Commanding without conscience

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Title: Commanding without conscience: determining the frequency of sociopathic presidents' elections.
Creator
Subject: Presidents--Election., Antisocial personality disorders.
Description: The acerbic quality of the 2016 Presidential Election prompted several psychologists to weigh in on the mental health of then-candidate Donald Trump, a trend that has continued into his presidency. One of the many diagnoses given to the president is that of sociopath, a label that is characterized by the absence of a conscience. This is a very serious charge to level at a president, because without a conscience, what would keep them from deliberately harming the American people? The present study seeks to analyze a sample of 15 US presidents stratified over the past 45 presidencies for sociopathic traits using the DSM-5 characteristics for antisocial personality disorder (APD) on biographies of their lives. It uses the data collected to understand how often presidents are elected with sociopathic traits and what historical contexts they were elected in, providing further insight on when and why the United States ends up with a commander without a conscience. Ultimately, it identifies that three out of the 15 presidents studied meet the criteria for APD and hypothesizes that the elections of sociopathic individuals occur in times of social uncertainty, a concept that will need to be analyzed in future research., Honors Thesis Advisor : Dr. Emily Sweitzer.
Publisher
Contributor: Kastroll, Lindsay M. (Author), California University of Pennsylvania. Honors Program.
Date: 2018-04-24
Type: Text
Format
Identifier: cali:777
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