HOW ILLNESS IN WORLD
LEADERS HAS AFFECTED
HISTORY
•
.
NARCISSISTIC PERSONALITY DISORDER (NPD).
• Defined as excessive preoccupation with power,
prestige and vanity.
• Unable to see the damage done to themselves
and others.
• Exaggerated feelings of self importance.
• Sense of entitlement.
• Lack of empathy.
• Affects 1% of the population and formerly known
as megalomania.
• THE ONLY WAY TO DEAL WITH A
PERSON WITH TYPE A
NARCISSISTIC PERSONALITY
DISORDER IS AVOIDANCE.
WORLD LEADERS WITH NPD.
• Mao Tse Tung.
• Stalin.
• Hitler.
• Napoleon.
DEMENTIA.
• Dementia is a set of symptoms including
memory loss, difficulty with thinking,
judgement, language and or problem
solving, and is progressive.
• Common causes of dementia are
Alzheimers disease, and a series of
strokes.
World leaders with Dementia.
•
•
•
•
•
Woodrow Wilson in his second term.
Paul Van Hindenburg.
Ramsay MacDonald.
Winston Churchill after 1951.
Harold Wilson in his final office as prime
minister.
• Ronald Reagan in his late second term.
HUBRIS SYNDROME.
• Power in world leaders can become
intoxicating and affect their action
and decision making.
• The Greeks called it hubris syndrome
• They took comfort in the knowledge
that the Gods would punish the
guilty ones (nemesis).
WORLD LEADERS WITH HUBRIS
SYNDROME OR TENDENCY.
•
•
•
•
•
FDR (hubristic tendency).
LLOYD GEORGE (hubris syndrome).
GEORGE W BUSH (hubristic tendency).
TONY BLAIR (hubris syndrome).
MARGARET THATCHER (hubris syndrome).
BIPOLAR DISORDER.
• Originally called manic depressive
psychosis.
• A mental disorder characterised by
periods of elevated mood (hypomania)
and periods of depression.
• A more minor variant is known as
cyclothymic personality disorder.
WORLD LEADERS WITH BIPOLAR
DISORDER.
• Teddy Roosevelt.
• Abraham Lincoln.
• LBJ.
• Winston Churchill.
WORLD LEADERS WITH HISTORY OF
ALCOHOL DEPENDENCE OR ABUSE.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Herbert Asquith (“squiffy”).
Winston Churchill.
Richard Nixon.
George W Bush.
Ulysses S. Grant
Boris Yeltsin
Also George Brown, John Smith, Joseph
McCarthy, Franklin Pierce.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN 1809 to 1865.
He suffered with depression. He used to say “when I am
alone I dare not carry a penknife”. He may also have
had episodes of hypomania so maybe the correct
diagnosis would be bipolar disorder (formerly manic
depressive psychosis).
He was shot behind the left ear on April 14th 1865, by
James Wiles Booth, (his guard had gone over the road
for a drink). The wound was unsurvivable and he
immediately lost consciousness and died nine hours
later.
It was 5 days after Robert E lee signed surrender terms.
GROVER CLEVELAND 1837 to 1908.
• He was the only president to serve two non consecutive
terms as president, 1885 to 1889 and 1893 to 1897.
• In 1893 he complained of soreness of the roof of his
mouth.
• He was sat upright in a chair attached to the mast of the
yacht Oneida in New York Harbour, and given a general
anaesthetic by a dentist with anaesthetic experience (a
brave man indeed). Part of his upper jaw and hard palate
were removed; this took less than an hour. The surgeon
must have been very skilful (or foolhardy), and when the
story leaked to the press it was strenuously denied.
• He was given a dental prosthesis after, enabling him to
talk properly, and without a change in appearance.
• It was a verrucous carcinoma with a low potential for
metastasis.
JAMES GARFIELD 1831 TO 1881.
• James Garfield became 20th president on March 4th
1881.
• On July 2nd 1881 he was shot by Charles Guiteau at the
Baltimore and Potomac train station in Washington DC.
