy
- Factor 4: Intimidating/aggressive
- Intimidating
- Angry
- Asks harsh questions
- Threatens other workers
- Dramatic
Each item is ranked on a scale of 1-5:
"On a 5-point scale (from strongly disagree to strongly agree), you would expect the average to be about a 3 (neither agree nor disagree), and that’s what the researchers found for their sample. Therefore, if you find the score of the person you’re rating to be a total of 15 per dimension (5 items times an average of 3 per item, or a total of 60), that’s about average. Bosses who approach 20 or 25 per scale, or between 80 to 100 across all 4, are therefore in the psychopathic ballpark" (Whitbourne 2015).This, obviously, is still a fairly subjective method -- but we are dealing with human behavior here, not the movement of billiard balls, so perhaps that's inevitable. At least it gives a way to rank behavior, a way to compare, and a scale of madness. So that's something.
In any case, the B-Scan 360 does provide us with a unique tool. Think the leader of a particular country is mad? Well, why not use the test? See what you think. See if you think your world is now run by the psychopaths.
Notes
1 This phrase is used in the 1971 movie version of "Charlie and Chocolate Factory," but it isn't in the book. It is in the sequel, "Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator." However, it seems the phrase is much older. The oldest reference in print seems to date from 1823, and was called a "good old couplet." See: http://quoteinvestigator.com/2016/09/27/nonsense/.References
All that is interesting. 2016. 10 Insane Rulers You’ve Probably Never Heard Of. Online: http://all-that-is-interesting.com/insane-rulersBabiak, Paul and Mary Ellen O'Toole. 2012. The Corporate Psychopath. FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin. Online: https://leb.fbi.gov/2012/november/november-2012
Babiak, Paul and Robert D. Hare. 2016. Business Scan (B-Scan). Online: http://www.b-scan.com/
Barclay, Shelly and Jamie Frater. 2010. Top 10 Truly Insane Rulers. Online: http://listverse.com/2010/10/14/top-10-truly-insane-rulers/
BBC News. 2004. Spotting psychopaths at work. Online: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/4057771.stm
Boddy, Clive R. 2015. Psychopathic Leadership A Case Study of a Corporate Psychopath CEO. Journal of Business Ethics. Online: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10551-015-2908-6
Davidson, Jonathan, Kathryn Connor and Marvin S. Swartz. Mental illness in U.S. Presidents between 1776 and 1974: A review of biographical sources. Journal of Nervous & Mental Disease 194(1):47-51 · February 2006. Online: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/7310931_Mental_illness_in_US_Presidents_between_1776_and_1974_A_review_of_biographical_sources
Dutton, Kevin. 2013. The Wisdom of Psychopaths: What Saints, Spies, and Serial Killers Can Teach Us About Success. Scientific American / Farrar, Straus and Giroux: New York.
Gartner, John D. 2011. The Hypomanic Edge: The Link Between (A Little) Craziness and (A Lot of) Success in America. Simon & Schuster: New York.
Ghaemi, Nassir. 2012. A First-Rate Madness: Uncovering the Links Between Leadership and Mental Illness. Penguin Books: London.
Hasson, Dan. Psychopathic leaders -- do they exist? Frontiers in Leadership 7,5 HP. STOCKHOLMS AKADEMISKA LEDARSKAPSKOLLEGIUM (Stockholm Academic Leadership College). Online: http://www.salkforum.se/kurs10/Hasson.pdf
Lewis, Dorothy Otnow, Catherine A. Yeager, Pamela Blake, Barbara Bard and Maren Strenziok. 2004. Ethics Questions Raised by the
Neuropsychiatric, Neuropsychological, Educational, Developmental, and Family Characteristics of 18 Juveniles Awaiting Execution in Texas. The Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law 32:408-429. Online: http://jaapl.org/content/jaapl/32/4/408.full.pdf
Pappas, Stephanie. 2016. Political Psychology: The Presidents' Mental Health. Online: http://www.livescience.com/55763-political-psychology-the-presidents-mental-health.html
Stillman, Jessica. 2015. 11 Signs You're Working with a Psychopath. Inc.com. Online: http://www.inc.com/jessica-stillman/11-signs-you-re-working-with-a-psychopath.html
Walters, Glenn D. 2004. The Trouble with Psychopathy as a General Theory of Crime. International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology 48(2): 133-148. Abstract online: http://ijo.sagepub.com/content/48/2/133
Whitbourne, Susan Krauss. 2015. 20 Signs That Your Boss May Be a Psychopath. Psychology Today Online: https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/fulfillment-any-age/201509/20-signs-your-boss-may-be-psychopath
Winch, Guy. 2016. Study: Half of All Presidents Suffered from Mental Illness. Psychology Today Online: https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-squeaky-wheel/201602/study-half-all-presidents-suffered-mental-illness
No comments:
Post a Comment