Politicians and world leaders are really physically mentally ill

Miscellaneous General
1

Politicians and world leaders are really physically mentally ill. Their symptoms perfectly fit the category of people called sociopaths. You can see some of the characteristics under the World Health Organization’s ICD-10 F60.2.

Here is a list from wikipedia under the WHO section:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antisocial_personality_disorder

WHO

The World Health Organization’s ICD-10 defines a conceptually similar disorder to antisocial personality disorder called (F60.2) Dissocial personality disorder.[8]

It is characterized by at least 3 of the following:

  1. Callous unconcern for the feelings of others and lack of the capacity for empathy.
  2. Gross and persistent attitude of irresponsibility and disregard for social norms, rules, and obligations.
  3. Incapacity to maintain enduring relationships.
  4. Very low tolerance to frustration and a low threshold for discharge of aggression, including violence.
  5. Incapacity to experience guilt and to profit from experience, particularly punishment.
  6. Markedly prone to blame others or to offer plausible rationalizations for the behavior bringing the subject into conflict.
  7. Persistent irritability.

The criteria specifically rule out conduct disorders.[9] Dissocial personality disorder criteria differ from those for antisocial and sociopathic personality disorders.[10]

It is a requirement of ICD-10 that a diagnosis of any specific personality disorder also satisfies a set of general personality disorder criteria.
[edit] Millon’s subtypes

Theodore Millon identified five subtypes of antisocial.[11][12] Any individual antisocial may exhibit none, one or more than one of the following:

  • covetous antisocial - variant of the pure pattern where individuals feel that life has not given them their due.
  • reputation-defending antisocial - including narcissistic features
  • risk-taking antisocial - including histrionic features
  • nomadic antisocial - including schizoid, avoidant features
  • malevolent antisocial - including sadistic, paranoid features.

Note: The US Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders fourth edition, DSM IV-TR = 301, has recently removed some of the criteria they had in previous versions of the manual. Don’t know if that was justified or not but the previous DSM manuals would have fit the symptoms better to some politicians and world leaders.

Also note that in a free market society, there are feedback mechanisms that minimize the influence of that type of behavior (except in abusive relationships) but if these individuals attain positions where these feedback mechanisms don’t exist … well you get the idea.

There are further characteristics, from abusive and controlling relationships, that apply to politicians and world leaders:

When a crisis occurs, real or manufactured, it’s possible that something called the “Stockholm Syndrome” develops where the those who feel threatened emotionally bond with their abuser under the following conditions:

It has been found that four situations or conditions are present that serve as a foundation for the development of Stockholm Syndrome. These four situations can be found in hostage, severe abuse, and abusive relationships:

  • The presence of a perceived threat to one’s physical or psychological survival and the belief that the abuser would carry out the threat.
  • The presence of a perceived small kindness from the abuser to the victim
  • Isolation from perspectives other than those of the abuser
  • The perceived inability to escape the situation

And the syndrome has the following symptoms:

  • Positive feelings by the victim toward the abuser/controller
  • Negative feelings by the victim toward family, friends, or authorities trying to rescue/support them or win their release
  • Support of the abuser’s reasons and behaviors
  • Positive feelings by the abuser toward the victim
  • Supportive behaviors by the victim, at times helping the abuser
  • Inability to engage in behaviors that may assist in their release or detachment

You can find more information, in 2 parts, at http://counsellingresource.com/quizzes/stockholm

The second part deals with “Cognitive Dissonance”.