Leaders’ psychopathy

Dear people: We must face the truth about our psychopathic leaders. Dr. Hervey Cleckley, psychiatrist, listed the following traits as psychopathic: superficial charm and good “intelligence”; apparent absence of delusions except that one is superior to others; overly confident; untruthfulness and insincerity; lack of remorse or shame for hurts caused; antisocial behavior with no apparent reason for being cruel or lying; poor judgment and failure to learn from mistakes; narcissistic, incapacity for real love and shallowness of feelings; lack of insight into the feelings or needs of others— plays the victim; risky or fantastic behavior; rarely carries out suicide, but may threaten it to manipulate others; sex life is impersonal and superficial; has a series of short- term romantic relationships; and failure to follow a consistent life plan ( The Mask of Sanity, 1941).

These are not passing reactions to stress but pervasive, lifelong personality traits, and when most of these accumulate, it is called a psychopathic personality disorder. Psychopaths manipulate and victimize others, and those persons who ( or countries which) threaten or criticize the person’s perfect self- image are soon attacked or disposed of, protecting the psychopath’s sense of inadequacy.

Where are the adults who will help the American people? This will not get better on its own, so please act now, before the chaos, fear, and distrust drive people away from obeying their government and before our leaders’ rash behavior causes another world war. Germany waited too long to rein in Hitler and the Holocaust happened! DINA C. NASH Maumelle