Mail & Guardian reporter
A psychometric study by a United States university has found that Robert Mugabe suffers from a “bureaucratic-compulsive” syndrome and that he is likely to become increasingly dogmatic, inflexible and paranoid.
The unit for the study of personality in politics, in the psychology department of St John’s University in Minnesota, based its assessment on media reports using Theodore Millon’s inventory of diagnostic criteria. The study, conducted in October, was prepared for the BBC.
Millon says leaders with this syndrome “are noted for their officious, high-handed bearing; intrusive, meddlesome interpersonal conduct; unimaginative, closed-minded cognitive style; grim, imperturbable mood and scrupulous if grandiose sense of self”.
The study says Mugabe’s “controlling, virtuous but moralistic upbringing with high expectations of perfection” was influential.
Mugabe registers high scores on the diagnostic criteria of “dominant” (asserting, controlling, aggressive), “ambitious” (confident, arrogant, exploitative, narcissistic), “conscientious” (respectful, dutiful, obsessive-compulsive) and “distrusting” (paranoid), with a relatively high score for “retiring” (aloof).
On the “distrusting” scale, it finds Mugabe’s score is high enough to “suggest a dysfunctionally suspicious personality orientation”.
The unit likens Mugabe to other high-dominance introverts in leadership positions, such as former US presidents Woodrow Wilson and Herbert Hoover, saying they divide the world between “us and them” and are quite willing to use military force.
It concludes that Mugabe is likely to become increasingly suspicious, thin-skinned, vengeful, self-righteous and impervious to correction.