FEATURE: The link between mental illness and high political office

Richard Fitzpatrick ponders the link between abnormal psychology and political power — and finds that many of those who have achieved high office were not, in fact, as stable as we think.

IN times of crisis, it is better if our leaders are mad, argues Tufts University psychiatrist Nassir Ghaemi, author of the New York Times bestseller A First Rate Madness: Uncovering the Links between Leadership and Mental Illness. There is evidence, for example, that all five major leaders during World War Two were mentally ill or abnormal.

“I initially started this project because I was interested in the American Civil War,” says Ghaemi. “When my research extended to other periods of time, there was a high prevalence of depression and manic depression among great leaders that I didn’t expect.