Are politicians psychopaths? Turns out it's a pretty close call.

[boneyard bill]

In his landmark book on psychopathy, The Mask of Sanity, researcher Hervey Cleckley theorized that some people with the core attributes of psychopathy -- egocentricity, lack of remorse, superficial charm -- could be found in nearly every walk of life and at every level, including politics. Robert Hare, perhaps the leading expert on the disorder and the person who developed the most commonly used test for diagnosing psychopathy, has noted that psychopaths generally have a heightened need for power and prestige -- exactly the type of urges that make politics an attractive calling.

There is more at work than just the drive to seek office, though; psychopaths may have some peculiar talents for it, as well. Research has shown that disorder may confer certain advantages that make psychopaths particularly suited to a life on the public stage and able to handle high-pressure situations: psychopaths score low on measures of stress reactivity, anxiety and depression, and high on measures of competitive achievement, positive impressions on first encounters, and fearlessness. Sound like the description of a successful politician and leader?

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/a...ferring-to-politicians-as-psychopaths/260517/

Somehow this doesn't come as much of a surprise given the unreliability of most politicians, but now we've got someone with some credentials who has actually studied the issue and confirmed the suspicion which I think is probably already held by most Americans. Still, we vote for these bastards when they tell us what we want to hear even though we know that they are lying.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

Ya, but now that they know that we know they're lying, they're going to start to tell the truth just to fuck with us. Psychopaths are sneaky that way.

 

[lpetrich]

Let's not forget about business leaders. Some do seem to be psychopaths. A Psychopath Walks Into A Room. Can You Tell? : NPR

While researching his book, Ronson visited the Florida home of Al Dunlap — known as "Chainsaw Al" — who as CEO of appliance maker Sunbeam was notorious for his gleeful fondness for firing people and shutting down factories.

"So I turned up at his house, and it was full of sculptures of predatory animals," Ronson says. "And he immediately started to talk about how he believed in the predatory spirit, which was word for word what Bob Hare writes about in the checklist: Look out for their belief in the predatory spirit."

But Dunlap managed to turn the psychopath test on its head, Ronson says.

"He admitted to many, many items on the checklist, but redefined them as leadership positives," he says. "So 'manipulation' was another way of saying 'leadership.' 'Grandiose sense of self worth' — which would have been a hard one for him to deny because he was standing underneath a giant oil painting of himself — was, you know, 'You've got to like yourself if you're going to be a success.'"

 

[TV and credit cards]

Ya, but now that they know that we know they're lying, they're going to start to tell the truth just to fuck with us. Psychopaths are sneaky that way.

Tell us the truth. Yeah right. They wouldn't know how. The only thing a psychopathic politician has to fear is, well, the other psychopathic politician.
Change the office and you change the type of individual seeking the office.

 

[barbos]

I thought it was old news and common knowledge.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

Ya, but now that they know that we know they're lying, they're going to start to tell the truth just to fuck with us. Psychopaths are sneaky that way.

Tell us the truth. Yeah right. They wouldn't know how. The only thing a psychopathic politician has to fear is, well, the other psychopathic politician.
Change the office and you change the type of individual seeking the office.

What, you mean add more pastel colours and perhaps some potpourri?

That's racist, dude. Gay people can be psychopaths too, you know.

 

[arkirk]

Politicians do not tell us what we want to hear. It is true they lie, but their lies are very closely related to what their sponsors want us to hear and to believe. Today, listening to the drone chief we have for a president, we are hearing again what appears to be a psychopathic notion that destruction of certain humans will somehow make the world all good again. What else could a person in the middle east do but shudder with all this talk of "we will hunt you down and kill you."

It appears to me there is no low level of human consideration the most powerful of our world leaders cannot stoop to. If you chose to call it psychopathy, I feel that is going easy on them. Powerful people in general feel they have the right to shape human perceptions and brazenly attempt to do this, regardless of social or environmental consequences. It is really all about greed...not for things like gold and silver, but for the "good life," for unlimited power, wealth and control of their world. These are the usual pursuits of megalomaniacs. You don't have to be a politician to be seeking this. You just buy those people.

 

[DBT]

I don't know, psychopaths is a stretch, but looking at their performance in Parliament, their behaviour does appear juvenile.

 

[EricK]

While not particularly wanting to defend politicians, they are in a different position to most of us in that their decision about who to care about are highly visible and can have massive real-world repercussions.

It is very easy to sit and post on forums about how much you care about people in other countries, or even in other parts of your own country, but for most of us, I reckon, those claims do not really amount to much. We are not in a position to provide help for everyone who might need it, and nobody judges us too harshly if we concentrate our care on our nearest and dearest. But politicians have to make decisions which affect millions of people - and in almost every case some people will be left worse off by those decisions, and others, who might have been helped via a different decision, are left in the same situation. In such a situation, almost whatever decision they make could be seen, from some points of view, to be uncaring or even psychopathic.

