REFLECTIONS ON CHARACTER AND LEADERSHIP

176 REFLECTIONS ON CHARACTER AND LEADERSHIP

time, their suspiciousness becomes their prevalent, habitual mode of

thinking (Shapiro, 1965 ; Meissner, 1978 ; American Psychiatric Associa-

tion, 2000 ).

In most instances, a person has a limited arena in which to exercise

his or her confl icts. Shaka, on the other hand, could extrapolate the

emotional confl icts and deprivations of childhood, his resentment toward

specifi c children and adults, onto social situations. His aggression found

a perfect outlet in war, which gave him an opportunity to test the limits

of the forbidden. And because he respected no boundaries, his cruelty

and callousness toward human life became his lasting signature. In that

legacy, he joins a long line of other despots, such as Caligula, Tamerlane,

Ivan the Terrible, Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Pol Pot, Kim Il - Sung,

Saddam Hussein, and Robert Mugabe.

Primitive Group Formation

Leaders who are governed by a paranoid, malevolent, antisocial outlook

are extremely talented at engaging their subjects in a cosmic battle of

good against evil. Their paranoid leadership encourages the development

of two of the most basic emotionally regressive states to be found in

groups: the fi ght – fl ight orientation and the dependency orientation as

described in Chapter 7 (Bion, 1961 ). These basic orientations — which

take place at an unconscious level — create a group dynamic that makes

it much harder for people to work together constructively on the task at

hand. They encourage pathological regression in groups to more archaic

(that is, primitive) patterns of functioning. These regressive processes

are ways of dealing with feelings of fear and anxiety. Freed from the

constraints of conventional thinking, groups subject to such regression

retreat into a world of their own. The result is often delusional idea-

tion — in other words, the development of ideas completely detached

from reality — a fertile soil for the proliferation of totalitarian ideologies.

Encouraged by the leader, an infectious dynamic occurs, contributing

to shared madness between leaders and followers (Kets de Vries, 1989 ).

When regressive group processes take place — such as fi ght – fl i g h t

and dependency — people subjected to them readily give up their auton-

omy when help is at hand — an unburdening process that is easy for

people living in a collectivistic society like that of the Zulu. Their

unquestioning faith in their leader brings focus, goal - directedness, and

cohesiveness, but it also it impairs critical judgment. While they are

willing to carry out their leader ’ s directives, it is up to him or her to

take all the initiative, to do all the thinking.