How Nature and Nurture Create a Dictator

HOW NATURE AND NURTURE

CREATE A DICTATOR

Natalie Tse, Year 12, Keller

Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong, Benito Mussolini, Pol Pot, Kim Jong-il, Saddam Hussein, Kim Jong-un, Fidel Castro, Ho Chi Minh, Nikita Khrushchev, these are just some examples of dictators who possessed absolute power over a country, typically one which has been obtained through force. These names listed above are each responsible for hundreds of thousands, or even millions of deaths, and left those who survived in persistent fear of death, forced labour or torture.

But what makes a dictator? Are people simply born dictators, or are they made? Keeping in mind, while there are a few in-depth direct psychiatric data on dictators, however, there are virtually no genetic reports or brain imaging data. Dictators are highly likely to be psychopaths and some are similar to serial killers including zealots or cult leaders. These studies and information that I have found for my research are all based on educated guesses and comparisons to similar cases made by professionals and myself. The following explanations are all pieced together hypothetically.

Things Dictators Have in Common Dictators are found to have many common and consistent personality traits. These include pathological lying, being manipulative and cunning, having a lack of remorse or guilt, emotionally shallow, lack of empathy and callousness, impulsiveness, irresponsible, hypersexual (or asexual) and charisma. These are all psychopathic tendencies.

Other things that we know about dictators are that they appear to be psychopaths (including antisocial personality disorder), many dictators also display malignant narcissism, sadism, paranoia (for example, Saddam Hussein was so paranoid that he had multiple meals prepared for him around the country each day so no one knew where he was eating. He even led as far as surgically altering body doubles). Most dictators are also found moderately to very intelligent and had excellent memories, many had early childhood trauma and/or loss of biological parents (for example, Hitler witnessed the death of a sibling and was constantly abused by his alcoholic father), many were mass murderers and some, especially in the 20th and 21st century preferred to murder their people (for example, Pol Pot’ s massive genocide to up to two million of his own people).

Many dictators also have narcissistic traits: having

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[2] 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

an exaggerated sense of self-importance, being perceptive with fantasies about success, power or beauty, believing that they are special and can only associate with equally special people, requiring constant admiration, having a sense of entitlement, behaving in an arrogant or haughty matter and taking advantage of others.

Psychopathology There are several nature and nurture factors which are believed to result in the types of behaviours displayed by dictators. In a study done by Dr. James Fallon, he had found that serial killers and dictators often have similar personality traits, this led him into believing that both serial killers and dictators have a similar type of brain damage. Although this may be the cause of said personality traits, it is important to keep in mind that each individual is different. In our society there is a term known as successful psychopaths: this is coined at psychopaths with higher levels of consciousness, who are able to control their actions and often thrive in society among other ordinary human beings. This means that the brain structures of serial killers and psychopaths who were caught will not be generalisable to all dictators. Serial killers or psychopaths may possess some or many traits consistent with psychopathology. Dr. James Fallon describes psychopathology [3] as a three-legged stool: high vulnerability genetic alleles (forms of genes that are at high risk of forms of aggression), functional brain loss in certain brain areas and abuse. How Nature Plays a Role Continuing the study done by Dr. James Fallon, he had found that there are certain parts of the brain that are altered in people that have a problem with moral dilemmas. The orbital cortex and amygdala are malformed in psychopaths, in many cases this is due to what happened before birth, while some are due to damage after birth (tumor, trauma, etc.). The orbital cortex and amygdala try to control your behaviour, and principally, whoever wins gets to control one ' s behaviour. We all follow and do things that our amygdala does, however, only in the right context. And our orbital cortex gives us the reason, the right context and reason to do these things. When it is unbalanced or malformed, it can cause us to act out without reason.

Additionally, it is also believed that dictators contain a gene known as the “ warrior gene ” . This so-called “ warrior gene ” is a gene that exhibits higher levels of behavioral aggression in response to provocation. It is composed of particular variations in the X chromosome gene that produces monoamine oxidase A (MAOA). MAOA is an enzyme that affects the neurotransmitters dopamine, norepinephrine and serotonin. Past research has found that when MAOA genes link with specific environmental factors, it can often lead to significantly higher levels of violent behaviour in men.

[3]Psychopathology is a term which refers to either the study of mental illness or mental distress or the manifestation of behaviours and experiences which can be symptomatic of mental illness or psychological impairment.

How Nurture Plays a Role Alice Miller, a psychoanalyst, wrote a book “For Your Own Good” where she analysed how dictators ’ childhood and their first experiences shaped their respective childhood. In this book, Miller also brings in the term ‘ poisonous pedagogies ’ , a term used to refer to ways of raising a child that could harm their emotional development. This lack of development will later result in both dangerous and harmful adult behaviour. The use of the word ‘ poison ’ in this term leads to neurosis and dysfunctional behaviour in said child, a poison that will remain in them even during and perhaps after adulthood.

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In Miller ’ s book, she refers to several dictators as an example of her analysis in ‘ poisonous pedagogies ’ . A dictator she mentions in particular is Joseph Stalin. Stalin grew up as an only child in an impecunious family. As a matter of fact, Stalin was the only child out of the three children who had survived. Stalin ’ s father was a shoemaker and an alcoholic who would often beat him. His father then abandoned him and his mother when he was 5 years old to work in a factory. According to Miller, the fact that Stalin was the only surviving child in his family had caused him to be more vigilant. Stalin would panic, constantly living in fear that his father might kill him next, which then developed into paranoia as he got older. Stalin had a “ manic conviction that everyone else was out to kill him ” which had led him to do many things such as sending millions of people into concentration camps. Miller says “it is more likely that individuals, who have completely repressed the mistreatment they once received, will constitute a danger to others. The greater power these formerly oppressed and abused people acquire, the bigger the threat they represent. ” This form of nurture is clearly demonstrated through dictators such as Stalin, Hitler and many of their followers.

Conclusion Fundamentally, nature and nurture work in conjunction in order to shape a dictator. Despite the lack of studies in dictators, the comparison of observed behaviours and traits from dictators can definitely hypothetically piece together findings from studies and theories. Natural or biological components such as the MAOA warrior gene, brain damage and other findings like twin studies on aggression. [5] Biological factors such as testosterone can assuredly be a factor as well with nearly all dictators in history being males and studies have found that high testosterone levels may affect aggression and other psychological traits as well. On the other hand, nurture elements can equally create a dictator through introducing first experiences and upbringing. As this was all pieced together hypothetically, there is no way of knowing whether nature plays a bigger role in creating a dictator than nurture or vice versa. Instead, what we know is that there are many factors involved in creating a dictator, many of which may be more common than you think, bringing up the question: can the person next to you be a dictator in disguise?

A term coined by German educationist and author Katharina Rutschky Twin studies on aggression have been done over the years (notably Brengden et al.) have found that genes do play a role in aggression demonstrated in individuals. This suggests that genetics can affect one ’ s aggression which may attribute to forming a dictator