olitical power as a disease By Tomás Nuñez, ThD

Political power as a disease

By Tomás Nuñez, ThD

Power is a capacity, a factual command, an imposing force to influence others; it can be considered fair or unfair, balanced or unbalanced, magnanimous capacity or disease…

For Max Weber, power is “the probability of imposing one’s will, within a social relationship, even against all resistance and whatever the basis of that probability.” For Bertrand Russell, power is “the production of effects projected on other men.” For Norberto Bobbio, power is “the capacity of a subject to influence, condition, and determine the behavior of another individual.”

Throughout the history of humanity, we have read and observed how many political leaders who reach government positions are affected by “power.” The “Hubris Syndrome,” or addiction to power, is not classified as a disease but as a political-psychological condition or a personality characteristic in a particular social situation. Thus, many people who suffer from this disorder, usually leaders (business people or politicians), feel capable of carrying out significant tasks; they believe they know everything and that great things are expected of them, so they act a little beyond ordinary morality.

The word Hubris comes from the Greek hybris. It refers to an act in which a powerful person behaves with pride and arrogance, with an exaggerated self-confidence that leads him to despise other people and act against common sense.

In his book ‘In Power and Illness: Illnesses of Heads of State and Government in the Last Hundred Years’, David Owen considers that Hubris syndrome is often mixed, on many occasions, with narcissism and bipolar disorder.

The illness of power is a behavioral disorder. It is a kind of “defect,” a behavior that changes due to a certain cognitive distortion. In other words, a conduct disorder is the “automatic” choice of a profile of dysfunctional behaviors that respond to a partial, distorted, unbalanced way of seeing reality. Most conduct disorders are made, not born with them. The brain is plastic and learns with repetition and context.

There are various conduct disorders linked to the disease of power: the obsessive, the asocial, the addictive, the theatrical, and the narcissistic; at the base of them, there are various experiences of insecurity, low self-esteem, parenting practices, deficiencies, etc.

The power disorder usually locates “deficiencies” in its pathological manifestations. Thus, the one who comes to power and previously lived a situation of austerity, or limitations goes crazy spending resources, but the one who has lived comfortably usually manifests himself in another way, using more sophisticated strategies of repression or violence in its various types.

In another article entitled “The Pathology of Power” by Fernando del Pino, some symptoms of the disease are described, among which the following stand out:

• Indifference to what others think; difficulty in connecting intellectually and emotionally with the people with whom one is in a relationship.
• Coldness towards the feelings of others. Disconnection with the suffering that their decisions may produce.
• Decisions based on an unbalanced reading of reality. The potential negative consequences of the decisions taken are underestimated, and the probability of positive outcomes is overestimated.
• Loss of the sense of risk or proportion in the profile of priorities with which the institution is run. Instrumentalization of people to achieve their ends.
• Excessive personal protagonism, taking advantage of other people’s merits.
• A tendency to surround oneself with people who are not very independent intellectually and economically so that they do not contradict oneself.
• Simplistic, stereotyped judgment of people and events. Overvaluation of personal abilities and personal image.
• Uninhibited behavior that disorients others in public and private with humiliation, outbursts, etc.

The illness of political power morally degrades the person; his selfishness is progressive and not regressive; it becomes more and more intense, and in unfavorable conditions, it becomes more hostile. The great dictators or tyrants of humanity have lived this journey or rise, going from being charismatic and charming to a perverse, violent, and inhuman situation. There are plenty of examples.

It is challenging to have an excellent capacity to manage power. It is not easy. It requires solid moral and ethical baggage and, above all, a sense of reality with your feet on the ground. We have seen it in politicians, businessmen, drug traffickers, military personnel, and even athletes who end up convinced that they are semi-gods.