A First-Rate Madness (2011) (edit title/settings)

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Characters/People edit see section history

• Gen. Sherman: Favorite Chapter was about General Sherman of Civil War fame. A lot of details. General William Tecumseh ("W.T.") Sherman. Leader of Union forces during the American Civil War and infamous for his "March to the Sea" during which he left a long path of devastation which foretold of upcoming warfare tactics. Alleged to have suffered from mental illness. Failed banker. West Point graduate. "A spokesman for psychological terror"
• John Kennedy: President of the U.S. Catalyst of the Civil Rights Movement. Suffered from Adidson's disease and mental abnormalities
• Adolf Hitler: Fuhrer of Nazi Germany and author of Nazism. Alleged to have suffered from mental illness
• Gandhi: Mahatma Gandhi. Indian civil rights leader referred to as one of "two bookends" of the Nonviolent Movement. Widely considered the most successful, modern practitioner of Nonviolence. Alleged to have suffered from mental illness.
• Winston Churchill: "Orator, the fiery leader, the man who refused to submit to tyranny, and in whose stubborn refusal a nation, and then the world, found the strength to resist and ultimately prevail" against Nazi Germany. Alleged to have suffered from mental illness. A Prime Minister of England during World War II.
• Mcclellan: A lead General of the Union forces during the U.S. Civil War. Was later replaced. Said to be of "normal" temperament
• Tony Blair: A Prime Minister of England when the September 11 attacks occurred. Said to be of "normal" temperament
• Lincoln: Abraham Lincoln. U.S. President who led during the U.S. Civil War. Famous for writing the Emancipation Proclamation that officially ended slavery in the U.S. Alleged to have suffered from mental illness
• Roosevelt: Two U.S. presidents mentioned in this book: Theodore and Franklin Delano. The latter is discussed more at length. Disabled by polio. Said to have possessed a manic or hyperthymic personality
• George Bush: In regards to the narrative, George W. Bush, the son of a U.S. President and a President himself during. He served as President during the September 11 attacks. Said to be of a "normal" temperament
• Neville Chamberlain: Prime Minister of England pre-World War II. Infamous for having cow tailed to Nazi demands rather than opposing them.
• Morell: Theodor Morell. In 1937, became Hitler's primary physician and administered medications to the Fuhrer.
• Poussaint: Alvin Poussaint. "A psychiatrist who had marched with <Martin Luther King, Jr.>" and informed historians of the civil rights leader's mental attributes
• Martin Luther King, Jr.: Civil Rights leader for African Americans in the U.S. during the late 1950s-1960s. Considered one of "two bookends" of the Nonviolence Movement. Alleged to have suffered from menal illness.
• Richard Nixon: President of the U.S. Only President to have resigned his position. Said to have possessed a "normal" temperament.
• Grinker: Roy Grinker. U.S. psychiatrist and pupil of Sigmund Freud. Editor of the Archives of General Psychiatry. Authored the notion of the "Silent Majority" and the homoclite.
• Joseph Kennedy: Father of John F. Kennedy. Alleged to have suffered from mental illness. Financial giant from Boston
• Robert E. Lee: Lead General of the Confederate forces during the U.S. Civil War.
• Addison: In this book, a reference to a specific disease, not a person. John F. Kennedy was alleged to have contracted Addison's disease.
• Grant: Ulysses S. Grant. U.S. President and Lead General of the Union forces at the close of the U.S. Civil War. Alleged to have suffered from some mental illness.
• Kubizek: A long-time friend of Adolf Hitler who provided extensive insight regarding the Fuhrer's private thoughts and actions.