One bullet grazed his shoulder and the second entered
his back at L1, missing the spine, and coming to rest
behind the pancreas.
• Doctors probed the entry wound with dirty fingers and
unsterilised instruments, looking for the bullet.
• He died of sepsis on September 19th 1881.
WILLIAM MCKINLEY 1843 TO 1901.
• 6 months into his second term as 25th president of USA on 6th
September 1901 Mckinley was shot in Buffalo, NY by Leon Czolosz.
• The first bullet grazed McKinley but the second bullet entered his
abdomen and was never found.
• He was taken to a nearby hospital and was operated on by a
gynaecologist who had no experience of abdominal wounds. The
operating theatre was makeshift with no abdominal retractors and
inadequate lighting.
• The wound was not adequately cleaned, and Mckinley was nearly
60 and overweight. He died of sepsis on September 14th 1901.
• Autopsy showed the bullet had passed through his stomach,
transverse colon, and left kidney. It also showed he was suffering
from cardiomyopathy.
KING EDWARD V11th
• On June 24th 1902 King Edward Seventh had an appendicectomy at
Buckingham Palace.
• He was 59 years old, obese, bearded, a smoker, and with
obstructive sleep apnoea.
• The anaesthetist was Sir Frederick Hewitt and the surgeon Sir
Frederick Treves, both being knighted before the operation. The
story is that before the operation the surgeon was given lunch at
the palace and the anaesthetist had to go off and find himself a
sandwich, “plus ca change , plus c’est la meme chose”.
• Ether anaesthesia was administered and the King “turned purple”.
Dr Hewitt grasped his beard and relieved the obstruction.
• The operation was a success.
THEODORE ROOSEVELT 1858 TO 1919.
• Teddy Roosevelt was 26th president from 1901 to 1909. He
suffered with bipolar-1 disorder and asthma. He undertook
body building exercises and became a “magnificent
specimen of manhood”. He was a man of phenomenal
energy.
• On October 14th 1912 campaigning in Milwaukee,
Wisconsin he was shot in the chest. The bullet was slowed
down by passing through his steel eye glass case and a 50
page copy of his speech in his breast pocket. Since he was
not coughing blood he correctly concluded that it was not
serious (the bullet had lodged in his chest wall) and despite
the bloodtained shirt continued with a 90 minute speech.
The bullet was never removed.
VLADIMIR ULYANOV (LENIN) 1870 to 1924.
• He assumed power in the October (Julian
calendar) revolution of 1917, and remained
as leader during the Russian Civil War 1917
to 1922.
• On 30th August 1918 he was shot twice by
Fanny Kaplan, one bullet passing through his
neck and puncturing part of his left lung, and
stopping near his right collar bone, and the
other bullet lodging in his left shoulder.
• He never fully regained his health.
• The mental strains of leading a revolution, and
fighting a civil war, working 16 hours daily and his
physical debilitation consequent to the wounds
(one of the bullets was removed in 1922), led to a
series of strokes. The first stroke was in May
1922, the second in December 1922 causing a
right hemiplegia, and the third in March 1923
which ended his career.
• He died on 24th January 1924, aged 53.
• There are also reports that he had neurosyphilis.
• On hearing of Lenin’s death Churchill
commented,
• “Russia’s greatest misfortune was Lenin’s
birth, their second greatest misfortune was his
early death”.
• His incapacity made him unable to prevent the
rise of Stalin.
WOODROW WILSON 1856 TO 1924.
• Woodrow Wilson was a severe hypertensive before he
became the 28th president in 1913. He had neurological
incidents as a result of high blood pressure from 1889
onwards, and retinal artery changes were noted as
early as 1906.
• He was president for two terms (1913 to 1921) during
a crucial period in world history, and in his second term
had a series of small lacunar strokes producing
progressive dementia.
• On 8th January 1918 he enunciated to Congress his 14
points, the basis for a peace programme, and which led
to the November 11th 1918 armistice.
• In 1919 he attended the Paris Peace Conference which
took place from 18th January 1919 to 28th June 1919
when the Treaty of Versailles was signed.
