Overview

The New York Timesbestseller ""A glistening psychological history, faceted largely by the biographies of eight famous leaders . . ."" -The Boston Globe ""A provocative thesis . . . Ghaemi's book deserves high marks for original thinking.""-The Washington Post ""Provocative, fascinating."" -Salon.com Historians have long puzzled over the apparent mental instability of great and terrible leaders alike- Napoleon, Lincoln, Churchill, Hitler, and others. In A First-Rate Madness, Nassir Ghaemi, director of the Mood Disorders Program at Tufts Medical Center, offers a myth-shattering exploration of the powerful connections between mental illness and leadership and sets forth a controversial, compelling thesis- The very qualities that mark those with mood disorders also make for the best leaders in times of crisis. From the importance of Lincoln's ""depressive realism"" to the lackluster leadership of exceedingly sane men as Neville Chamberlain, A First-Rate Madnessoverturns many of our most cherished perceptions about greatness and the mind.

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9780143121336

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Ghaemi isn't the first to claim that madness is a close relative of genius, or even the first to extend the idea into politics. But he does go further than others...His explanations are elegant, too - intuitively accurate and banked off the latest psychiatric research. Newsweek A First-Rate Madness is a sophisticated work of psychology, but it is also a gossipy work of celebrity history, a who's who of the eminently unhinged. The New York Observer

Ghaemi isn't the first to claim that madness is a close relative of genius, or even the first to extend the idea into politics. But he does go further than others...His explanations are elegant, too - intuitively accurate and banked off the latest psychiatric research. * Newsweek * A First-Rate Madness is a sophisticated work of psychology, but it is also a gossipy work of celebrity history, a who's who of the eminently unhinged. * The New York Observer *

Author Information

Nassir Ghaemi, M.D., is a professor of psychiatry at Tufts University School of Medicine and director of the Mood Disorders Program at Tufts Medical Center in Boston. He has published more than a hundred scientific articles and several books on psychiatry.

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