Is Putin a Psychopath? | Jon Ronson and Brian Klaas on Power

This is part 1 of an exclusive How To Academy event. Watch part 2 here: • Have you Met a Psychop...
Does power corrupt, or are corrupt people drawn to power? How do you tell if your leader is a psychopath? Are we drawn to following bad people? To find out, Brian Klaas met presidents, philanthropists, cultists and dictators. He tells his story to Jon Ronson.
Dr Brian Klaas is an Associate Professor in Global Politics at University College London and a columnist for the Washington Post. Klaas is also a frequent television commentator and political consultant. He was previously based at the London School of Economics and the University of Oxford. He is also the host of the Power Corrupts podcast. He has advised governments, US political campaigns, NATO, the European Union, multi-billion dollar investors, international NGOs, and international politicians. On KZbin, Brian has been featured on CNN (strongmen leaders), MSNBC (Corruption in the republican party, dictators, authoritarianism), David Pakman Show, TEDx Talks, BBC Newsnight, Skeptic and Forward with Andrew Yang.
Jon Ronson is a journalist, author, and filmmaker whose works include Them: Adventures with Extremists, The Men Who Stare at Goats, and The Psychopath Test. He has published nine books and his work has appeared in publications such as The Guardian, City Life and Time Out. He has made several BBC Television documentary films and two documentary series for Channel 4. On KZbin, Jon has been featured on TED (psychopath test, one tweet can ruin your life), JRE Clips (fake martial artist, Bohemian Grove), GANT (Couple thinkers), RiverheadBooks (the psychopath test), Russell Howard, Shaun Attwood, PoliticsJOE, BBC Sounds, Times Radio and The Moth.

[@levelupviz]

There are many sociopaths in Russia, domestic violence is normal, passed down from generation to generation. Such a people select such a government

[@ismaelismael8543]

Not sure if "select" is a term that would describe the dynamic between the russian people and the autocratic regime they have for a government lmao

[@RR-et6zp]

oh cmon man. It doesnt exist. Your president is just realistic. Psychology is BS

[@brianbozo2447]

Lots in Australia but it doesn't have the levels of crime as occurs in other countries such as El Salvador, Mexico or even the USA

[@jessicajaerosenbaum115]

​@@brianbozo2447The USA is not a ghetto. I know that all you other countries are fed media that tells you all sorts of things but very little of it's true or it's blown out of proportion and exaggerated. Like the saying goes don't believe everything you hear.

[@mikematthews2750]

God. He’s an absolute psychopath. He’s taking the Russian people down with him. He should be dealt with but I don’t see a brave person pulling the trigger. The man is a narcissist and he is an enemy of his own people.

[@RR-et6zp]

he acutally isnt but psychology is BS

[@matt.willoughby]

@@RR-et6zp Psychology is not a hard science, but we can still learn valuable lessons and insights into human behaviour. Hope you're not a scientologist

[@RR-et6zp]

@@matt.willoughby evolutionary biology is true but the rest is BS. The guy isn't reasoning well in the video, eg. at 09.44, nope. It has to be congruent to what's actually true, the fundamentals of logic. Your psychology stuff is BS

[@jamesblonde6395]

@@RR-et6zp So if Putin is not a psychopath then what is he?

[@RR-et6zp]

@@jamesblonde6395 x paths don't exist. Taking lives and having empathy are compatible for example

[@drzeworyj]

*if he's not, then I don't know who is. of course he has all the symptoms!!* I've said it for years!

[@g0679]

I’ve been saying it for several days. And fresh tastes best.

[@jessicajaerosenbaum115]

There's no way that he himself doesn't know he's a sociopath. It's just that he's proud of it. I've never met a narcissist(that admits it) that's not proud of being one. They only hear the things that sound good to their ears about what a narcissist is. It's definitely the same with Putin. They call him a gangster. He loves that. He doesn't walk like that normal. It's the crip swag and it's on purpose.

[@samudroprem6936]

Thank you, this is a very important interview. The last few years are a wake -up call on many levels. And Brian Klass is absolutely right, we to obligate all politicians to a psychopathy test, and even a full psychological trait evaluation; even though the psychopaths will attempt to find a way to avoid it. As a teacher of Lowenian Character Analysis (Bodytypes) We see that the personality trait of psychopathic tendency is very widespread, up 20% of people. They orientate to leadership. But not all are inherently malevolent. Putin has grown into his latent psychopathy, he was earlier a compensated Oral character. Such a personality has inferiorrity complex and compensates through moving towards more psychopathic behaviour. As Putin has had 23 yeras of unchallenged power he has had an environment to boost his malignant psychopathy. Western democracies have basically limited their psychopathic leader to 8-10 years. If Thatcher or Trump were given 20+ years as Putin, who knows how far they'd go. Feedback to Ronson at video point 09:20 Psychopath do not aspire to be the smartest person in the room, they want to be the most powerful or influential person in the room. QAnon are obviously not the smartest people in any room.

