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ABSTRACT: Utilising a case study of Hermann Goering's character and behaviour, this paper examines the darkest personality within the dark triad of personalities- that of the psychopath-and discusses what can be expected from their leadership. The psychopathic leader's appeal to a large minority of voters is discussed alongside a discussion of whether they can be reliably identified, and if so, whether in the interests of global security and sustainability, psychopaths could be screened out of running for high political office.
KEY WORDS: Political Personality, Psychopaths, Corporate Psychopaths, Psychopathy, Dark Triad, Toxic Leadership.
INTRODUCTION
Large parts of the world may currently be taking an 'authoritarian turn' -L/(Kreuder-Sonnen, 2018) as populism, based on anti-establishment feelings (Bakker et al., 2020) gives rise to the ascendance of far right parties across Europe (Spoon and Klüver, 2020) the USA (Lotto, 2016) and elsewhere, and captures the imagination of voters. The contemporary global order is widely reported to be in crisis (Eilstrup-Sangiovanni and Hofmann, 2019) and this begs the question of whether policies could be implemented to help prevent a return to the 'dark valley' (Brendon, 2000) of 1930's politics. Narcissistic and psychopathic politicians like Hermann Goering played a key part in 1930's politics and the Second World War and it may be argued that current politicians with similar personalities could be involved in similar destruction if unchecked.
In terms of current politicians, Donald Trump has some similarities with Goering in that he has also been described as narcissistic and psychopathic (Fiala et al., 2020, Ashcroft, 2016). However, while there is a burgeoning literature on Trump's personality, this paper leaves it to history to clarify the extent of his psychopathology.
At the Nuremberg War trials Hermann Goering, the most senior Nazi to stand trial for crimes against humanity, was described as psychopathic, narcissistic and Machiavellian by the U.S. psychologist and the U.S. psychiatrist who examined him over several months (Gilbert, 1948, Kelley, 1947). This trio of personality traits, (narcissism, psychopathy and Machiavellianism) has since been referred to as the 'dark triad' of personalities (Paulhus and Williams, 2002b) with psychopathy being considered the darkest of the three. These three dark triad personality traits have been described as overlapping but distinct personality constructs with a common core of disagreeableness (Paulhus and Williams,...