Pathocracy — a system of government wherein a small pathological minority takes control over a society of normal people.
Andrew Lobaczewski
Pathocracy — governance by individuals with a seriously defective or missing conscience, specifically narcissists, and their ilk.
Elizabeth Mika
The government of the United States is now unmistakably pathological. The behavior of the United States Senate during the Impeachment trial, the behavior of the Utah State Legislature after Mitt Romney’s vote of conscience, and the White House’s pathetic handling of the Coronavirus pandemic should have opened everyone’s eyes.
I have written previously about how the United States is an oligarchy – a country ruled by and for the wealthy. But our country has been an oligarchy for decades. One could argue it has been an oligarchy, to perhaps a greater or lesser degree, for its entire existence.
Now, however, we are facing something new and frightening. The White House, the US Senate, the US Supreme Court, most of the Executive Branch, and much of the Federal Judiciary are now controlled by dangerous narcissists and psychopaths. The United States has become a Pathocracy, and the pathological men and women now in charge are very close to completely eliminating the last vestiges of our democracy.
Psychotherapist Elizabeth Mika has written that political tyranny has three parts: The tyrant, the tyrant’s supporters, and the unhealthy society that brings them together.
Tyrannies are three-legged beasts. They encroach upon our world in a steady creep more often than overcome it in a violent takeover, which may be one reason why they are not always easy to spot before it is too late to do much about them. Their necessary components, those three wobbly legs, are: the tyrant, his supporters – the people – and the society at large that provides a ripe ground for the collusion between them.
Elizbeth Mika
The tyrant
Psychopathy — a personality disorder characterized by persistent antisocial behavior, impaired empathy and remorse, and bold, disinhibited, and egotistical traits.
Wikipedia
Donald Trump has been accurately called a malignant narcissist. What we too often ignore is that he is also a political tyrant. Besides being lazy, incurious, and selfish, he is also petty, mean, small-minded, and vindictive. Like all political tyrants, he is a vengeful bully and he is not afraid to incite violence. He belittles his own experts, while giving medals to professional liars. He is faithless to our friends, while cozying up to our enemies. These facts are plainly visible and not in doubt.
What we need to remember is that this is not a reality television show. This is reality. While we frown at his naivete and shake our heads at his childish antics, we have been seriously underestimating the dramatic, lasting damage he is doing to our country and to our form of government.
The tyrant’s supporters
Individuals within the GOP who share Trump’s disordered mentality, as reflected in their beliefs in conspiracy theories, rejection of facts as the basis of their worldview, propensity to attack and demean opponents, and their sense of entitlement to power at any cost, have risen in stature within the party. Those who privately believe such views and actions to be destructive, immoral and deluded have either been silenced or have left the party.
Ian Hughes
Mitch McConnell is the clearest example of a disordered personality working on behalf of the tyrant Trump. He has single-handedly co-opted and corrupted the Constitutional processes and procedures of our Legislative branch. Frankly, he should be jailed for treason.
As the impeachment proceedings showed, practically every elected Republican, local, state, and federal, either actively support this tyrant’s agenda or have been cowed into submission through fear.
The tyrant’s narcissism is the main attractor of his followers who project their hopes and dreams onto him. The more grandiose his sense of his own self and his promises to his fans, the greater their attraction and the stronger their support.
Elizabeth Mika
Psychiatrists have pointed out that the tyrant’s cheering crowds are, themselves, fearful narcissists looking for a hero to save them. They believe the empty lies and vain promises of the tyrant because he says what they want to hear. In their eyes, the tyrant becomes both a father figure and a savior. The admiration of the crowd, in return, feeds the narcissism of the tyrant.
The unhealthy society
Our narcissism is what gives rise to inequality, and inequality fuels our narcissism. The resultant suffering and despair, along with a desire for revenge, are among necessary conditions for the emergence of tyranny.
Elizabeth Mika
Tyrants do not appear overnight. It takes certain conditions in a society over a number of years. The key unhealthy condition that leads to tyranny is social and economic inequality. The growing disregard for the less well off leads to a degradation of social norms and a loss of moral values among the elite, while causing fear, instability, frustration, and resentment among the undervalued. Such societies are characterized by ruthless competition, aggression, and scapegoating.
Unhealthy narcissistic societies are blind to their own self-destructiveness. The narcissistic elite ignore the suffering and discord that is stirring in the equally narcissistic, but frustrated, underclass. When the tyrant appears, many see him, at first, as a harmless buffoon. Many others, including the clergy and the wealthy, are entranced by his proclamation of a return to an imagined past glory.
The rule of a pathological leader and his similarly disordered coterie that defines pathocracy normalizes and champions the worst human impulses. We saw this under communism in Eastern Europe, under fascism in Germany, in the former Yugoslavia where neighbors turned against each other. We see it everywhere when the pathological political leaders give people permission to act on their primitive instincts. We learn quickly how fragile our civilized norms and mores are.
Elizabeth Mika
Fundamental change is needed
Removing the tyrant, if possible, will not solve the problem. Our society is broken. Our values are corrupted. Our priorities are misplaced. The central problem is our individual and collective selfishness and narcissism. We think only of ourselves. Our society needs fundamental change — a mighty change of heart. (Mosiah 5:2)
The solution is repentance. The only sure pathway out of this darkness is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Sadly, roughly half of the Latter-day Saints in the United States are currently part of the problem. They continue to support the tyrant Trump and his Republican enablers while blindly ignoring their very obvious and very dangerous personality disorders.
The facts are clear. Our plight is obvious. The Book of Mormon warns us repeatedly about precisely this situation. We should not be going along with, and trying to justify, a pathological politics (Kids in cages? Cuts to programs for the elderly? No medical equipment for your state unless the President likes your governor?). The Saints should be the first to object to this unrighteous insanity and demand change.
The repentance and healing must start at home. It is time for members of the Church of Jesus Christ to completely abandon the corrupt, hate-filled, destructive, and pathological Republican Party of the United States.
And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.
Revelation 18:4
Sources: Paul Rosenberg, “Impeachment as a struggle to save democracy — from the pathological cult of Donald Trump,” Salon, December 1, 2019.
Steve Taylor, “Pathocracy: When people with personality disorders gain power,” Psychology Today, July 31, 2019.
Ian Hughes, Disordered Minds: How Dangerous Personalities Are Destroying Democracy, Zero Books, September, 2018.
Elizabeth Mika (writing as “Emma”), “National Character Counts Week: Welcome to Pathocracy,” Good Marriage Central, October 19,2017.
Elizabeth Mika, “Tyranny as a Triumph of Narcissism,” a chapter in The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 27 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President, Thomas Dunne Books, October 3, 2017.
Andrew Lobaczewski, Political Ponerology: A Science on the Nature of Evil Adjusted for Political Purposes, Red Pill Press, September, 2012.
Powerfully said. Given the current Coronia virus situation, the notion that we have a sick society requiring serious intervention and change is particularly resonant. Just today I saw a clip of Trump saying that if people are allowed to vote by mail, no Republican would ever be elected. They know that they have to rig the game to survive. Hence the frenzy to stack the courts, and the blatant gerrymandering, voter suppression, and gaslighting between Fox and Trump and company. The interesting thing about the Corona virus is that it doesn’t pay attention to anything they say. Only what we do will make a difference.