Putin, the new tsar who suffers from addiction to power

Vladimir Putin is not crazy. It doesn’t look like he’s sick from a medical point of view, at least. The brutal invasion of Ukraine suggests, however, that the Russian president is a “junkie” of the power of narcissistic personality. A new czar with dangerous delusions of grandeur that must be stopped.

“No, he’s not crazy. As is not a compulsive gambler or a drug addict. They are not crazy, but their brains are grossly distorted by what has made them addicted, and in this case, Putin is hooked on power.”Explain Ian RobertsonProfessor of Psychology of the Trinity College Dublin University (Ireland).

The expert, whose works on the matter are consulted by political and business leaders, also participates in the Daedalus Foundationdedicated to detecting in different areas of public life the presence of the syndrome of Hubris (Greek hero who, arrogant by power, distances himself from reality).

When someone presents three or four of the 14 symptoms that define this syndrome, alarm bells go off. Putin, according to Robertson, suffers from several and some “very marked”, such as “extreme narcissism”, evident, for example, in the 20-meter statue of Saint Vladimir that he had erected next to the Kremlin in 2016 to “feel like a demigod ”.

“Another symptom -he points out- manifests itself when this type of person totally identifies their personal interests with the interests of the country, so what is good for them is also good for the nation. It doesn’t matter that tens of thousands of people are dying.”.

A demigod for Russia

Feeling like a demi-god, Robertson reasons, Putin also believes that he “He is the only one who can guide the great mother Russia towards her destiny”.

“Since he understands that he is carrying out an almost religious mission, I really think that every day he is less rational and calculating. By contrast, he is drawn more by the feeling that he is leading a spiritual mission to redeem Russia”observes the psychologist.

In this state of mystical delirium, Putin “he feels absolute contempt” for mere mortals. She proved it when he humiliated on camera his head of foreign intelligence services, Sergei Naryshkinduring a meeting of the Security Council held last month, after he suggested the possibility of negotiating for the last time before intervening in Ukraine.

Another worrying feature, continues Robertson, is the “total loss of judgement” caused by “biological effects on the brain” and “the complete alteration of the dopamine system”which “mine enormously” its ability to “calculate, perceive and respond” to risks.

“In the end, they end up taking big risks because all their attention is focused on achieving their personal goals. Hard-core gamblers overestimate their chances of winning a bet and end up losing. Putin will eventually lose everything because he is a compulsive gambler, because of his addiction to power.”.

These characters are “of course, reckless and reckless”warns Robertson, which forces us to consider the worst case scenario, one in which the Kremlin dictator resorts to his vast nuclear arsenals.

“It’s possible,” he admits. Although he is not crazy, his judgment is very distorted and he may come to believe, as a Russian TV presenter put it, that he is not worth living in a world without Russia.”.

This state of mind, he says, could deteriorate to resemble that of Adolf Hitler in his last days in the bunker of berlinwhen the Nazi leader asked Albert Speer to devastate Germany so that his people would fall defeated with him. When “the ego” it overlays everything else.

In today’s Russia there are no “checks and balances” that, without reaching those of the democracies, did monitor the activities of the former leaders of the Soviet Unionso longed for by Putin.

The gray ex-KGB spy has the Duma under his absolute control, he has destroyed internal dissidence and there is no equivalent of that politburo that promoted more or less joint decision-making in the Iron Curtain Moscow.

Robertson argues that the “internal pressure” it could lead to regime change, to a dethroned Putin. But he also contemplates the possibility of finding a negotiated solution to the war in Ukraine.

However, how do you negotiate with a person like Putin?

Strength against a Putin without complexes

“The only thing he respects is strength. Any attempt at a classic negotiation of the ‘look, we have common interests’ type would fail. They can raise it of course, but only if they first run into a forceful response from the West, strong and with red lines, as has happened in recent weeks “.

From the other side of the conversation table, it will also be difficult to exploit their weaknesses because they seem to be less visible.

“I don’t detect them, but I’m sure there are changes, just like drug addiction completely transforms the personality. The power that he has amassed and the circumstances have radically changed him.”

Perhaps, the expert ventures, Putin descends to the underworld when he puts on the thermometer: “He is terrified of getting sick, takes ridiculous precautions to avoid the covidpeople must disinfect themselves before seeing him, those huge tables to keep their distance…”.

“This apprehension is perhaps good news for us because it shows some anxiety about their own mortality. The problem is that he is like a cornered rat. He is very, very dangerous.”.

Dangerous and reckless. Like Daedalus’s son, Icarus, who drunk with power, ignored his father’s advice and burned himself flying too close to the sun.