A dictator must have a certain germ to be a dictator, and at the same time hit a fertile social ground that needs such a leader – says Prof. Janusz Heitzman, plenipotentiary for forensic psychiatry at the Minister of Health. The expert explains what is going on in the dictator’s head. Even when his power begins to weaken.
- The world knows many dictators. This group also includes Vladimir Putin, who is responsible for Our Country’s aggression towards Ukraine
- A forensic psychiatrist specialist explains who the dictator really is, what is in his head
- He cannot suddenly, under the influence of failures, change from a wolf to a lamb. Especially since he is devoid of guilt and remorse. Such people never apologize – says the expert
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The specialist is the vice-president of the Polish Psychiatric Association and is the head of the Forensic Psychiatry Clinic of the Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology in Warsaw. The expert admits that dictators have certain paranoid features. However, this is not paranoia, understood as a mental illness and delusions. It is a personality or character pathology, the result of a constant sense of distrust, looking for an enemy and excessive vigilance.
Prof. Therefore, Heitzman believes that the dictator clearly sees what is happening around him, follows reality. However, he is characterized by extreme egocentrism, which makes him vulnerable to criticism. Criticism makes him furious and wants to take revenge for his failures. The end of the dictator, therefore, may come when his loved ones find that they are losing out, and the fear of revenge will exceed their ability to submit.
PAP: What are dictators such as Vladimir Putin capable of? More than 25 years ago, even before the era of this ruler, you wrote in the Rzeczpospolita daily that “when we combine the unbending, fanatical stability of the insane’s convictions with the calculated cunning of a genius, we will receive a powerful force, capable of moving the masses in any age”. It sounds pretty gloomy.
Prof. Janusz Heitzman: The dictator, in order to make sense of his actions and not to explain himself to anyone about his desire for power, creates an idea in his mind and makes it a sense of mission. It can be a multi-year process. He begins to believe in it enough to give him a special dazzle with his genius and make a decision without any doubts. He does not see that the historical mission becomes at some point an overvalued idea, which, although it is a disturbance of thinking, is not yet a delusion, but a fix idea that is accompanied, if not absent, by a serious disturbance of criticism.
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There were and are many such figures.
Examples include Stalin and Hitler, Mao Zedong in China, and the Kim Dynasty in North Korea. These include Pol Pot in Cambodia, as well as Hejle Sellassje I of Ethiopia, who called himself the Victorious Lion of the Tribe of Judah, and Ryszard Kapuściński described him in his book “The Emperor”. However, it is worth distinguishing between two concepts: dictator and autocrat.
A dictator is a ruler and leader, and a dictatorship is some form of power. Meanwhile, autocrats function not only in politics, this term has a wider application. Of course, the concept of dictatorship also includes the term: autocrat. Because you cannot be a dictator without being an autocrat – that is, one who denies democracy. Even if the dictator maintains the appearance of democracy, it is only for the sake of maintaining the dictatorship.
So let’s focus on dictators. Are they fanatics with madness in their eyes?
I am far from making a psychopathological diagnosis as to whether we are dealing with a madman or a deranged person. Only colloquially we can judge someone that they become insane because they are different and do not meet our expectations, they refute our ideas about governing and leadership, and about managing the world. It is one thing to make a medical psychopathological diagnosis, to state the disease and to be humble in the face of this fact, to another to try to explain behavior and decisions that are incomprehensible to oneself, which we define as madness out of our own helplessness.
So what qualities must a dictator have?
There are quite a few of these qualities, most often related to his personality, childhood and functioning in the family. Because the dictator does not fall from the sky, he is a product of his contemporaries, mentally similar in terms of life experiences, creating fertile ground for the seed of the dictatorship to grow there, and then even crush its foundation. It is then said that the dictator has become unpredictable. As we know from history, each of the dictators slaughtered the people who brought him to power. The best example of this is Stalin. However, it cannot be said that he was insane and sick. He had only certain character traits that distorted his ability to judge the world and analyze phenomena, because he looked at everything only from his own perspective. Because the dictator only sees his point.
So how does someone become a dictator?
