In a recent article in the New York Times, Scott O. Lilienfeld (president of the Society for the Scientific Study of Psychopathy) and Ashley L. Watts discussed their research into presidential narcissism and success in office.
They estimated the narcissism levels of all United States presidents, up to George W. Bush. The two highest scorers on “grandiose narcissism” were Theodore Roosevelt and Lyndon B. Johnson.They correlated presidential narcissism with surveys of presidential performance developed by historians.
The result of the study: “Grandiose narcissism” was associated with overall presidential success, but also with unethical behaviors.
The Narcissist in Chief, on NYTimes.com.
Link submitted by a Lovefraud reader.
Two Legged Snakes – explaining manipulative people with outrageous cartoons
slimone
You know, it almost seems, once you understand narcissism, that it doesn’t matter what the question is. Do they make ‘better’ presidents? Lovers? Husbands? Warriors? Garbage collectors? Cops? Priests? Writers? Chefs?
The answer is always the same. No. They don’t.
What they are better at is projecting a more desirable image of whatever they are going after. Other than that they will make everyone around them suffer the consequences of their grandiose self-perception and behaviors. Maybe they will push legislation through. Then they will skim monies off the top of a project, sexually abuse boys in the choir, have affairs with staff, etc…
But we LOVE charisma these days….too bad for us
Jan7
I often wonder what this world would be like if the psychopaths & narcissist did not gravitate towards these powerful positions. Just look at each country’s war history around the world…each country & continent has had continuous battles with great loss of life as far back in history to the beginning of time. Why? because the psychopaths leaders wanted more land or more resources or more tax income or were envious of the other psychopath castle being bigger or they had land resources (gold, timber, silver, water, shipping port etc) which they wanted and were willing to go to battle to gain them for their own. Where was the psychopath during these battles? Safely in his castle while the “little people” fought.
Now that we are all educated on sociopathic traits & behavior we know who the men & women are in the history books who pushed their citizens into battling these wars so that they the “Royal Kings & Queens” could live their extravagant life styles while manipulating & controlling the “little people”. We also know now why there were “revolutionary wars” against these leaders = the “little people” trying to take the power away from an evil psychopath.
Look at the Pharaohs of Egypt & the middle east 2000 years ago….watching the History Channel they are still wondering why these “Great Pyramids” were built…we know the answer = they were all psychopaths and sociopaths who had incredible egos who were incredibly cruel and forced their people into slave labor to build their ultimate grandiose final resting place so they were still be superior leaders even after death. It was all about power & control of the “little people” so that they could have everything their hearts desired without concern for others. They keep their people mentally controlled just like we were during our relationship with a sociopath.
I remember a story on Bill Clinton after he left the White House he was more concerned about how the history books would portray him then the fact that he descrassed the White House.
All these political politicians running for the current US Presidency will say anything and everything to manipulate, brain wash & mind control the American people to get into office..just listen to what they say very carefully you will hear your ex’s manipulative words in their speeches. Along the way all these politicians will use a sociopathic smear campaign against their opponent or other party, use triangulation against Republican & Democrats etc. It’s all sociopathic mental games of a HUGE scale…but I see it all know exactly what my ex h did to me daily, I see each political using each and every mind game while the American citizens pick their candidate they will back. It’s not just this generation these political tactics have been used, they have been used since the beginning of our voting rights on American soil to manipulate the voters.
Honestly, all of these current politicians running seem to be narcissist or sociopath…and Hilary is right up there with her “email” scam…blame shifting, and then denying it, then playing dumb but we also can’t forget she stole White House furniture when she years ago…she denied that too then blame shift also then finally gave back some pieces….it makes me laugh the length she will go to to get people to turn their heads but it really is not funny because she is narcissistically scamming American citizens to get back into the White House.
I just want you all to know that I am not picking out just the Clintons…I think all the politicians running are high on the narcissist sociopath scale. I also think all of the history books we read in school manipulated us to believe that all of our past President were honorable trustworthy individuals….now I know the truth…now I know that JFK was not a good man to our country or his wife & children or any other womanizing President because their history book writers choose to delete their sociopath behavior from the books that we read.
Sociopath are everywhere using the same manipulative, cunning evil mind games & control tactics like our ex used on us.
My eyes are wide open now!
flicka
So true…going back to the beginning of time. Why do great Democracies and civilizations eventually collapse, i.e. Roman, Eqyptian,Grecian? Because their leaders become ever more narcissistic, mercenary, corrupt.