We need more deranged leaders: mad science turns its baleful stare upon political science. Nassir Ghaemi's thesis is that certain types of mental illness make for better leaders. Sanity is not only overrated, but saps a leader's abilities.
This is gleeful stuff from a distance, history written by Hunter Thompson:
JFK's success is put down to his use of steroids and amphetamines, which may have made him manic, Hitler was a failure because his abuse of methamphetamine made him too manic. Richard Nixon - generally considered successful, but also paranoid and depressive for much of his peacetime presidency - is re-diagnosed as mentally healthy and therefore ill-equipped to deal with a crisis such as Watergate.
Some fine mad science here:
There is little empirical data to support this position at present, and its many detractors point out, for instance, that depressed people tend to ruminate in an irrational way that is unlikely to lead to enlightening insights. This has not deterred Nassir Ghaemi, !
Holy Clans of the Alphane Moon!
Posted by: Steven Kaye | July 31, 2011 at 17:00