Charisma: The phenomenon and its psychology: A mental health perspective

Abstract

Byline: Ajit. Bhide (This paper is based on the Dr. LGP Achar Memorial Oration delivered by the author to the Indian Psychiatric Society, Karnataka State Branch, at its Annual Conference at Manipal on 30 Aug 2008) At the outset, I thank our society for the honor bestowed on me today by asking me to deliver the late Dr. LGP Achar Memorial Oration. Dr. Achar swept into the activities of our society; like a whirlwind. Thanks to his efforts, our membership swelled. His was a visible presence in most of the society's activities, outdoing both youth and veterans of the time. It is with respect for his spirit and his devotion to psychotherapy that I humbly deliver this talk. Charisma,Transformation and Psychopathology There is in some individuals the remarkable ability to affect other persons, communities, and even populations, in such a way that dramatic transformations are effected. This ability is sometimes consciously exercised and much less commonly, it is totally unwittingly practiced. The results too vary, between those brought about by design and those brought about totally by happenstance. Then again, the design might be altruistic or sinister. In today's presentation, I intend to focus on this uncommon ability and touch upon its relationship to the field of mental health. Charisma is a general term bequeathed to us by the German sociologist Max Weber (though not coined by him), who studied the phenomenon assiduously. Charisma has had its maximum effect in religion, politics, and the arts. The profound and often ineffable effects of charisma on the ways of thinking are a challenging subject to study. So are its antecedents. According to Weber, charisma is: ...a certain quality of an individual personality, by virtue of which s/he is set apart from ordinary people and treated as endowed with supernatural, superhuman, or at least specifically exceptional powers or qualities. These as such are not accessible to the ordinary person, but are regarded as divine in origin or as exemplary, and on the basis of them the individual concerned is treated as a leader.[sup] [1] Writer and scholar David Aberbach, a keen student of charisma, observed that the exploration of secular charismatics about whom much is known (such as Hitler, Thatcher, Chaplin, Dev Anand or Natasarvabhouma Dr. Rajkumar), casts light on the nature of charisma in its religious forms where little is known. Conversely, the study of religious charismatics often helps to interpret what seem to be exclusively secular phenomena. Secular charismatic phenomena can be exemplified by Subhash Chandra Bose's role in India's freedom struggle or that of Maximilien Robespierre in the French revolution, or those of Giuseppe Mazzini and Giuseppe Garibaldi in the Italian struggle for independence. Gandhi, essentially a philosopher politician, with his strong religious streak and moral rectitude, presents the true overlap between the religious and the secular charismatic.[sup] [2] While popularity is a vital ingredient of charisma, it is not its exact equivalent. Shakespeare was tremendously popular for his writing. Recorded history accords him no suggestion of charisma. One recent writer on the subject, Philip Rieff, believes that charisma lately 'has been battered to death'.[sup] [3] The Origins of Charisma Psychoanalytic literature often traces charisma as originating from a variation of the manifest need to relate, that an infant innately has. If the infant's needs are well met by its caregivers, then the appeal for relating sublimates into quiet confidence and affection, mainly towards loved ones. Thwarted, this appeal may go on to promiscuous and even pernicious exaggeration: an over-blown drive for the mastery denied to the small one. In adult life, the charismatic may continue to reach towards the infinite, to merge with a greater self. This may take the shape of seeking merger with society or humanity at large, through the mastery of a medium such as religion, politics, literature or other art forms. …