Personalities of Politicians
- October 31, 2024
- General
By John M Oldham MD
In this homestretch of the election season in our country, there’s a lot of talk about the personality characteristics of the various candidates for office. A few years ago, David Runciman contributed an article to The Guardian (https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/aug/10/the-key-to-power-how-personality-shapes-our-leaders) entitled “Stamina, intelligence, ego: which personality traits make the best leaders?” Before contemplating that question, he posited that “Presidents and prime ministers have to deal with the mental strain of bearing enormous political responsibility without necessarily having the personal authority to match. The leaders of modern states hold the lives of millions in their hands, and yet they often can’t even get the people in the next room to do what they want. It might make anyone a little crazy.” True enough. But is it that the job makes one “a little crazy” or do you have to be “a little crazy” to aspire to the job? And how much “personal authority” (versus checks and balances) is the right amount? Runciman doesn’t have a universal answer to his headline question, except to say “if there is one quality that is indispensable for anyone at or near the summit of political life, it is stamina.” But he does provide an interesting analysis of the pros and cons of the personality styles of various leaders in the UK and the US.
A more recent report on successful leadership personalities, also from the UK, proposes that ambition, narcissism, and genuine idealism are common characteristics (https://newsroom.taylorandfrancisgroup.com/study-of-key-characteristics-of-politicians-reveals-ambition-narcissism-genuine-idealism-among-common-traits/). This study comes from Jim Jones, an honorary professor in Liverpool, who asks “what kind of person…wants to become a professional politician?” He emphasizes charm, memory skills, good decision-making capacity, humor, and a strong constitution. But he contends that the most important quality is “the mastery of the spoken word.”
These are interesting reports from across the pond, among a blizzard of opinions in today’s media about candidates for high office. In the language of npsp25, what traits might be most prominent in aspirants for political high office? Perhaps the self-confident style would be at the top of the list, with a hefty dose of the conscientious style, perhaps along with a fair helping of the vigilant style and the aggressive style. All of these qualities could be good equipment to have on board. But, as we often remind ourselves, too much of a useful trait can become a problem. As can be seen on the Personality Style/Disorder Continuum, extremes of these styles (narcissistic, obsessive-compulsive, paranoid, sadistic) lead to significant impairment in functioning. In the political world, these extremes of behavior could certainly backfire.