By David Bosire
One of the most succinct yet complete definitions of the term megalomania is "delusions of grandeur, the thought that one has great power, goodness and/or ability". Some of history’s greatest megalomaniacs have also been some of its greatest creators of cults of personality and mass murderers — from Alexander the Great to Stalin, Hitler, Mao and Idi Amin.
Kenya has yet to produce a megalomaniac who actually makes it to State House and causes a national disruption and a devastating toll of death, displacement and destruction on the Idi Amin scale in neighbouring Uganda three decades ago.
The first two Presidents of Kenya did start cults of personality but they were not megalomaniacs. The third President, now in office, has no track with either a cult of personality nor is he possessed of the serious psychological disorder of megalomania.
Cult status
But some persons who fancy themselves close to his position, on the national political hierarchy clearly hanker after cult status and are seriously diseased in terms of megalomania. However, I would counsel Kenyans to study the psychological profiles of their leaders carefully as a matter of life and death.
The study of psychology is one of the most accessible to lay men and women, whatever language they speak. Like proverbial charity, it begins at home. Whether you are aware of it, you expend a lot of psychology in choosing a mate, in bringing up children, in the workplace, throughout your life’s journey and its life lessons.
Abraham Maslow renown for his ‘Hierarchy of Needs, identified a psychological type that is all too evident in Kenyan politics today.
Describing the psychology of so-called self-actualised persons, a type that is to be found in great numbers in the political class, Maslow demonstrated that this type projects itself as perfect and above any problems or shortcomings suffered by lesser mortals but that this is fundamentally untrue.
Maslow further said it was a deeply flawed thing to wish for perfection or even to expect it —because, in human society, it is simply unobtainable. Perhaps the most important observation that Maslow made was that the self-actualised person can appear to be brutal to the rest of a normal society struggling with its own imperfections in an imperfect world.
The Wikipedia entry on Maslow puts it this way: "The self-actualised person also has basic human imperfections such as wasteful habits, vanity, pride, partiality to their family and friends, and temper outbursts.
Maslow also discovers that, in the view of normal society, self-actualising persons can appear quite ruthless. He attributes this to their strength and this makes it possible to make cold calculated decisions based on logic.
For example a man who found his life-long, trusted friend was actually dishonest would end the friendship abruptly without any regret or any other emotional pangs. This mayseem brutal to the common man, but it just exemplifies the strength of the self-actualised person at work."
If this is the psychological profile that some leaders are hoping to cut as they breach protocol and attempt to displace their political adversaries, they should go tell it to the birds.
Self esteem
Wikipedia also notes that "Maslow stresses the dangers associated with self-esteem based on fame and outer recognition instead of inner competence. He sees healthy self-respect as based on earned respect."
Personally, I think that leaders whose will to power has been so extreme for so long but who are hell-bent on ultimate power should have their heads examined before we install them, or allow them to be installed, in State House.
Part of the new constitutional amendments should include a full mental check-up of future Presidential candidates by psychiatrists and psychologists of world-renown, complete with a scientific lie detector test.
The writer is a commentator on social and political issues.
