books
a brotherhood of tyrants manic depression & absolute power
napoleon bonaparte adolf hitler and joseph stalin were three tyrants and the effects of their brutal regimes are still with us . each attained absolute power and misused it in a gargantuan fashion leaving in his wake a trail of hatred devastation and death . br in a brotherhood of tyrants d. jablow hershman and julian lieb uncover manic depression as a hidden cause of dictatorship war and mass killing . in comparing these three tyrants they describe a number of behavioral similarities supporting the contention that a specific psychiatric disorder manic depression can be one of the key factors in such political pathologies as tyranny and terrorism . br manic depressive disorder has also produced the great destroyers in history when in addition to ambition and egotism have been added large measures of ruthlessness willfulness utter intolerance of criticism a consuming need to dominate others paranoia and megalomania . br focusing on these three dictators a brotherhood of tyrants argues that manic depression has always been and continues to be a critical factor in compelling some individuals to seek political power and to become tyrants . it powerfully demonstrates how this disorder is the source of many of the typical characteristics including grandiosity and megalomania of a tyrannical personality and provides a manual for the identification of the psychotic tyrant . br in their epilogue the authors outline the clinical signs of manic depression as described in the classic studies of the german psychiatrist emil kraepelin 1856 1926 . they apply these clinical signs and symptoms to the pathologies of four notorious mass killers of recent times david koresh jeffrey dahmer jim jones and colin ferguson . they argue that if these individuals had been identified in time as manic depressives they could have been successfully treated and hundreds of innocent lives could have been saved .
hardcover prometheus books 1994 isbn 0879758880
abridged n isbn 13 9780879758882 number of pages 219 publisher random house inc release date 62135769600000