Remembering Gorbachev

Abstract

Since the middle of last century the so-called “rational actor” models in international and domestic affairs (von Rochau, 1853) supported the assumption that a political leader’s decision-making is logical and unaffected by psychological factors. In 1993 eight psychoanalytically oriented psychiatrists formed a team to study political leaders’ personality characteristics and the psychodynamics of their decision-making processes. They met twice a year for five years and studied political leaders with obsessional, paranoid, schizoid, narcissistic and depressive personality organizations (Volkan, Akhtar, Dorn, Kafka, Kernberg, Olsson, Rogers, & Shanfield, 1998). Today academicians dealing with political issues are more aware that the personality of a political leader plays a crucial role in his or her attempts to maintain a stable relationship with his or her “followers” as well as in dealing with domestic and international issues. On February 2022, Russia launched an invasion of Ukraine. Vladimir Putin’s psychological issues in starting this invasion already have been examined through psychoanalytic angles (Ihanus, 2022; Volkan & Javakhishvili, 2022). On August 30, 2022, Mikhail Gorbachev died. A political leader with Gorbachev’s personality would not start a new war, a new horrifying event with brutality against civilians, children and innocent.