HOW NATURE AND NURTURE CREATE A DICTATOR Natalie Tse, Year 12, Keller Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong, Benito
pathological
lying,
being
Mussolini, Pol Pot, Kim Jong-il, Saddam Hussein,
cunning, having a lack of remorse or guilt,
Kim Jong-un, Fidel Castro, Ho Chi Minh, Nikita
emotionally
Khrushchev, these are just some examples of
callousness,
dictators who possessed absolute power over a
hypersexual (or asexual) and charisma. These are
country, typically one which has been obtained
all psychopathic tendencies.
shallow,
manipulative
lack
of
empathy
impulsiveness,
and and
irresponsible,
through force. These names listed above are each responsible for hundreds of thousands, or even
Other things that we know about dictators are that
millions of deaths, and left those who survived in
they
persistent fear of death, forced labour or torture.
antisocial personality disorder), many dictators also
appear
to
display
be
psychopaths
(including [1]
malignant
narcissism,
sadism,
But what makes a dictator? Are people simply
paranoia (for example, Saddam Hussein was so
born dictators, or are they made? Keeping in
paranoid that he had multiple meals prepared for
mind, while there are a few in-depth direct
him around the country each day so no one knew
psychiatric data on dictators, however, there are
where he was eating. He even led as far as
virtually no genetic reports or brain imaging data.
surgically altering body doubles). Most dictators
Dictators are highly likely to be psychopaths and
are also found moderately to very intelligent and
some are similar to serial killers including zealots
had
or cult leaders. These studies and information that
childhood
I have found for my research are all based on
parents (for example, Hitler witnessed the death
educated guesses and comparisons to similar cases
of a sibling and was constantly abused by his
made by professionals and myself. The following
alcoholic father), many were mass murderers and
explanations
some, especially in the 20th and 21st century
are
all
pieced
together
hypothetically.
excellent
[2]
memories,
trauma
and/or
many loss
of
had
early
biological
preferred to murder their people (for example, Pol Pot’s massive genocide to up to two million of
Things Dictators Have in Common
his own people).
Dictators are found to have many common and consistent personality traits. These include
[1] [2]
Many dictators also have narcissistic traits: having
A personality disorder, those who have it often believe their own lies People who have excellent memories tend to have two forms of a gene that allow you to have very good memories but can also make you very anxious or depressed
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