Hubris and Nemesis

2-7-07 SHORT HILLS: How’s this for a provocative article from a British neurologist:

Hubris in World Leaders: Evidence of Neurologic Illness?
A prominent British politician gives a candid appraisal of the overconfident attitudes of leaders and their possible basis in neurologic processes.

Lord David Owen outlines a condition of greater public concern than conventional illness in a leader: exaggerated self-confidence and sense of personal destiny coupled with a disdain for other views (hubris), which inevitably leads to retribution and an eventual ignominious downfall (nemesis).

Instead of discussing Caesar, Napoleon, or Nixon, he selects living examples: former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, current British Prime Minister Tony Blair, and U.S. President George W. Bush. Owen discusses how their personal self-confidence, sense of destiny, and intoxication with power endanger the democratic process. He adds that neuroscience may in the future find an explanation for hubris, but, until then, constant vigilance and countervailing power are our only assurances.

Comment: The intelligent, acerbic, controversial, and imposing Lord David Owen is also Doctor Owen, medical graduate of the University of Cambridge, and a lifelong quixotic challenger of social and political issues. He so often resigned from parties and prominent positions over matters of principle that he is known as the "the great resigner." His remarks are always illuminating and pointed, and his warning about the dangers of hubris in national leaders is one we must heed. We can see the potential dangers played out in the media every day, especially since 9/11, when the specter of terror allowed Bush and Blair to slip the bounds that ordinarily control the decisions and actions of leaders. In an accompanying commentary, psychiatrist Simon Wessely asks whether this is necessarily a politician's fate. In answer, I refer readers to historian Barbara W. Tuchman's book on the subject (The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam. Alfred A. Knopf; 1984), in which she records recurrences throughout history.

Rudolf Virchow, the 19th century physician-politician, said that politics is medicine on a grand scale. If your disdain for politicians leads you to turn away from such issues, you do so at your peril, and at the peril of your patients. This may be one of the most important articles you will read this year.

-- T. Jock Murray, MD, OC, FRCPC, MACP

Dr. Murray is Professor Emeritus, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova
Scotia, Canada.

Published in Journal Watch Neurology February 6, 2007

Citation(s):
Owen LD. Hubris and nemesis in heads of government. J R Soc Med 2006 Nov: 99:548-51.
Wessely S. The psychiatry of hubris. J R Soc Med 2006 Nov; 99:552-3.

Perhaps the cure lies in surgery--impeachment surgery.