“Depression opens the door to beauty of some kind.” – James Hillman
As I have written about before, I have a tendency towards depression, melancholy and the dark side. For that reason, my ears perk up any time something about those topics comes on the radio or T.V.
The other day, I was listening to NPR and caught a bit about a psychiatrist named Nassir Ghaemi who wrote a book called “A First-Rate Madness: Uncovering the Links Between Leadership and Mental Illness.”
Stop the car! I had to listen to this.
Ghaemi’s premise is that leaders who struggle with mental illness do a better job during times of crisis than leaders who are mentally stable. He uses Winston Churchill, John F. Kennedy, Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King as examples of men with long histories of depression and/or mania who were great leaders during difficult times.
He cites Richard Nixon, George W. Bush and President Barack “No Drama” Obama as examples of leaders who are healthy mentally, yet unable to rise to the occasion and lead in times of crisis. He bases the book on psychological research, history and a long look at the medical records of quite a few great men.
The idea is that the long held notion that mental illness is all bad and mental stability is all good is faulty – that there are facets of harm and usefulness in both. Depressed people tend to be more creative and resilient than people of average mental stability. They are also better at assessing threats and predicting future outcomes. Manic people tend to be more realistic and empathic. All of these characteristics are useful for leaders facing some type of mess or crisis; they are also official “markers” of mood disorders.
Ghaemi goes on to say that normal people have a “mild positive illusion” that makes them think they’re more intelligent and better looking than they really are. They tend to over estimate their control over their environment and let their optimism cloud their judgment. These are fine characteristics for the population at large and for leaders during calm times, but when the you-know-what hits the fan, normal folks are at more of a loss as to what to do and/or how to cope than those of us who live in the dark at times.
For a leader to be optimistic just for optimism’s sake or to be unable to assess reality because he or she can’t take off the rose colored glasses is fine most of the time, but when things go bad, a little fatalism can be useful.
From a historical perspective, the fact that these (and other) leaders have struggled with depression or mania has been well documented. But the effects those conditions have on the ability to lead has largely not been acknowledged or discussed. That is what Ghaemi does in his book. He shows that the symptoms were actually relevant to the development of leadership skills.
So, what does all this have to do with me? Very little from a leadership standpoint, as the only thing I’m the leader of is a pack of unruly pet dogs and my occasional melancholy doesn’t seem to help me there…The interesting idea for me is exactly what Ghaemi is saying – being depressed or manic isn’t all bad; being all Polly Anna normal isn’t all good. The sooner we accept that, the better we’ll all be – depressed and optimistic people alike.
The other thing it tells me is there’s a reason I’m always the one with the first aid kit, jumper cables, extra wiper blades and blanket in the car. I’m also the one folks turn to when they need a piece of gum, a Band-aid or Kleenex, an aspirin, a pocket knife or a small flashlight – these are always in my purse. In my world, it’s not amazing when bad things happen – it’s amazing when they don’t.
Maybe some day mental illness won’t carry such a stigma and being “normal” won’t be something we’re all supposed to be. In the meantime, if you need help in a crisis, have a headache or want to banish bad breath, look for the depressed person in the crowd. He or she has probably already planned for the worse, which means he or she is one step closer to being ready to deal with it.
As for leaders and politics - if there’s any depressed candidates running for office, they’ve got my vote.
Lorin Sinn-Clark is features editor of the Barrow Journal. She can be reached at lorin@barrowjournal.com
