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Psychoanalytic Reflections on Vladimir Putin: The Cost of Malignant Leadership

Editor : Richard Wood

Reviews and Endorsements

Wood’s book gives us one of the most valuable analyses of Putin’s personality and motives that I have read to date. Although authored by leading scholars, it is an easily understood book for the intelligent layperson. It is also terrifying. We often tend toward projecting some rationality on to dangerous autocrats or even denial of their severe intractable psychopathology. However, this book argues that there is ‘government by dangerous, strongmen figures driven by insatiable appetites, deeply compromised empathy, and a very destructive form of narcissistic pathology – that represents a clear and present danger the world must soon find a way to contend with if human survival is to be protected... that it is a danger that is growing, as witness the rise in autocracies around the world, and a danger that history tells us has resulted in unimaginable human suffering and ecological damage. I want influential government officials to read this book, to not only understand Putin, but to understand and never underestimate the malignant autocrat that is ready to destroy all that is good in society. Wood's book should be taken as a very serious warning.
Robert M. Gordon, Ph.D. ABPP; licensed Psychologist; Diplomate of Clinical Psychology; Diplomate of Psychoanalysis; governing council, American Psychological Association

The contributions rendered in this book provide invaluable insight, enlightened perspectives and deep understanding of the etiology, manifestation and psychodynamics of the toxic strongman leader who has rendered historically, and is currently inflicting, incalculable harm, if not also annihilation, upon his fellow human beings. There is equally penetrating attention given to those he has seduced into toxic followership. There is much to learn and take away from each of these erudite authors’ offerings. It’s a wake-up call. The geopolitical landscape is changing and the threat that such leaders present to our way of life is of ever-increasing magnitude. It must be clearly defined, well understood and immediately countered, not only by our political leaders, military chiefs, intelligence agencies and academics, but by an engaged citizenry – that is, all of us.
Tim Gilmore, Psychologist, Gilmore Associates

Richard Wood's Psychoanalytic Reflections on Vladimir Putin: The Cost of Malignant Leadership, brings a vast array of psychological and psychoanalytical knowledge to the study of the Russian president. it's an extremely erudite, insightful, and well written study providing the reader with many valuable perspectives, including by several additional thoughtful authors. I strongly recommend it to deepen your understanding of Putin and the West's relationship with him.
Dr. Paul H. Elovitz, Presidential Psychobiographer, Research Psychoanalyst, Editor-In-Chief of Clio's Psyche, and Director of the Psychohistory Forum