The Psychological Assessment of Political Leaders- Strategy and tactics—goal-directed behavior
- Decision making and decision implementation style
a. Strategic decision making
b. Crisis decision making
c. How does leader use staff/inner circle? Does the leader vet decisions or
use them only for information? How collegial? E>oes the leader sur-
round himself or herself with sycophants or choose strong self-
confident subordinates?
d. Dealing with formal and informal negotiating style
PART v. Outlook
- Note particularly political behavior closely related to personality issues.
Relate personality to key issues, emphasizing in which direction the psy-
chological factors point. Estimate drives, values, and characteristics that
are the most influential. - Attempt to predict how the individual will interact with other political
figures, including opposition leaders and other key foreign leaders.
Notes- Traditional elements include appearance; level of activity; speech and lan-
guage; intelligence; knowledge; memory; thought content arid delusions; drives
and affects, including anxiety, aggression, hostility, sexuality, activity and pas-
sivity, shame and guilt, and depression; evaluation of reality; judgment; inter-
personal relations, including capacity for empathy; identity and ambivalence;
and characteristic ego defenses. - For an excellent example of the systematic application of the traditional
elements of psychiatric diagnosis applied to a historical figure, see the psy-
chopathological assessment of Adolph Hitler in Redlich1998. - Drawing on the works of early neo-Freudian Elvin Semrad, Vaillant
(1992) has identified four levels of defensive organization. He identifies the psy-
chotic triad of denial, distortion, and delusional projection as representing the
most primitive level of psychological organization. The immature defenses
include projection, passive aggression, acting out, and fantasy. The neurotic
(intermediate) defenses include dissociation, displacement, isolation (or intellec-
tualization), repression, and reaction formation. Mature defenses include sup-
pression, sublimation, and altruism. - This discussion of the relationship among three key personality types,
leadership style, and worldview draws on Post and Rogers 1988. - This section draws significantly on Post 1992.
- See Robins and Post 1997. This volume offers an extended treatment of
the political manifestations of paranoia. A number of the key points expanded at
length in Robins and Post 1997 are summarized in a preliminary article (Robins
and Post 1987).