A FirstRate Madness, Nassir Ghaemi
A FirstRate Madness, Nassir Ghaemi
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A First-Rate Madness
Uncovering the Links Between Leadership and Mental Illness

Author: Nassir Ghaemi

Narrator: Adam Barr

Unabridged: 9 hr 57 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Penguin Audio

Published: 01/30/2024


Synopsis

The New York Times bestseller

“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 Madness overturns many of our most cherished perceptions about greatness and the mind.

About The Author

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.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Nancy on August 23, 2011

Who writes history? Those who control the media and the winners of any conflict. This is a summary of some of history's greatest and worst leaders. It reads much like a dissertation only without statistical data to support the hypothesis but plenty of anecdotal which is soft data. The author asserts......more

Goodreads review by David on October 20, 2014

Nassir Ghaemi describes a strong correlation between mental or mood disorders, and leadership. Many of the world's best leaders in times of crisis had mental disorders--not very severe, but sufficiently ill so that they handled challenges with more realistic outlooks than so-called "normal" people.......more

Goodreads review by Stefanie on August 02, 2023

This book would have gotten three or four stars had its theme been slightly different. The author posits on p. 17, "The best crisis leaders are either mentally ill or mentally abnormal; the worst crisis leaders are mentally healthy." Had the book stuck to the specific cases, that is, something close......more

Goodreads review by Joselito Honestly on August 11, 2019

Is President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines mentally ill? If he is, then he could either be the worst type of leader or the best one for the country, depending on where the Philippines is now. For the theme of this book is summed up this way: “The best crisis leaders are either mentally ill or me......more

Goodreads review by Pat on January 04, 2012

This book provides an interesting analysis of world leaders & how their mental health influenced their leadership. The author's analysis of such world figures as Lincoln, General Sherman, Hitler, FDR, Nixon, JFK and many others and how they reacted during crisis and non crisis situations depending o......more


Quotes

“A glistening psychological history, faceted largely by the biographies of eight famous leaders . . . A First-Rate Madness is carefully plotted and sensibly argued.” —The Boston Globe

“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 provocative thesis . . . Ghaemi’s book deserves high marks for original thinking.” —The Washington Post 

“Ghaemi is a remarkably disciplined writer, and he examines both psychiatry and history with impressive clarity and sensitivity. A First-Rate Madness will almost certainly be one of the most fascinating books of the year, not just because of the author's lucid prose and undeniable intelligence, but because of his provocative thesis: 'For abnormal challenges, abnormal leaders are needed.'” —NPR.org

“Provocative, fascinating.” —Salon.com