Narcissistic Leader Mirrors His Nation and Zeitgeist
Channel: Sam Vaknin
Date: 2013-04-13

The narcissistic or psychopathic leader is the culmination and reification of his period, culture, and civilization. He is likely to rise to prominence in narcissistic societies. The leader's mental health pathologies resonate with the anomies of his society and culture ("psychopathological resonance".) The leader and the led form a self-enhancing and self-reinforcing feedback loop, a dyad of mirrored adoration and reflected love. By elevating and idealizing their "Fuehrer", the mob actually elevates and idealizes itself and the leader's harnessed ochlocracy; in the "Duce's" ascendance they find hope, in his manifest illness -- curative solace and a legitimation of their own collective insanity. The dictator himself equates being elected -- however patently unfairly -- with being chosen by the transcendental forces of the gods and history. His is a manifest destiny, his exceptionalism - the nation's own.

More about this topic here:

http://www.narcissistic-abuse.com

http://www.healthyplace.com/communities/personality_disorders/narcissism/

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/narcissisticabuse/