Jerrold M. Post is Professor of Psychiatry, Political Psychology, and International Affairs at the Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University. His books include When Illness Strikes the Leader: The Dilemma of the Captive King.; Political Paranoia: The Psychopolitics of Hatred; Know Thy Enemy: Profiles of Adversary Leaders and Their Strategic Cultures; and The Psychological Assessment of Political Leaders, with Profiles of Saddam Hussein and Bill Clinton. He received the Nevitt Sanford Award of the International Society of Political Psychology for Distinguished Professional Contributions to Political Psychology in 2002. Alexander George is Graham Stuart Professor of International Relations, Emeritus, at Stanford University.

"It is no surprise to Jerrold M. Post, the founder of the Center for the Analysis of Personality and Political Behavior at the C.I.A., that Saddam Hussein grew up to be one of the world's most dangerous dictators and a member of President Bush's axis of evil. . . . As Dr. Post recounts in his new book, Leaders and Their Followers in a Dangerous World, Mr. Hussein's father died, probably of cancer, in the fourth month of his mother's pregnancy with Saddam. Mr. Hussein's 12-year-old brother died, also of cancer, a few months later. The trauma left Saddam's mother, Sabha, so desperately depressed that she tried and failed to abort Saddam and kill herself. When Saddam was born, she would have nothing to do with him and sent him away to an uncle. . . . 'Most people with that kind of background would be highly ineffective as adults and be faltering, insecure human beings.' But there is, Dr. Post said, an alternative path that a minority of wounded selves take: 'malignant narcissism,' the personality disorder that Dr. Post believes fueled Mr. Hussein's rise in Iraq. Perhaps most important, Dr. Post says, is that Mr. Hussein is a 'judicious political calculator,' not a madman."—The New York Times, May 15, 2004

Jerrold M. Post is Professor of Psychiatry, Political Psychology, and International Affairs at the Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University. His books include When Illness Strikes the Leader: The Dilemma of the Captive King.; Political Paranoia: The Psychopolitics of Hatred; Know Thy Enemy: Profiles of Adversary Leaders and Their Strategic Cultures; and The Psychological Assessment of Political Leaders, with Profiles of Saddam Hussein and Bill Clinton. He received the Nevitt Sanford Award of the International Society of Political Psychology for Distinguished Professional Contributions to Political Psychology in 2002. Alexander George is Graham Stuart Professor of International Relations, Emeritus, at Stanford University.

"It is no surprise to Jerrold M. Post, the founder of the Center for the Analysis of Personality and Political Behavior at the C.I.A., that Saddam Hussein grew up to be one of the world's most dangerous dictators and a member of President Bush's axis of evil. . . . As Dr. Post recounts in his new book, Leaders and Their Followers in a Dangerous World, Mr. Hussein's father died, probably of cancer, in the fourth month of his mother's pregnancy with Saddam. Mr. Hussein's 12-year-old brother died, also of cancer, a few months later. The trauma left Saddam's mother, Sabha, so desperately depressed that she tried and failed to abort Saddam and kill herself. When Saddam was born, she would have nothing to do with him and sent him away to an uncle. . . . 'Most people with that kind of background would be highly ineffective as adults and be faltering, insecure human beings.' But there is, Dr. Post said, an alternative path that a minority of wounded selves take: 'malignant narcissism,' the personality disorder that Dr. Post believes fueled Mr. Hussein's rise in Iraq. Perhaps most important, Dr. Post says, is that Mr. Hussein is a 'judicious political calculator,' not a madman."—The New York Times, May 15, 2004

Jerrold M. Post is Professor of Psychiatry, Political Psychology, and International Affairs at the Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University. His books include When Illness Strikes the Leader: The Dilemma of the Captive King.; Political Paranoia: The Psychopolitics of Hatred; Know Thy Enemy: Profiles of Adversary Leaders and Their Strategic Cultures; and The Psychological Assessment of Political Leaders, with Profiles of Saddam Hussein and Bill Clinton. He received the Nevitt Sanford Award of the International Society of Political Psychology for Distinguished Professional Contributions to Political Psychology in 2002. Alexander George is Graham Stuart Professor of International Relations, Emeritus, at Stanford University.

"It is no surprise to Jerrold M. Post, the founder of the Center for the Analysis of Personality and Political Behavior at the C.I.A., that Saddam Hussein grew up to be one of the world's most dangerous dictators and a member of President Bush's axis of evil. . . . As Dr. Post recounts in his new book, Leaders and Their Followers in a Dangerous World, Mr. Hussein's father died, probably of cancer, in the fourth month of his mother's pregnancy with Saddam. Mr. Hussein's 12-year-old brother died, also of cancer, a few months later. The trauma left Saddam's mother, Sabha, so desperately depressed that she tried and failed to abort Saddam and kill herself. When Saddam was born, she would have nothing to do with him and sent him away to an uncle. . . . 'Most people with that kind of background would be highly ineffective as adults and be faltering, insecure human beings.' But there is, Dr. Post said, an alternative path that a minority of wounded selves take: 'malignant narcissism,' the personality disorder that Dr. Post believes fueled Mr. Hussein's rise in Iraq. Perhaps most important, Dr. Post says, is that Mr. Hussein is a 'judicious political calculator,' not a madman."—The New York Times, May 15, 2004