Is Your Boss a Psychopath? 878
Dogers writes "Robert Hare, creator of the Psychopathy Checklist, has recently been applying his test 'Is your boss a psychopath' to businessmen and has found some disturbing results. From the article: 'Why wouldn't we want to screen them? We screen police officers, teachers. Why not people who are going to handle billions of dollars?'. Citing Enron and Worldcom management as an example, it seems a reasonable argument. The same source also has a quiz (magazine produced it seems) which allows you to test your own boss, too!"
15 points (Score:4, Informative)
Re:The question is why do they exist? (Score:1, Informative)
or the company you work for (Score:4, Informative)
This documentary looks at a corporations from a psychologists perspective and finds that corporations are sociopaths
-best
-greg
Re:The question is why do they exist? (Score:5, Informative)
However, capitalism gives mild psychopaths a legal outlet for their manipulative urges. It's understood today, and even encouraged, that to be successful in business you must screw people over. I majored in business administration and that's more or less what management classes are - they teach you how to manipulate people for the good of the Company. As with anything else, a natural aptitude for it will make you more successful.
Re:The question is why do they exist? (Score:2, Informative)
And why, pray tell, did you include Guevarra in your little list? (Hint: Read your own link)
I'm not sure whether you could call him a psychopath in medical terms, but he was certainly violent with questionable morals. For example, he was a self-confessed Stalinist, and spent a time in charge of a prison and oversaw the execution of over 150 Batista regime officials.
A quote from the Wikipedia article: "He personally executed Eutimio Guerra, a suspected Batista informant, with a single shot from his .32(7.65mm) caliber pistol."
The last article I read suggested a 1 to 5 ratio (Score:2, Informative)
Contextual factors... and standards in psych. (Score:2, Informative)
You cannot expect someone to live in a stressed, hyper-rationalized environment which was conceived to make as much profit as possible, to be nice a care about others... Multinationals, as their name indicates, are not tide in one neighbor... so their are not influenced by social pressure as much as SMBs.
Besides, I would like to highlight that psychopathology/psychology is heavily influenced by our expectations as a society. Given a context, people should behave like that. Dr. Hare does that and creates a P-Scan-like form. However, during business hours pressured individuals forget their own values and act under the authority of their employer. Just read Milgram's experiments [wikipedia.org].
wake up! Don't judge actors only, but also contexts!
Re:The question is why do they exist? (Score:5, Informative)
I know, it's tough to come to terms that Hot Topic lead you astray. Guevara ran Cuba's gulags -- the real kind, not the three meals a day Git'mo kind that Amnesty International calls gulags. He also oversaw the temporary forced work camps. This is where the regular citizens were sent to broaden their horizons through sugar cane farming. Then there are the people that were murdered while he tried to sow insurrection in South America.
Sure, compared to Castro who eventually left Guevara to die, he's a pussy cat. Then there's a certain level of romanticizing from The Motorcycle Diaries. However, I wouldn't cut Hitler any slack because he killed many millions less than Stalin. Although I'm sure there's a romantic story lying somewhere in Hitler In Vienna.
Bush Has Already Been Diagnosed As Such (Score:3, Informative)
But then, I suppose everybody assumes politicians are psychopaths, so nobody cares.
Bush is a psychotic, dry drunk, typically Chistian hypocritical chimpanzee.
Latest word is the White House has "weather reports" among the staff each day to see if he's feeling good - or on some rage where he's likely to lash out at anyone around him. Shades of the Watergate Nixon White House.
Right now, since he's taken yet ANOTHER "vacation" at his "all hat, no cattle" ranch, where he's been forced into hiding by a mother who wants answers for his stupid, greed-and-power-driven policies, we can all expect another "terrorist attack" (read: Reichstag fire incident) in a few weeks, since reportedly all military leaves have been canceled from September into December.
Presumably the next victim is Iran.
It's not surprising he's supported by corporate types like Bill Gates and morons like Ah-nuld who generally show similar characteristics.
Not that Clinton was any better - as he once told Genifer Flowers, he was "born 17 and stayed 17. Hillary was born 40 and stayed 40."
And don't even get me started on Donnie Rumsfeld, a rambling, lying, arrogant, senile pissant who wouldn't be respected by the counter clerks if he was running a McDonald's in Podunk.
Still, you monkeys all demand that people respect these assholes, because otherwise you wouldn't know where you are in the primate hierarchy - which might cause chimpanzee anxiety.
Just read an article this morning quoting Henry Kissinger from Woodward's book saying how military men were all dumb, stupid animals to be manipulated for foreign policy aims, and stating how Kissinger used to dress down General Al Haig in front of the secretaries in the White House for alleged incompetence.
Primate politics at its best.
Narcissist not Psychopath (Score:3, Informative)
Part of the problem is that, atleast in the US, there is no recognized single disorder that covers psychopathic personalities. The most closely aligned, according to the DSM(Diagnostic and Statistical Manual) is Antisocial Personality Disorder, which does share some traits with Narcissistic Personality Disorder, but neither APD or NDP alone would qualify someone as a Psychopath. In the ICD (international equivalent to the DSM) there is a personality disorder covering psychopaths, as well as a couple other disorders that are closesly inline with psychopathic personailty, but most likely neither of those would apply to your boss. There is a reason there as so many different diagnostics and that they some time share traits, because each different combination of traits should be treated differently.
So please don't everyone go of thinking there boss is a psychopath because they are manipulative, grandiose or don't show any feeling or affect. It's a job, and it is those particular traits that most likely allowed them to get where they are.
who... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:If you support CAFTA/FREE TRADE (Score:4, Informative)
Trickledown econonomics was discredited years ago. The money doesn't make it to the poor. Ever. It circulates among the middle and upper classes, driving up prices for the things they desire (property, say) and increasing the gap between rich and poor. Making the middle-class richer makes it harder for the poor to become middle-class; it makes it harder for them to move to a nice area, harder for them to get their kids into a good school, harder to get good health-care. Making the rich richer does not make the poor richer. Relativley, it makes them poorer. And they don't catch up.
Re: equivocal meanings (Score:2, Informative)