Ghosts from the past associated with various fears appear in his head. Because it is generally a weak, unstable and insecure person with low self-esteem. To overcome this, he develops a way of thinking about the world and other people that the whole world is against it. And to keep his identity intact, he has to overcome this world in some way. A weak person seeks opportunities to be strong and control others.
How does he try to do this?
Makes all sorts of choices regarding, for example, his own professional career. He is looking for a place to have power, the ability to rule over others and destroy those who, in his opinion, threaten him or may threaten him in the future. Thus, such a person easily finds himself in the organs of force, uniformed services, security, etc., which give an easy feeling of domination over others, of apparent “power”. Although they are weak internally, they are strengthened by the fact that they act secretly and have a sense of agency, and if they have the opportunity – they take revenge.
Revenge? For what?
If only because “I was once beaten by my parents or my friends, humiliated, put into a corner, ridiculed and humiliated. And now I can pay back ». Not only to those who hurt me then, but to the whole world. Here is the beginning of the path to someone becoming an autocrat at some point and developing certain personality traits. However, in order for this to be possible, it must function within a favorable community.
But why do people choose such people as their leaders? Are they gullible and do not see the danger?
Such a person infects them with something. A sense of mission, the idea of what I was talking about. This is because people need a strong leader and power. It gives them a sense of self-confidence and stability, as well as – clearly defined rules. Dictators skillfully show people what they would like to see. That they are better, more worthy, that they deserve more. They fuel megalomaniacal aspirations even in those who have nothing, that if they are sons of a great country, they deserve more than the sons of a small country.
In the initial period, the dictator inspires both fear and admiration. He is able to defeat his opponents by various methods, he is strong and wins, and around him a wreath of flatterers and supporters is formed. They think that when they are close to him, I will “warm” in his radiance, in his sense of agency. And together with him they will eat the cake that can be achieved.
And with those who do not benefit from it – at least not directly, and do not warm up to him? What about the masses?
Society begins to believe in the idea of uniqueness and mission, which the dictator skillfully suggests. That he is there to protect them all, because there is this evil world that threatens them all. It unites the masses around the dictator. He uses social engineering and social psychology to bring people together, reward flatterers who are viewed as career models and find followers. Therefore, the dictator cannot be said to be insane and sick, he knows perfectly well what he is doing. And the special abilities of personality and character allow him to control it.
For example, acting skills?
True, leaders and dictators are often people with special acting skills, although the more accurate term is that they can act or manipulate well. Putin is an actor of his own stage, shows the ability to dramatize, which allows him to be a better social manipulator. Because dramatization helps convince others to believe what the dictator says, and he himself is more authentic and convincing. He says: “enemy at the gates”; we must go beyond our gates to defeat him.
And Volodymyr Zelensky?
Unlike Putin, Volodymyr Zelensky is a flesh and blood actor, a charismatic leader and a charismatic actor. There is no place for anything artificial, scenic or playing here anymore – it is painfully authentic.
When can people turn their backs on their dictator?
Only when the dictator begins to reveal those personality traits that were all the time but now begin to threaten the strong position of his closest associates and can turn against them. At a time when setbacks occur, his suspicion and alertness, and his constant sense of danger can lead them to become his victims. Because the dictator begins to look for the causes of the defeat, but of course not in himself, but among others. He easily accuses his closest associates of disloyalty, betrayal and disadvantage.
It’s paranoid behavior …
Dictators have certain paranoid traits. However, this is not paranoia, understood as a mental illness and delusions. Everything here is coherent, logical and authentic. We say that they are characterized by morbid suspicion, they have a sense of distrust of everyone, they are focused on searching for the enemy and being overly vigilant. Though they live with a sense of a mission to fulfill, its source may be so confused that it is not known whether there is any history of it early in development or later experiences. There are also irrational prejudices and fears in all of this, and distrust causes the dictator to live alone.
Alone? And the red carpet, crowds of cheering, and an army of henchmen, servile and devoted people?
The fact that dictators walk among people cheering and applauding does not make them feel satisfied and proud. Their thinking goes in a completely different direction – which one is against me and is about to draw a treacherous weapon. Let’s take a look at their body posture. There is talk of the so-called negative geotropism – that they do not walk with their heads bowed to the ground, on the contrary – they levitate. They raise their heads to be taller than the crowd, even if they are not very tall. This gives them a greater sense of self-confidence. Clothing, for example uniforms, is characteristic for them, but the uniform can also be a suit, tie, their color. Their attitude and insight want to arouse fear. They do not look into the eyes, and if they do, they do it in such a way as to arouse fear and shock.