• During this time his mental faculties were impaired due
to cerebrovascular disease secondary to his
hypertension. Had he been fit it is possible that a treaty
less penal to Germany would have been signed.
• In the last week of September 1919 he suffered a
progressive cerebral artery thrombosis to the right
hemisphere of his brain (a stroke). He developed
complete paralysis of the left side of his body, slurring
of his speech and visual defect.
• His physician Cary Grayson, and his wife lied
about his condition.
• He continued as a seriously incapacitated
president for a further 16 months (his wife Edith
was spoken of as America’s first woman
President).
• During this time the crucial negotiations leading
to the establishment of the League of Nations
were taking place (America never joined, had
they done so WW2 may have been avoided).
• He should have been succeeded by his vice
president (Thomas Marshall).
• In 1967 his complex case became a motivation
for the passage of the 25th amendment to the
constitution of the United States, providing a
way of dealing with just such a situation.
IOSIF DZHUGASHVILI (STALIN) 1879 TO 1953.
• Leader of Soviet Union from 1923 to 1953.
• Narcissistic personality disorder with paranoia.
• Responsible for between 20 and 40 million
unnatural deaths in The Collectivisation
programme 1928 to 1940, The Holodomor in the
Ukraine 1932 to 1933, The Great Terror 1937 to
1938, The Purges, and The Gulag Archipelago.
• In addition an estimated 27 million Soviet troops
and civilians died during The Great Patriotic War
1941 to 1945.
CALVIN COOLIDGE 1872 TO 1933
• “Silent Cal” became the 30th president in 1923
when Warren Harding suddenly died. He was
reelected in 1924. He was a man of few words.
• “A wise old owl sat on an oak, The more he
saw the less he spoke, The less he spoke the
more he heard, Why can’t we be like that old
bird”.
• He had amazed everybody by marrying a
vivacious schoolteacher Grace.
• His ideal day was one in which nothing whatever
happens.
• He used to sleep for up to 11 hours a day.
• One Sunday on returning from church Grace
asked him what the sermon was about. “Sin” he
replied. “Well what did the minister say about it”
she asked. “He was against it” he replied.
• Retrospectively he has been diagnosed as having
a major depressive illness whilst in office.
RAMSAY MACDONALD 1866 TO 1937.
• He led a Labour government in 1924, in 1929
to 1931, and a coalition government from
1931 to 1935.
• He suffered with depression and later on in
his prime ministership began to develop
Alzheimers disease.
• This was at a critical time in history during
the rise of Hitler which was not dealt with
satisfactorily.
FDR 1882 to 1945.
• FDR was arguably the most influential political
leader of the 20th century.
• He contracted polio age 39 at a scout
jamboree in NY State and became
symptomatic at the family estate on
Campobello Island, New Brunswick.
• He was paralysed in both legs from the hips
down, and confined to a wheelchair.
• Of 35,000 photographs taken of him since
contracting polio only 2 show him in the
wheelchair.
• In the early stages of his presidency, which
lasted from 1933 to his death in 1945, his
health appeared excellent.
• In May 1941 he was diagnosed as having
raised blood pressure and an iron deficiency
anaemia and had two blood transfusions.
• During the period 1942 to 1944 his health
deteriorated.
• His personal doctor was Admiral Ross McIntyre,
an ENT surgeon!, who largely failed to recognise
FDR’s deterioration.
• Eventually on 28th March 1944 Dr Howard
Bruenn, a naval cardiologist, made the first
proper medical examination of FDR for 11 years
at the insistence of FDR’s daughter Anna.
• Bruenn found severe hypertension, a large heart
and left ventricular failure, and said off the record
that the presidents condition was “god awful”.
• McIntyre was not ready to accept Bruenn’s
findings and only agreed to FDR receiving digitalis
after Bruenn had bravely said that otherwise he
would have nothing more to do with the case.
Bruenn also instituted a low salt diet and a
weight loss programme.
• Bruenn stated confidentially that it was
impossible for FDR to run for a fourth term.
• In August 1944 FDR developed angina due to
coronary artery disease and his blood
pressure was 240/130.
