Saddam Hussein's Personality Development

Paper Summary:

The paper explores how Saddam Hussein's dangerous personality was shaped by the tragic brutality of his early life. The paper discusses Hussein's incapacity for empathy and his malignant narcissism that led to profound ideas of self-grandiosity. The paper applies Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory to the character of Saddam Hussein as a psychological being and then shows how Erickson's theory of personality development best describes Hussein's life.

From the Paper:

"In recent history, perhaps no national leader has run amok with world politics over the last fifty years more than Saddam Hussein, president of Iraq. Certainly Fidel Castro was for a long time a thorn in the side of many US presidents, and more recently, figures such as Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and the unpredictable leader of North Korea, Kim Jong-il, have all come to represent threats to American national security. However, none of them have yet come close to creating the havoc that Hussein did during his tenure, igniting as he did several wars with his neighbors and being the target of two military campaigns led by the United States. Several influential American psychologists have come to believe that Hussein was such a dangerous foe of the United States not because of international political circumstances, but rather because Hussein himself had a dangerous personality that was shaped by malignant psychological development."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Bumiller, E. (2004, May 15). Was a Tyrant Prefigured by Baby Saddam? New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A00E6DF163FF936A25756C0A9629C8B63
• Goleman, D. (1991, January 29). Experts Differ on Dissecting Leaders' Psyches From Afar. New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CEFDD133BF93AA15752C0A967958260
• Post, J.M. (2004). Saddam Hussein of Iraq: A Political Psychology Profile. http://law.case.edu/saddamtrial/documents/saddam_hussein_political_psychology_profile.pdf

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