• Klara Hitler: Adolf's mother
• Leonard Heston: Psychiatrist and prominent researcher in the genetics of schizophrenia
• John F. Kennedy: President of the U.S. Catalyst of the Civil Rights Movement. Suffered from Adidson's disease and mental abnormalities
• Wilson: Add a description of this character.
• Clinton
• Jack: Nickname for John F. Kennedy
• Robert Kennedy
• Chotiner: Nixon's "political father" who geared Nixon for later ascendancy to the presidency.
• Sullivan: Harry Stack Sullivan. A U.S. psychiatrist recruited to establish screening of army candidates at the beginning of World War II in order to reduce the incidence of PTSD.
• Ted Turner: 24-hour news mogul. Self-reported mental illness.
• Khrushchev: Soviet opponent to President John F. Kennedy. Withstood the U.S. President at the Vienna Summit and placed missiles in Cuba in an attempt to threaten the U.S.
• Harilal: Mahatma Gandhi's son who was said to have caused the civil rights leader "much pain" by living a life contrary to his father's teaching.
• Baldwin
• Jacobsen: A one-time physician to President John F. Kennedy. Played a controversial role in JFK's management of Addison's disease by administering unknown quantities and concoctions of subcutaneous injections
• Fellman: Michael Fellman, a historian who "thoroughly documented" W.T. Sherman's moods in 1995
• Holmes
• Tom Sherman: Son of General William T. Sherman and alleged to have inherited his father's disposition for depression.
• Ernst Kretschmer: Ascribed the honor of first identifying abnormal temperaments such as depression, mania, and bipolar disorder. Early 20th century German psychiatrist. "The first modern researcher on abnormal personality, who also noted the link between insanity and genius
• Kay Redfield Jamison: Psychologist who also noted a link between "exuberant behavior and emotions" and creativity.
• Tom Wooton: A public speaker who is in treatment for bipolar disorder and give seminars about the benefits of the illness. Provided a famous depiction of the manic mind by likening to a normal person's ability to focus on just a part of a painting, while the manic person sees every inch of the same painting.
• B.H. Liddell-Hart: British military historian recruited to write a book on a key Civil War general and eventually chose W.T. Sherman
• Ellen Ewing: W.T. Sherman's wife and daughter of one of the Cabinet Members to President Zachary Taylor
• Mikhail Bakunin: "A Russian anarchist" who used W.T. Sherman's March to the Sea to revise military tactics
• Martin Seligman: Psychologist who proposed "learned helplessness" theory
• Karl Jaspers: Psychiatrist and philosopher. Ascribed form making empathy famous a tenet central to thinking. Opposed Nazism boldly and remained a resident of Germany despite Nazi domination
• W.E.B. Dubois: First African American man to obtain a Ph.D. from Harvard. Founder of the NAACP and civil rights figure. "Leading black intellectual."
• Frantz Fanon: A "black political leader" and psychiatrist who argued that black aggression served an adaptive purpose for the black community in achieving mental heatlh
• Alois Hitler: The name of Adolf's father and half-brother.
• Arnold Hutschnecker: A New York internist and psychoanalyst with whom Nixon consulted toward the end of the controversial presidency
• David Greenberg: Historian who summarized the psychoanalysis of Nixon
• James McPherson: McClellan Historian
• Albert Speer: Confidant of Adolf Hitler
• Heinz Linge: Hitler's valet
• Dr. Ernst-Gunther Schenk: "A nutrition inspector for the Waffen-SS"
• Allan Bullock: Hitler historian
• Thomas Eagleton: Missouri Senator who briefly ran as a vice president candidate. Was dismissed as a VP potential when it was discovered that he had received treatment for emotional disorder.