• FDR ran for a fourth term, but showed insight
into his health problems by naming the
“extraordinary ordinary man” Harry S Truman
as his running mate.
• In February 1945, shortly after being sworn in
for a fourth term, FDR travelled by ship and
plane to Yalta and back for the meeting with
Churchill and Stalin.
• Here the future of Eastern Europe was
decided.
• It is still highly contentious how important an
issue FRD’s health was to the settlement.
• Towards the end of the conference FDR
developed pulsus alternans.
• Churchill’s doctor Sir Charles Wilson (Lord
Moran) could hardly fail to notice FDR’s
condition and only gave him a short time to
live.
• FDR died of a cerebral haemmorhage on 12th
April 1945 in Warm Springs Virginia, he was 63
years old.
• On March 21st 1947 Congress passes the 22nd
amendment to the Constitution of The United
States of America, limiting any individual to a
maximum of two terms as president.
• FDR is the only president to serve more than
two terms.
ADOLF HITLER 1889 TO 1945.
• Hitler suffered with narcissistic personality
disorder.
• He was addicted to amphetamines.
• The origins of his disastrous (for the world)
accession to power were multifactorial, but the
increasing dementia of octogenarian president
Paul Von Hindenburg, hero of the battle of
Tannenburg in WW1, was paramount.
• Thus the world suffered the catastrophic WW2.
FAMOUS QUOTES BY HARRY TRUMAN.
• I fired him (McArthur) because he wouldn’t
respect the authority of the president. I didn’t
fire him because he was a dumb son of a
bitch, although he was, but thats not against
the law for Generals. If it was half to
threequarters of them would be in jail.
• The buck stops here.
• If you can’t stand the heat get out of the
kitchen.
• Comment to reporters after becoming president on the
death of FDR. “Boys, if you ever pray, pray for me now.
I don’t know whether you fellows ever had a load of
hay fall on you, but when they told me yesterday what
had happened , I felt like the moon, the stars and all
the planets had fallen on me”.
• Letter to Paul Hume of Time magazine, “I have read
your lousy review of Margaret’s concert and I’ve come
to the conclusion that you are an eight ulcer man on a
four ulcer job.....Some day I hope to meet you. When
that happens you’ll need a new nose, a lot of beefsteak
for black eyes and perhaps a supporter below”.
MAO TSE-TUNG 1893 TO 1976
• Mao seized power in 1949.
• The Great Leap Forward 1958 to 1963 led to mass famines
unprecedented in history, particularly from 1959 to 1961.
• The Cultural Revolution was from 1966 to 1976.
• It is estimated that Mao was responsible for up to 80
million unnatural deaths, eclipsing Stalin and Hitler.
• Mao was a man in a hurry. Knowing his mortality he wanted
to get the changes he wanted made in China done in his
lifetime, with no consideration for others.
• Mao was a heavy smoker and drinker all his life, and
overweight, and in later life was beset by heart and
breathing problems.
• He had narcissistic personality disorder.
WINSTON CHURCHILL 1874 to 1964.
• Churchill was prime minister from 1940 to 1945
and 1951 to 1955.
• He was a moderate to heavy drinker and smoker.
• He suffered with bipolar disorder and would
avoid edges of platforms in case he jumped
impulsively into the path of a train.
• In 1931 forgetting that in the USA they drive on
the right he was hit by a taxi in New York City.
• His hypomania together with his powers or oratory enabled Britain
to stay in the war during the dark days of 1940. Probably a saner
prime minister like Halifax would have given in
• To Churchill America and FDR were the key to survival, and Churchill
had the advantage of an American mother.
• Churchill’s sinking of the French Fleet at Mers el Kebir in July 1940
made Roosevelt realise that Britain wasn’t going to surrender, and
he agreed to lendlease which before the sinkings he had refused.
• Churchill’s great fear was the U boat sinking of British shipping
starving Britain into submission. Lendlease, the convoy system,
Bletchley Park and Pearl Harbour saved Britain.
