The Making of Destructive Leaders

The Making of Destructive Leaders

A developmental perspective on pathological narcissism and power

Recorded Friday 31 July 2020

With Professor James Gilligan, Professor Joy Schaverien and Dr Felicity de Zulueta

CPD Credits: 4 hours

In a year of multiple crises in many Western democracies, from the Covid-19 pandemic to the uprisings against racism, to the unfolding economic disaster that is a product of austerity, many will be asking the question: what type of person is governing us? This question relates not simply to specific individuals, their political parties and ideologies but to the mental states of those who are supposed to be offering benign leadership.

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FULL PROGRAMME

Professor James Gilligan
The Trump Syndrome: Narcissistic Rage, Authoritarianism and Violence
In this talk James Gilligan will review data from Donald Trump’s personal biography, including his education in authoritarianism, sadism and humiliating people at the military academy to which his father sent him at the age of 13. His interest here will be not just in Trump himself, but rather, to use his story as an illustration, example and paradigm in a broader inquiry into several more general questions:
1) What types of personal life experiences and traumas are necessary, if not sufficient, to produce dangerous and psychopathic political leaders, or at least to have a significant influence on their development? 2) What psychodynamic and characterological patterns do these leaders exhibit and exemplify in their personal psychologies, as a result of those experiences? 3) What are the psychological characteristics and the socioeconomic and historical circumstances that predispose their fellow citizens to vote such leaders into power? And finally 4) What conditions do we need to create if we wish to reduce the frequency with which such individuals are produced and voted into power, to neutralize them once they are in power, and to remove them from power as quickly and non-violently as possible?

Discussion and Q&A

Professor Joy Schaverien
Boarding School Syndrome – Mothers and Other Lovers
In her book Boarding School Syndrome: The Psychological Trauma of the “Privileged” Child Joy Schaverien identified a cluster of symptoms and behaviours, which she classified as “Boarding School Syndrome”. The premise is that children sent to boarding school at an early age suffer the sudden and irrevocable loss of their primary attachments. This constitutes a significant emotional trauma. The loss of the longed-for mother of early childhood may create a disorganized attachment pattern that continues to unconsciously distort adult relationships, leading to disconnection between an apparently confident public persona and the private person. Many of our political leaders suffered the trauma of early boarding and we will consider whether this history may be observed in the current performance in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Discussion and Q&A

Dr Felicity de Zulueta
The Making of Destructive Leaders
Faced with a viral pandemic over which we have no control, we depend totally on our leaders to protect us from harm. Can we trust them? Figures indicate inordinately high levels of deaths in old peoples’ homes, amongst unprotected NHS staff and ethnic minorities of African or South Asian descent. Dr de Zulueta will show how our leaders’ minds, moulded by their traumatic boarding school experiences, make them highly suitable to govern according to the current ideology, which is “make money and to hell with the rest”. Recent ground-breaking research in neuroscience shows that our brains are wired to connect, challenging the current belief that human nature is self-seeking and competitive and providing us with the scientific tools to develop an alternative type of society that promotes environmental, social and psychological wellbeing.

15 minutes for Q&A

Discussion with all speakers

End

FEES

Includes: 1 year’s access, test and CPD Certificate of Attendance, subtitles and transcript

INDIVIDUAL

£60 (or £48 Confer member)

GROUP RATE

£50pp in groups of over 10 (please apply to accounts@confer.uk.com)

CPD

Continuing Professional Development (CPD) credits for 4 hours are available as part of the course fee. You will need to fill out an evaluation form and pass a multiple choice questionnaire related to the content in order to receive your certificate. You can submit this test up to a maximum of 5 times.

SCHEDULE

00:04:56
Professor James Gilligan
The Trump Syndrome: Narcissistic Rage, Authoritarianism and Violence

00:47:44
Discussion and Q&A

01:01:53
Professor Joy Schaverien
Boarding School Syndrome – Mothers and Other Lovers

01:51:17
Discussion and Q&A

02:01:18
Dr Felicity de Zulueta
The Making of Destructive Leaders

02:51:28
Discussion and Q&A

02:59:54
Panel discussion with all speakers

03:47:00
End

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

By attending this workshop virtually, participants will be able to:
  • Explain different attributes of the authoritarian personality
  • Describe adverse chilhood experiences that contribute to the creation of a destructive leader
  • Define and explain the concept ‘Boarding School Syndrome’
  • Engage therapeutically with the psychological antecedents and correlates of destructive leadership