The past and present dictators like Adolf Hitler ,Saddam Husein , Mugabe and others have a clearly defined psychiatric diagnosis called Malign narcissistic personality disorder. Meles is no different, he has the severest form of this pathological personality disorder.
Spectrum of narcissism can extend from benign form which most of us have (certain degree of self interest is healthy) to a more serious forms of self-obsession including malignant narcissism and psychopathy. Malignant narcissism is high end of narcissistic severity which all dictators share .
Deciding what is normal mental health and what is not is tricky. Sometimes the answer is pretty clear. Individuals like Melees Zenawi, Adolf Hitler, Idi amin, Mugabe and the likes can never be classified as mentally healthy.
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) is a 2-inch-thick book which classifies and describes more than 300 types of mental disorders. The book, published by the American Psychiatric Association, is used by mental health providers to diagnose everything from anorexia to voyeurism. According to DSM the above individuals fall in the category of mental disorder called Narcissistic personality disorder
Traits of narcissistic personality disorder include the following:
Preoccupation with fantasies that focus on unlimited success, power, intelligence
Belief that he or she is “special” and unique, and can only be understood by other special people
Expectation that others will automatically go along with what he or she wants
Inability to recognize or identify with the feelings, needs, and viewpoints of others
Envy of others or a belief that others are envious of him or her
Hypersensitivity to insults (real or imagined), criticism, or defeat, possibly reacting with rage, shame, and humiliation
Arrogant behavior and/or attitude
The Following are some of the symptoms narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) that can be seen in the the tyrant Melese:
He misrepresents facts, opportunistically shifts positions, ignores data that conflicts with his fantasy world, is overly confident and acts as statesman despite commensurate merits and narcissistic life achievements. Considers himself above the low, displays false modesty while sublimating aggression and grudges. As a narcissist he has the emotional maturity of a child, or even an animal, but the intellect of a man. What makes this guy dangerous is his lack of consciousness combined with his high self-serving intelligence and his superb performance that has fooled and outsmarted many. As a malignant narcissist his survival is dependent upon having control or the perception of control. When the control is challenged , he feels threatened and responds as though his very survival is at stake.
He has surrounded himself with codependents, enablers and followers and if anyone of them challenge his authority he just discards them as they never existed, because the victim only matters in relation to how he can support the grandiosity of the tyrant; beyond that he is faceless nameless and worthless.
Malignant narcissism is a syndrome consisting of a cross breed of the narcissistic personality disorder , the antisocial personality disorder as well as paranoid traits, all of which manifested in our dictator. The sufferer of this disorder is an emotional vampire, cruel and sadistic and enjoys other persons suffering. Most of the serial killers fall in this category.
We should all agree to the idea that those who want to be leaders of any country submit to rigours mental check-ups prior to being trusted as prim minsters or presidents as millions of lives depends on sanity of these leaders.
