Tyrannical Minds: Psychological Profiling, Narcissism, and Dictatorship

Not everyone can become a tyrant. It requires a particular confluence of events to gain absolute control over entire nations.First, you must be born with the potential to develop brutal personality traits. Often, these are combined in The Dark Triad of malignant narcissism, Machiavellianism and psychopathy, as well as elements of paranoia, and an extraordinary ambition to achieve control over others.Second, your predisposition to antisocial behavior must be developed and strengthened during childhood. You might suffer physical and/or psychological abuse, or grow up in trying times.Finally, you must come of age when the political system of your country is unstable. Together, these events establish a basis for a rise to power, one that Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler, Mao Zedong, Saddam Hussein, and Muammar Qaddafi all used to gain life-and-death control over their countrymen and women. It is how Osama bin Laden and the leaders of the Islamic State hoped to gain such power.Though these men lived in different times and places, and came from vastly different backgrounds, many of them felt respect for each other. They often seemed to recognize their shared, dark personality traits and viewed them as strengths. Only in rare cases did they show signs of mental disorders.Getting inside the heads of foreign leaders and terrorists is one way governments try to understand, predict, and influence their actions. Psychological profiles can help us understand the urges of tyrants to dominate, subjugate, torture and slaughter. Tyrannical Minds