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A Mente Louca Dos Grandes Líderes Mundiais (2011)

by S. Nassir Ghaemi(Favorite Author)

3.65 of 5 Votes: 5

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Matéria-Prima Edições

review 1: The book's provocative premise begs a potential reader to think this is going to be sensationalist schlock, losely supported by cherry picked annecdotes. Happily, this is not hte case. The central thesis is that those touched with mental illness--especially manic depressive illness and its milder forms (e.g. hypo- dys- and cyclo- thymia) have enabled leaders to perform better in times of true crisis, but not tranquil times, while their 'normal' homoclite counterparts perform better in normal times but are unable to rise to the occasion in times of true crisis. Dr. Ghaemi offers careful, understated, but fascinating analysis of historical figures from Franklin Roosevelt, John Kennedy, MLK Jr., Churchill, Stonewall Jackson, William T. Sherman, George McClellan, Grant, Lee... more, Hitler, GW Bush and Tony Blair, Ghandi, and contrasts those who historical documentation and his new research shows definitely struggled with mental illness, against those who did not. The book's strength is that Ghaemi treats the subject thoughtfully and fairly and makes a compelling case. Its weakness likes in the fact that in a psycho-history like this, we are still dealing with a very small sample size. Still, it was hard not to see a real connection between those with manic and hypomanic conditions and personalities and the heights of energy, creativity, empathy and resilliance they were able to rise to, whereas their more homoclite counterparts were generally competent peacetime managers, or bureaucrats, but lacked the capacity to expand themselves or their vision when crises altered the status quo conditions.A vivid and compassionate vision of the phenomenon that occur across the spectrum of human experience, even amongst those who rise to the highest level of public figure and leadership.
review 2: This book offers an interesting perspective on how an insane leader thrive during crisis. Many great historical figures' anecdotes are one of the most interesting parts of this book. Understanding that this is more of a research type of book, I don't blame it to be too theoretical, nor a little bit dry sometimes.Overall, it is a nice book that really elaborates well on the relationship between insanity and leadership. less

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