Setting & Locations edit see section history

• White House
• India
• Iraq
• New York
• Mississippi
• Atlanta
• Germany
• United States
• America
• Georgia
• Washington
• Kentucky
• England
• Boston
• Cuba
• Virginia
• West Point
• Vienna
• South Carolina
• Europe
• Islam
• Savannah
• Alabama
• Russia
• Ohio
• Britain
• Berlin
• Tennessee
• London

Organizations edit see section history

• The Southern Christian Leadership Conference: "SCCC". Founded by Martin Luther King, Jr. during the U.S. Civil Rights movement. Facilitated protests and demonstrations.
• National Socialist Party: The political organization in which Hitler began his political activities and ascent to dictatorship.
• Napoleon Club: An elitist club at West Point where McClellan honed his understanding and appreciation for the strategies of Napoleon.
• House Un-American Activities Committee: Add a description of this organization.

First Sentence edit see section history

Table of Contents edit see section history

Glossary edit see section history

• Non-crisis leader: Said to "succeed in ordinary times, but in times of crisis should be kept far away from the scepter of rule...idealistic, a bit too optimistic about the world and himself; he is insensitive to suffering, having not suffered much himself." Typically identified as an individual without psychological abnormality
• Inverse Law of Sanity: "When times are good, when peace reigns, and the ship of state only needs to sail straight, mentally healthy people function well as leaders. When our world is in tumult, mentally ill leaders function best."
• Psychohistory: A must disregarded practice of analyzing historical figures in a historical sense. Referred to in this book as "a discredited discipline."
• Hyperthymic personality: Mild manic traits
• Cognitive-behavioral model: Identified by the author as the most popular psychological theory about depression. Views depression as distorting of one's perception of reality and making thoughts abnormally negative
• Depressive Realism Hypothesis: Identified by the author as a competing and superior psychological theory to explain manic-depressive illness. The theory argues that "depressed people aren't depressed because they distort reality; they're depressed because they see reality more clearly than other people do."
• Personality Transplant: "Where people take on the kind of charisma that our society rewards." Used particularly in reference to Mania.
• Mental Health: "The absence of mental disease, plus being near the statistical average of personality traits."
• Mental Illness: "The presence of a disease"
• Mental Abnormality: "Being at the extremes, not the near average, of personality traits"
• Homoclites: "Normal, mentally healthy people"
• Paragraph Complexity Test: Allegedly an assessment of creativity. "Asks subjects to complete sentences like: 'When I am in doubt I...,' or 'When I am criticized, I...'"
• Sherman's Neckties: A term applied to the shape of twisted rail ties indicating the path of W.T. Sherman's wreckage through the South during his infamous March to the Sea
• Depressive Realism: An accurate appraisal of one's lack of control over situations
• The skew of happiness: "Under normal conditions, normal people overestimate themselves"
• Positive illusion: Positive affect induces unrealistic perceptions of the environment and one's control over it
• The perils of Success: The notion that people who quickly succeed will later unravel when faced with crisis. "The absence of early hardship often has a later negative effect; when difficult times arrive, one is vulnerable. Early triumph can promote future failure."
• Goldilocks Principle: "Too little is harmful, so is too much; in the middle is just right." A psychological U-curve
• Neurosyphilis: "General Paralysis of the Insane." A common diagnosis in 19th century psychology
• jingoism: A derogatory term characteristic of extreme patriotism, especially in an aggressive or warlike form
• Bleeding: "The removal of blood by the application of leeches to suck, or bu using a lancet to cut." Indicative of medical theory based on Galen's theory of the four humors
• Politics of Radical Empathy: The application of empathy in the nonviolent movement
• Oxytocin: "Something like a love drug that produces feelings of emotional attachment in socially significant moments--like sex or breastfeeding. Its constant presence is associated with sociability, its absence with isolation."
• Cognitive empathy: "Thinking another person's thoughts"
• Affective empathy: "Feeling an emotion that another person feels"
• Motor empathy: "Moving the way another moves"
• Sensory empathy: "Feeling a physical sensation that another person feels"
• Interpersonal Reactivity Index: An inventory of empathy. "Consists of twenty-eight questions that measure four behaviors: 'perspective taking' or 'the tendency to experience feelings of sympathy or compassion for unfortunate others'; 'personal distress' or the 'tendency to experience distress or discomfort in response to extreme distress in others'; and 'fantasy' or the 'tendency to imaginatively transpose oneself into fictional situations.'"
• Shell shock: Variant names: "shell shock (First World War), war neurosis World War II), post-traumatic stress disorder (Vietnam/Iraq/Afghanisan)."
• Good social supports: "good relationships with at least one parent and a large circle of childhood friends. (Some psychologists call this 'ordinary magic')."
• Cognitive Reappraisal: "The ability of subjects to interpret <traumatic or unpleasant events> in a positive way."
• Addison's disease: "An autoimmune illness in which one's adrenal glands stop producing steroid hormones"
• Banality of Evil: Used especially in reference to the Nazi enacted Holocaust. "The notion that ordinary people can commit atrocious acts."
• Silent Majority: Notion authored by Ginkler and made famous by President Nixon. "Within the general population of the United States this group is relatively silent. Its members are goal-directed, anxious only in striving to do their jobs well in which they will have moved up from their fathers' positions, but with little ambition for upward social or economic mobility."
• Neurosis: "Unconscious emotional conflicts"
• Integrative Complexity: "The ability to see things from multiple perspectives"
• Desiderata: An archaic term describing a "keen desire for something lacking or absent"
• Hubris Syndrome: Coined by David Owen. Considered a disorder of power. Individuals in long-standing positions of power become less receptive to input from others.

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. S. Nassir Ghaemi (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: Add the Library of Congress Classification.
• Dewey: 920

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Health, Mind & Body › Mental Health
• Books › Biographies & Memoirs › Historical

Links to Supplemental Material edit see section history

• S. Nassir Ghaemi: The website of the author

More Books Like This edit see section history