The Frankenstein Syndrome

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Comment by Gil Lawton on February 16, 2012 at 4:39pm

Comment by Gil Lawton 16 minutes ago

Allow me to observe that you seem to think as I do, in several dimensions at once.  Don't jump to take that as a compliment, nor to take it as a condolence.  My perception is that you may have had the same kinds of experiences in life, including in public schools. as I had as a child.  Did you sit there wondering at times how some teachers could  hold themselves out to be capable of showing you and your fellow students how to think and learn, and yet be so narrow in their own, personal world view that he or she (the teacher) seemed to fail to take all sides of an issue into account.

Some of us peer out at the human experience through a peephole, don’t we, while others of us – you and I, perhaps – feel as though our worldview were a spherical glass-house?

 Did you, as a student in school, often hear a fellow student, or a professor, quote some supposedly great thinker to illustrate a point, only to leave you thinking to yourself, "If only things were that simple!”

Take, for example, the so profusely quoted quote (out of context) of Albert Einstein, about insanity being defined as doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result?  I have a nephew who trained both military and civilian rifle teams, and who continues to this day to do the same things, over and over again, in practicing to get consistently perfect scores in competition.  A many a middle class citizen I know, goes to work day after day after day, trying to get out of debt, only to have a child get sick, his/her employer promote a co-worker.  Does anybody think, for one minute, that continuing to try, in every situation, doing the same things day after day, is insane?

Did you ever perceive Shakespeare’s Plonius to be a fop... a character so devoid of dimensions of thinking that he would actually believe aphorisms explain away all factors that don’t fit some situations in life.  We’ve all heard the classic example of saying, “Look before you leap, because he who hesitates is lost.”  Neither truism fits all, we realize – we who think in many dimensions.   

But on to this “leader” thing.  The very prospect that someone is, by nature, a leader is a gross simplistication.  The kind of leader who fits one need can very well be the one who does not fit another.  Can there, then, be only one profile that describes who is, versus who is not, a leader? 

One of the most effective leaders I've known in my life was/is a self-avowed introvert.  His predecessor, as manager of an office-full of highly creative subordinates, had hired what we, his subordinates, referred to as "an attack secretary."  To tell that manager something, or to ask him something, was an exercise in frustration and embarrassment.

"He's busy right now.  What do you need to see him about?  What do you mean by that?  Why do you need to see him now?  Can’t it wait until the monthly meeting?  It is crucial?  Can’t you just submit a memo?  (She even screened the memos, and let through only one out of many."

So, okay, that manager ended up getting fired, and the new man – the one whom everybody performed wonderfully under, and quickly learned to respect and, yes, to love, was a self-avowed introvert.  He established an open-door policy and had the attack secretary transferred to bookkeeping (where silence was golden, and everything was done as systematically and according to routine.  This shy little introvert of a guy somehow emboldened us, his subordinates, in our creativity.  His very shyness, which he fought to overcome, enabled him to listen, to weigh our fresh if sometimes zany ideas, without assuming he always had a better idea.  Unlike his predecessor, he did not seem to perceive his highest and best behavior to be a capacity to figure out what was wrong with any and every idea that was not his own.

So, okay, what does “a leader” mean?

Comment by James Scouller on January 17, 2012 at 2:42am

Interesting thoughts, Jeevan. 

It’s my experience that narcissistic leaders do exist.  They are people who, deep down, don’t feel good about themselves.  For example, they might feel, “I’m not good enough” or “I’m insignificant.”  Now of course many people harbour such feelings, but what marks narcissistic leaders out is that they’ve unconsciously decided on an active behavioural response to their deep, unrecognised feelings of inadequacy.  They adopt what they think is an “I’ll show them” mentality.  But it’s not others they are trying to prove wrong.  It’s really “I’ll show myself that these feelings aren’t true.”  And so they feel driven to succeed, to become rich, powerful and so on – all to suppress unpleasant so-called truths about themselves.

But you’re right, they can become victims of their creations – because if they stop playing the role they have created for themselves, who and what would they be?  For without the visible success and power, might they not start remembering and feeling their old sense of inadequacy?

There’s an article I wrote last year just after one of the early uprisings in Syria.  It might go some way to answering your last question – at least in the case of dictatorial leaders.  You can see it here: Why Won't Dictators Let Go?