• In December 1941 shortly after Pearl Harbour (which
gave him his first decent nights sleep since becoming
prime minister because he knew Britain was safe) he
probably had a heart attack in the White House.
• He had a severe stroke in June 1953 which affected his
speech and walking ability. Anthony Eden the heir
apparent was sick after his gall bladder operation in
April 1953. The public were told Churchill was
suffering from exhaustion.
• He had a mild stroke in December 1956, and a severe
stroke in January 1965 from which he subsequently
died.
George V1th Pneumonectomy, 23/9/51,
Buckingham Palace.
• Clement Thomas was the surgeon and Robert
Machray the anaesthetist assisted by Cyril
Scurr who had to attach a wire between the
oscilloscope (below) and a cold water tap. He
survived the operation but died 5 months
later.
ANTHONY EDEN
• Until 12th April 1953 he had lived a charmed
life, then his luck ran out.
• Unlike two of his brothers he survived WW1.
• He was charming and handsome and much
admired by the ladies.
• He had a hat named after him.
• He had been a successful foreign secretary
• On 12th April 1953 60yo surgeon Basil Hume
performed gall bladder surgery on Eden.
• He was Eden’s choice, against other advice,
because he had previously removed Eden’s
appendix successfully.
• Hume was not an expert at biliary surgery and
had to delay the operation for an hour while he
composed himself.
• The three hour operation was a disaster, Eden’s
common bile duct was damaged and his health
permanently ruined.
• He underwent many subsequent operations, 3
in the USA.
• He was on a combination of amphetamines
and barbiturates often, including during Suez.
• During the Suez crisis of 1956 he had a fever
of 106 Fahrenheit due to cholangitis. This
probably affected his judgement.
DWIGHT EISENHOWER 1890 to 1969.
• Eisenhower served two terms as president from 1952
to 1960.
• On September 24th 1955 he developed severe chest
pain at 2.30 in the morning. His doctor Major General
Howard Snyder correctly diagnosed a heart attack and
gave the president morphine, a coronary dilator and an
anticoagulant, but in order to avoid public alarm took
the enormous risk of not admitting him to hospital for
12 hours.
• Eisenhower also had a stroke in November 1957 from
which he recovered.
• Being a VIP is dangerous to your health.
JFK.
• He suffered with Addison’s disease,
hypothyroidism and chronic severe low back
pain.
• He was on many medications including
steroids and amphetamines.
• On 17th April there was the disastrous Bay of
Pigs invasion.
• The Cuban Missile Crisis was from 14th to 28th
October 1962.
VASIL ARKHIPOV 27th OCTOBER 1962.
• The Soviet diesel powered submarine B59 which
unbeknown to the Americans carried a nuclear
torpedo, was detected in the quarantine area
(international waters), during the Cuban Missile crisis.
• The gungho US Admiral Anderson, who had fallen out
with US secretary of defence Robert MacNamara,
ordered depth grenades to be dropped to force it to
the surface.
• The submarine was out of touch with Moscow
• The captain Valentin Savitsky believing war may have
started wanted to launch the nuclear torpedo.
27th OCTOBER 1962.
• According to protocol 3 officers had to agree in order
to launch.
• They were Captain Savitsky, the political officer
Semonovich Maslennikov and a third officer Vasil
Arkhipov.
• Maslennikov agreed with Savitsky. Arkhipov who was
only 36 and under enormous pressure said no and
explained his reasoning and prevailed.
• The submarine surfaced and possibly, maybe probably,
thermonuclear war was averted.
• In 2002 former US defence secretary Robert
McNamara said we came very close to nuclear war.
LEONID BREZHNEV.
• For the last 10 years of his life Brezhnev, who was
a heavy smoker and drinker, suffered every
disease known to man. In the last years of his life
the Soviet Union was governed by Andrei
Gromyko, foreign secretary; Dmitry Ustinov,
defence secretary; Mikhail Suslov, chief
ideologist; and Yuri Andropov, KGB chief. Indeed
these four took the crucial and disastrous
decision to invade Afghanistan on Christmas Eve
1979, took no minutes of the decision, and
presented a document for Brezhnev to sign to
authorise it.
