The following indented excerpts are quoted from Managing the Madness, Antonella Gambotto-Burke's review of Snakes in Suits: When Psychopaths Go To Work, by Paul Babiak and Robert D. Hare, published 23-24 September 2006 by The Weekend Australian. My comments follow each indentation.
The Corporation, an award-winning documentary, posited that the modern corporation is, in itself, a psychopathic entity: "The institutional embodiment of laissez-faire capitalism fully meets the diagnostic criteria of a psychopath."
You can see it, hear it and damn near smell it everywhere. From the phoney, oily-voiced loudspeaker announcements at shopping centres to straight-faced protestations of innocence from high-flying disordered personalities who run corporations like Enron. Somehow the human race has got to get over predatory capitalism. It's so pre-history!
In the journal Psychology, Crime and Law," the authors report, "researchers Board and Fritzon administered a self-report personality inventory to a sample of British senior business managers and executives. They concluded that the prevalence of histrionic, narcissistic and compulsive personality disorders was relatively high, and that many of the traits exhibited were consistent with psychopathy: superficial charm, insincerity, egocentricity, manipulativeness, grandiosity, lack of empathy, exploitativeness, independence, rigidity, stubbornness and dictatorial tendencies."
Some of these traits could be applied not only to myself but everyone I know. But we're only hurting each other. These men are basically teaching millions that this kind of behaviour -- rapacious individualism devoid of humanity -- is OK.
Characterised by a disturbing lack of empathy, psychopaths have little insight into their behaviour. Their life judgments are poor … and they rarely learn from experience, meaning that dysfunctional behaviour is repeated ad infinitum. Their hallmark? Pathological lying.
Who do we know who fits that description? Why, Little Johnny Howard, that's who. The difference between corporate high flyers and politicians is nil.
"They cross back and forth easily between lying and honesty during conversations," the authors observe, "because they do not have the guilty feelings the rest of us have when we try to tell a lie."
Personally, I hate feelings of guilt, but it shows I have a conscience, the built-in monitor that alerts me to those moments when I transgress against others.
Another defining characteristic is the refusal to take responsibility. Psychopaths are never accountable. All blame is externalised (circumstances, fate, luck, brainwashing, the weather). "Pointing the finger at others," Babiak and Hare conclude, "serves the dual purpose of reinforcing their own positive image while spreading disparaging information about rivals and detractors. They do this by positioning their blame of others as a display of loyalty to the listener."
And if the listener happens to be a mob of yokels tuning in to talk back radio, the psychopathic Prime Menteur can easily blame everything from terrorism to the drought on the opposition party and anyone else who thinks differently. "All that matters is the objective: that is, to discredit those who see through them."
Business structures and procedures have changed dramatically since the early 20th century, when the turgid bureaucratic model optimised productivity. The mergers, acquisitions and takeovers of the 1970s and '80s not only trimmed a lot of corporate fat, they also created a demand for a new kind of player: not the steadfast "company man" of the past but an entirely different model: the corporate predator.
The "company man," the "man in the grey flannel suit," used to be a subject of derision. But since his transformation into the macho corporate predator, he is suddenly the goal for all MBA's. Politicians have changed as well. Our Johnny is nothing if not a political predator in the pocket of corporate predators.
A far more aggressive psychopathic subclass brings to mind the leadership style of certain religious heads and politicians. "This group, the corporate bullies, seems to reflect many of the traits of the macho psychopath: they are primarily abusive rather than charming [and] rely on coercion, abuse, humiliation, harassment, aggression and fear to get their way."
See the life and times of Pat Robertson, Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, and our own Bill Heffernan.
As Babiak and Hare emphasise, the reality is that "there is no evidence that psychopaths derive any benefit from treatment or management programs."
Like pedophiles, there is no hope of rehabilitation. Corporate, religious and political leaders from every country exhibit these traits of madness. They have infected the people who work for them, who pray with them, and who vote for them. They are probably the patriarchal psychopaths we deserve, at least for so long as we choose competition over cooperation, exclusiveness over inclusiveness, and indifference over compassion.
-- Olney Garkle