 

[Frikki]

No.

They might show some traits associated with psychopaths but in all likelihood they do not qualify for a diagnosis. A full blown psychopath does not have the self control or fear for his own safety, to keep his nose clean enough that he can reach the higher echelons of corporate or government power.

 

[Tigers!]

I don't know, psychopaths is a stretch, but looking at their performance in Parliament, their behaviour does appear juvenile.

Sadly all too true.
In fact I would call that behaivour juvenile and infantile.

 

[barbos]

No.

They might show some traits associated with psychopaths but in all likelihood they do not qualify for a diagnosis. A full blown psychopath does not have the self control or fear for his own safety, to keep his nose clean enough that he can reach the higher echelons of corporate or government power.

That's a common misconception which is popularized in movies. In reality lack of self control is not a requirement to be a psychopath.

 

[Sarpedon]

I feel that 'insanity' is simply a label we give for someone with personality traits inappropriate for their role in society.

Why do psychopaths and sociopaths exist? These traits were evolved and became common, because they are useful for leaders. When someone who isn't a leader shows these tendencies, we call them crazy.

 

[barbos]

I feel that 'insanity' is simply a label we give for someone with personality traits inappropriate for their role in society.

Why do psychopaths and sociopaths exist? These traits were evolved and became common, because they are useful for leaders. When someone who isn't a leader shows these tendencies, we call them crazy.

Yeah, still I find that ironic that we elect people who are essentially mentally deficient as humans.

 

[Frikki]

A large part of my undergrad in Criminology was Psychopathy related and I can tell you that a huge part of the diagnosis is looking at past behaviour to see lack of control.

 

[barbos]

A large part of my undergrad in Criminology was Psychopathy related and I can tell you that a huge part of the diagnosis is looking at past behaviour to see lack of control.

That's because Criminology concerns itself with criminals, these are psychopaths with lack of control.

Normal (not psychopaths) people have no need for control, it's psychopaths who need it, and some have it and some don't.
CEOs, surgeons and politicians rank high on psychopathy.

 

[Jason Harvestdancer]

No.

They might show some traits associated with psychopaths but in all likelihood they do not qualify for a diagnosis. A full blown psychopath does not have the self control or fear for his own safety, to keep his nose clean enough that he can reach the higher echelons of corporate or government power.

We're getting to the difference between Psychopath and Sociopath. One of them excels at fitting in and manipulating others.

 

[boneyard bill]

I don't know, psychopaths is a stretch, but looking at their performance in Parliament, their behaviour does appear juvenile.

I always thought that you guys had the sensible ones and that the American Congress was the world's greatest parliamentary joke.

 

[boneyard bill]

No.

They might show some traits associated with psychopaths but in all likelihood they do not qualify for a diagnosis. A full blown psychopath does not have the self control or fear for his own safety, to keep his nose clean enough that he can reach the higher echelons of corporate or government power.

Are you kidding? Whose keeping their nose clean? There's a scandal going on somewhere all the time. But politicians rarely get severely punished if they get punished at all. And then what? They go work for some lobbyist and make millions of dollars.

The same is true of industry or at least for banking. JPMorgan Chase has been convicted of laundering drug money and of fraud a number of times. Stockholders have to pay a fine, but criminal charges are never filed against the bank's executives, the ones who actually committed the crimes.

 

[arkirk]

While not particularly wanting to defend politicians, they are in a different position to most of us in that their decision about who to care about are highly visible and can have massive real-world repercussions.

It is very easy to sit and post on forums about how much you care about people in other countries, or even in other parts of your own country, but for most of us, I reckon, those claims do not really amount to much. We are not in a position to provide help for everyone who might need it, and nobody judges us too harshly if we concentrate our care on our nearest and dearest. But politicians have to make decisions which affect millions of people - and in almost every case some people will be left worse off by those decisions, and others, who might have been helped via a different decision, are left in the same situation. In such a situation, almost whatever decision they make could be seen, from some points of view, to be uncaring or even psychopathic.

The U.S. is the world's greatest exporter of violence to the rest of the world. It has by very far, the largest military force in the world, the most devastating weapons, and a strong proclivity to use those weapons. It is not a matter of "helping" those people. When we arrive on the scene with our drones and bombers and boots on the ground, it is not to help those people. It is instead to control them...kill them if need be...and that has translated in action to kill them even if we don't need to. This stuff costs lots of money. We are on a slippery environmental slope and we need our resources to cope with our own environmental inadequacies. Wasting them on military adventurism may make a president popular for awhile, then over and over again the chickens come home to roost.

We don't just have psychopathic leadership. We have a system that rewards psychopaths. Doing nothing along military lines in foreign countries would help many sorely troubled people in the world without spending a dime. Fixing and transforming our economy would also help many sorely troubled people by reducing our demand for THEIR RESOURCES. Carrying on as we have been is psychopathic, no matter how much you would care to be patriotic.