A first-rate madness

Uncovering the Links Between Leadership and Mental Illness.

This New York Times bestseller is a myth-shattering exploration of the powerful connections between mental illness and leadership.

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 Programme at Tufts Medical Center, offers 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 lacklustre leadership of exceedingly sane men as Neville Chamberlain, A First-Rate Madness overturns many of our most cherished perceptions about greatness and the mind.

Recommended by Alan Clayton.

A First-Rate Madness: Uncovering the Links Between Leadership and Mental Illness, by Nassir Ghaemi (cover)
A First-Rate Madness: Uncovering the Links Between Leadership and Mental Illness, by Nassir Ghaemi (cover)

About this book

  • Author S. Nassir Ghaemi
  • EAN/UPC 9780143121336
  • Publication 3 January 2013
  • Format Paperback
  • Edition 1
  • Publisher Penguin Books Ltd

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