Yup! Exhibits all 14 symptoms of Hubris

Creon's Fatal Flaw

Hubris Syndrome is an acquired personality change that can occur in powerful leaders. Because the people who develop it hold power, the effects of their hubris can be widespread and, in some cases, extremely damaging to many people.

The recurrent features which have given rise to concern are well illustrated by the decision making of U.S. President Bush and U.K. Prime Minister Blair, particularly in the period leading up to the 2003 Iraq war. Their abject failure to anticipate the consequences of the war and their belief that an invading force would be hailed as heroic were, in essence, hubristic. It is typical of hubris that there is a gross overestimation of the likely achievement.

The appalling failure to plan for the aftermath of the invasion is also a prime example of hubristic incompetence. Not to anticipate the insurgency and to reduce the level of troops needed for nation building, all contributed to a destabilisation and fragmentation of Iraq. This has come back to haunt us in the growth and advance of ISIS from Syria into Iraq and their claim to a caliphate in what they call the Levant where the objective is to go back in time to a simpler life under Sharia law.

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The Symptoms of Hubris Syndrome

Proposed criteria for Hubris Syndrome, and their correspondence to features of cluster B personality disorders in DSM-IV:
APD = Anti-Social Personality Disorder; HPD =Histrionic Personality Disorder; NPD =Narcissistic Personality Disorder.

1. 1. A narcissistic propensity to see their world primarily as an arena in which to exercise power and seek glory (NPD)
2. 2. A predisposition to take actions which seem likely to cast the individual in a good light--i.e. in order to enhance image (NPD)
3. 3. A disproportionate concern with image and presentation (NPD)
4. 4. A messianic manner of talking about current activities and a tendency to exaltation (NPD)
5. 5. An identification with the nation or organization to the extent that the individual regards his/her outlook and interests as identical (unique)
6. 6. A tendency to speak in the third person or use the royal "we" (unique)
7. 7. Excessive confidence in the individual's own judgment and contempt for the advice or criticism of others (NPD)
8. 8. Exaggerated self-belief, bordering on a sense of omnipotence, in what they personally can achieve (NPD)
9. 9. A belief that rather than being accountable to the mundane court of colleagues or public opinion, the court to which they answer is: History or God (NPD)
10. 10. An unshakable belief that in that court they will be vindicated (unique)
11. 11. Loss of contact with reality; often associated with progressive isolation (APD)
12. 12. Restlessness, recklessness and impulsiveness (unique)
13. 13. A tendency to allow their "broad vision" about the moral rectitude of a proposed course to obviate the need to consider practicality, cost or outcomes (unique)
14. 14. Hubristic incompetence, where things go wrong because too much self-confidence has led the leader not to worry about the nuts and bolts of policy (HPD)