THE YOUNG BRITISH SOLDIER, 1895,
RUDYARD KIPLING.
(DO WE NEVER LEARN).
• When you’re wounded and lying on
Afghanistan’s plains,
• And the women come out to cut up what
remains,
• Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains,
• An’ go to your Gawd like a soldier,
• So-oldier of the Queen.
YURI ANDROPOV.
• Andropov became general secretary on 12th
November 1982.
• In February 1983 age 68 he suffered total
renal failure, requiring dialysis.
• He spent the remaining year of his life in the
Central Clinical Hospital west of Moscow.
• March 8th 1983 Reagan’s “evil empire” speech.
• September 1st 1983 KAL 007 shot down.
• September 26th 1983 Petrov saves the world.
• November 2nd_12th 1983 exercise Able Archer.
STANISLAV PETROV, THE MAN WHO SAVED
THE WORLD BY DOING NOTHING.
• On September 26th 1983 Petrov was (civilian fortunately) duty
officer at the nuclear early warning command centre near Moscow,
when the system (which was in its early stages after being opened
and for which Petrov was aware there had been teething problems)
reported a missile being launched from the USA. Contrary to
protocol Petrov did nothing.
• Later the system reported 4 more missiles being launched. Again
contrary to instructions Petrov did nothing.
• It was later determined that they were false alarms caused by a
rare alignment of sunlight on high altitude clouds and a satellite
orbit.
• Fortunately Andropov, who was perceived as being trigger happy
and was terminally ill, was never notified.
• In January 2006 Petrov was personally honoured at the United
Nations in New York City.
KONSTANTIN CHERNENKO.
• He was general secretary from 13TH February
1984 to 10th March 1985.
• He was a heavy smoker and drinker.
• He suffered with emphysema, right heart
failure and cirrhosis of the liver.
• He died age 73.
RONALD REAGAN 1981 to 1989.
• He was shot on March 30th 1981 by John Hinkley. He
was close to death on arrival at George Washington
University Hospital.
• The bullet entered his left lung which collapsed and
he lost over 3 litres of blood.
• He was stabilised in the emergency room with a
chest drain and blood transfusion.
• He then had a thoracotomy and his life was saved.
• It was many months until he recovered his health,
• In his second term he had a right hemicolectomy for
a villous adenoma and developed early Alzheimers.
• In February 1987 White House chief of staff Donald
Regan was forced to resign over the Iran Contra
controversy.
• He was replaced by Howard Baker who found a badly
demoralized White House staff over Ronald Reagan’s
lack of attention to the duties of the presidency.
• All he wanted to do was watch movies and television at
the residence.
• Baker considered applying section 4 of the 25th
amendment, but after interviewing the president
decided against that course of action.
VLADIMIR PUTIN.
• He was born in Leningrad in 1952.
• His parents were both 41 when he was born and were
survivors of the 872 day siege of Leningrad, in which there
were up to 2 million deaths and in which in all of history is
unequalled in terms of the resistance and refusal to
surrender of the Russian people.
• Both his elder brothers died.
• He had a very difficult upbringing in conditions of hardship
unimaginable to westerners.
• NPD often has roots in childhood where family life is
marked by trauma and emotional chaos.
• This may account for his narcissistic personality disorder
and bullying personality.
HILARY CLINTON.
• Hilary Clinton had a life threatening cerebral
venous sinus thrombosis (CVST) following a
fall while secretary of state. It was the second
time she had had a CVST.
• She is probably thrombophilic and probably
on warfarin or rivaroxaban.
• Should she run for the presidency?
• MATERIAL FOR THIS PRESENTATION HAS BEEN
COLLATED FROM THE INTERNET AND FROM
• “WHEN ILLNESS STRIKES WORLD LEADERS” BY
JERROLD M. POST, M.D. AND ROBERT S.
ROBINS.
• “IN SICKNESS AND IN POWER” BY DAVID
OWEN M.B.B.S.
• “THE IMPACT OF ILLNESS ON WORLD
LEADERS” BY BERT EDWARD PARK, M.D.