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Abstract
The key focus in this article is upon the leadership pairing between Fidel Castro and Che Guevara, the Cuban and the Argentine (the insider and outsider). There are many perspectives of interest in this relationship but our focus is on 'Messianic leadership' (Western 2008). Exploring this we utilise theory from the British Object Relations approach to psychoanalysis citing Melanie Klein and Wilfred Bion in particular, to help explain how this pairing has had a lasting symbolic impact, particularly influencing and possibly contributing to the longevity of Fidel Castro's leadership.
Keywords: Castro, Guevara, leadership, Bion, Klein, psychoanalysis, Cuba
Introduction
Leadership has many elements and leaders are engaged in both conscious and unconscious processes. This article will explore how some of these processes are played out in the leadership of Fidel Castro with particular reference to his relationship with Che Guevara, when both alive and dead. Western (2008) identifies four discourses of leadership, which he describes as our unconscious social assumptions about leadership. These are the Controller Leader, the Therapist Leader, the Messiah Leader and the most contemporary the Eco-Leader. The Messiah Leadership discourse is underpinned by the unconscious hope and the idea of salvation. The hope is that the group will be delivered from a place of persecution and oppression in its many forms, to a new landscape of freedom and liberty. The delivery of this hope is projected consciously and unconsciously onto a Messiah Leader/ship and in turn the Messiah Leader/ship has to continually attract these unconscious projections to nurture this state of hope.
Classically the Messiah Leader is a short lived position as it is very difficult to sustain. History teaches that Messiah leaders can quickly become despots, they are often denigrated by their once upbeat followers, or they self-destruct in some way if they are not first killed by their enemies. The Messiah's fate symbolically is that of crucifixion (either through real death, or psychically where they are brought down from their grandiosity and are denigrated and dishonoured). If a Messiah leader is crucified by their enemies they may retain a posthumous messianic quality; if they are crucified by their followers for not delivering on the promise of hope, a period of despair and reflection takes place. This is related to...