Dictators are also distinguished by “a mighty force capable of moving the masses at any time”.
Dictators have a sense of omnipotence and identification with overarching ideas to which they attribute the value of their own product. Their superior status, however, is so great that these ideas acquire an almost divine character. Dictators like to call themselves “we” and not “me”. There is no personal thread of presenting any reason. It is always “we” who think so, and that “you”, that is, the others, must submit to it. This is also connected with the loneliness of the dictators, because they do not reveal their hidden fears, unpleasant experiences and desire for revenge. They are devoid of empathy, the ability to empathize with other people’s emotions, to understand them. It is completely alien to them.
Loneliness distorts a person.
First of all, the loneliness of dictators is fostered by greater suspicion towards other people and looking for the enemy. However, in order to maintain this sense of agency and to infect the masses, to accomplish what they want, the enemy must be demonized. And demonizing the enemy is using manipulation, lying and arousing social phobias. They describe their opponents with the worst epithets, not accidental, as “Banderites”, “Nazis”, “drug addicts” and “ordinary gangs”. They are attributed with false characteristics in order to frighten them. In this way, social phobias and fears can be aroused. Because the masses do not understand the meanders of power and do not know what is really going on. Fortunately, there are not many people who want such absolute power. They appear as a product of a given era and their surroundings once in several dozen years.
How can a dictator beset by the world and his associates behave? It becomes so unpredictable that it can act on the principle of “even a flood for me”?
Of course, the dictator notices what is happening around him. However, he is characterized by such extreme egocentrism that he is not susceptible to criticism. Criticism makes him angry and wants to take revenge for the failures he knows about, but he does not allow himself to be aware of it, and he completely does not see his mistakes in failures. He cannot suddenly, under the influence of failures, change from a wolf to a lamb. Especially since he is devoid of guilt and remorse. Such people never apologize.
Dlaczego?
Because their trait of personality is narcissism. And this narcissism is not just about self-love. In this case, it’s a completely different feature. In my work on the psychopathological assessment of killers, narcissism is often identified. Because this narcissism is destructive, breeding aggression. Feelings of superiority, domination and narcissism make it impossible to change your mind. Even if such a dictator is removed from power by his associates, he still lives in the sense of being right. He will not take into account that he has neglected something, but regrets not having removed those he might have suspected would go against him. Dictators’ memory does not end with the loss of power. They continue to use specific defense mechanisms that confirm them in the rightness of choices and beliefs.
Apparently, every government demoralizes …
Yes, there is even such a phrase that absolute power corrupts absolutely. Dictators are demoralized to some extent. British physician and politician David Owen in his book “The Sick in Power. Secrets of political leaders of the last hundred years »described such a feature as a shoe. The term used is that someone is arrogant, but a shoe accompanies every dictator. It manifests itself with extreme egocentrism, a sense of omnipotence and the conviction that my reason, resulting from history and historical necessity, is the highest reason, there is no other reason. It also makes these people unpredictable and dangerous.
How do the features and personality of a dictator develop?
This is where we started our conversation: a dictator must have a certain germ to be a dictator, and at the same time find a fertile social ground that needs such a leader. This may be favored by the vibrations of the society, its frustration, for example due to poverty, when a given community sees that others have better. Such people don’t know that they can’t get any better under these conditions. However, they are prone to claims that it does not depend on themselves, on their inefficient work and inferior education, but that others are responsible for it. When someone tells them this, they start to believe it. They easily take responsibility for their fate off of themselves, they shift it onto others, onto an external enemy. And the reason someone suggests them, they begin to consider their right. This is what a dictator does when he realizes his goals and intentions.
When can a dictator end with his death?
Especially when his loved ones find that they are losing out on it, and the fear of revenge exceeds their ability to submit. Because they too become a victim of the dictator. To save themselves, they can infect others, even whole masses. This is what happens and dictatorships are always overthrown in the end, but often at the cost of many lives. (PAP)
Author: Zbigniew Wojtasiński
zbw/ i will/
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