When I read the definition of antisocial personality disorder, the first thing that popped into my head was "politicians." Of course not all politicians are legitimate psychopaths, but for some reason the description of this disorder seems to fit your stereotypical picture of a politician - charming, manipulative, will do anything to ensure their power.
In an Huffington post article, Dr. Martha Stout, a clinical psychologists and author of popular books on emotional disorders, said that despite the lack of statistical evidence on the matter:
"Yes, politicians are more likely than people in the general population to be sociopaths. I think you would find no expert in the field of sociopathy, psychopathy, anti social personality disorder who would dispute this... That is a small minority of human beings literally have no conscience was and is a bitter pill for our society to swallow -- but it does explain a great many things, shamelessly, deceitful political behavior being one."
Dr. Stout proposes that to avoid admitting sociopaths to office, political candidates should be able to prove their psychological health, through perhaps something like the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory.
I know, for one thing, that Vice President Frank Underwood from the show House of Cards must be a sociopath. All he cares about is rising up the ranks, and he does that through his southern charm, deceit, manipulation, and even murder. (Spoiler) Take for example when he pushes a reporter in front of of an oncoming train when she mentions her suspicion that he was responsible (which he really was) for the murder of another politician (which was staged as a suicide). Fun!
So true!! I never thought about it like that. We all tend to think that antisocial people are all psychopaths who go around killing people. But really anyone who does things to others with out caring about anything is antisocial. Like a lot of politicians.
ReplyDeleteThis is so interesting. I actually read an article about Francis Underwood not too long ago while I was reading about House of Cards. He does definitely exhibit antisocial personality disorder, so much so, that people are referring to him as the "textbook definition" of it. He utilizes charm, as you mentioned, to manipulate and persuade certain people. It's kind of frightening and deeply disturbing. I feel though that there is definitely the interplay of environment and biology that can mold a politician into a sociopath. I do have a question though. Are politicians required to take the MMPI? I'm going to research that.
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