Muammar Gaddafi continues to hold tightly to power even as NATO bombs rain down on Tripoli. Syrian autocrat Bashar al-Assad has killed more than 1,000 of his own people in an effort to quash protests. In Yemen, President Ali Abdullah Saleh has refused to step down despite months of unrest that has intensified into near civil war this week. The question is, why do all these guys fight so hard to keep power? Why not decamp to Saudi Arabia or Venezuela and live out their lives in luxury before being killed or held for trial like Hosni Mubarak? Any attempt to diagnose a defining psychological feature of dictatorship would be facile. But in the public record available on many of them — Stalin and Mao, Saddam Hussein and Gaddafi himself — one can begin to see patterns that shape a dictatorial personality. At least since the Office of Strategic Services (now known as the Central Intelligence Agency) commissioned a secret profile called “A Psychological Analysis of Adolf Hitler,” which was issued in 1943, psychologists have sought an explanation for the authoritarian mind. New research has brought us closer than ever to understanding how leaders become despots. There are at least three explanations for dictatorial behavior: 1. Dictators are psychopaths. This is the simplest and most seductive psychological explanation of dictatorship. It’s also the least helpful. Psychopathy is defined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders under the rather antiseptic term “antisocial personality disorder.” Its features are, among others, “repeatedly performing acts that are grounds for arrest,” deceitfulness, impulsivity and lack of remorse. It’s difficult to think of a dictator who hasn’t exhibited these traits. For instance, dictators not only lie to others as a matter of course but also lie to themselves. “If ever [Stalin] called somebody a traitor, it was not only the minds of others he was manipulating,” writes Oxford historian Robert Service in his biography of the dictator. Similarly, Gaddafi truly seems to believe not only that opposition to his regime equals opposition to the … Continue reading The Psychology of Dictatorship: Why Gaddafi Clings to Power