[@ellie698]

I'd always assumed he was!

[@RR-et6zp]

he acutally isnt but psychology is BS

[@ellie698]

@@RR-et6zp He almost certainly is but you clearly haven't studied psychology. As a science, it isn't perfect. All scientific study is a work in progress, we will never answer all the questions we have, there will always be more work to do. The subject matter, the human mind, is not an easy subject to understand. It brings its own challenges when developing studies that rule out conflating factors and provide data to support or disprove a hypothesis. That doesn't mean it's not a valid discipline, it just comes with its own inherent difficulties. Well designed, rigorous, peer reviewed research attempts to work to further our understanding. Like I say, a work in progress. Like all other scientific study is.

[@RR-et6zp]

@@ellie698 I have just for fun. Its completely fraudulent, the whole replication crisis + most human behaviour can be derived from biology. The only reason it exists is because there is so much money in it. Most degrees are BS, AND NO. Physics is the search for truth, and the law. Same with biology and chemistry. They are not 'in progress'

[@ellie698]

@@RR-et6zp Actually they both very much are. The human microbiome and holobiome for instance. Just one enormous field of ongoing research. Much to be learned.

[@RR-et6zp]

@@ellie698 most psychology is BS. Only evolutionary biology is true

[@shelleyswan535]

I've been listening to Mussorgsky's grand opera "Boris Godunov" about a tsar who becomes so overwhelmed with guilt he eventually goes mad and dies.

[@JG-tq5mb]

Super interesting. Great video

[@JanDobrodumow]

And now onto the next video… is the Pope Catholic?

[@salexa171]

Cool video, very interesting

[@beppley100]

Why is the interview/discussion cut short?

[@lukelewkowicz2233]

Once you sarcifice a major part of your life to be an explorer of psychopathy than and only are capable to answer this question. Emotions that are of certain human characteristic are a key in the recognition of these individuals. Mimicry is their secret of survival. Education and inteligence gets them into a higher level what is sociopathy. It is not like a lot of folks would state to be 'something you are born with". Studing past royals it could a deffine a lack of certain expresions of warmth on part of a care giver and could be a culprit. Children raised in institutions where close and carring contacts are rare tend to get a certain traits of psychopathy on that account. Putins life trajectory would preclude of him becoming a normal individual (as if there was one), in form.

[@How.Dare.You.]

Yes

[@bradslowgrove1128]

I can be more specific I believe in this as a I was a trial lawyer that consistently did psychiatric cases and obtained record damages in one case. Putin has arrested development and never made a proper transition through puberty from childhood to adulthood. The result is that he is a fantasist with fully blown narcissistic personality disorder. Putin was not only bullied by local street kids because of his size but beaten by his father when he returned home. These abused kids believe that their survival is under threat and have to choose between their life and identity and choose life. They learn to lie and deceive and fake being normal from studying others to avoid being bashed and talk their way out of continuous brutal thrashings. Their absence of identity gives them a ''talent'' to see clearly into other people because their vision is not obscured by projection of their own identity onto others where the rest have skewed vision of others in varying degrees because we project at least some part of our identity onto others even our kids. Putin does not and his special skill is his infirmity. We also project a full emotional range onto others even people we do not like usually because of what emotions they give priority to. Putin has enormous gaps and omissions in his emotional range that is nearly entirely made up of identity envy satisfied by controlling and manipulating others leading to obsessive long-range planning to achieve his fantasies of control and power and cannibalize identities to restore the identity he forfeited. There is truly no one there. He has always been like this note the Moscow apartment building bombings to manufacture crises to get elected, the poisonings of opponents and even the Breslin child hostage massacre with his modus operandi of acting through Chechens for mob like hits. As he ages his ability to conceal his lack of identity and his nefarious actions decrease due to normal changes in the brain relating to changing mental strengths and weaknesses. However, he has always had the ambition to acquire Ukraine and more since puberty and he saw an opportunity over the debacle in Afghanistan. The total absence of conscience in this personality disorder type can give the false impression of being imaginative and clever when they are not. The other emotion that they have is suppressed range that on the other end of their emotional spectrum is impulsiveness where Putin acts purely on impulse without thought and lashes out with his military crazy strategic demands to immediately reverse adverse outcomes. Between these two contradictory emotional extremes there is nothing. These types of personality flaws do not make these people deep dark and twisted but instead they are pathologically superficial defined by their emotional absences. As to being a fantasist correct me if my recollection is wrong but during Putin's puberty Soviet state television in the early 60s had a soap opera melodrama on KGB agents where they led an adventurous life travelling the world on missions that included poisoning people. Putin loved this. The Kremlin did this in response to James Bond movies like ''From Russia with Love''. This further explains why Putin sought to join the KGB at 16. This fantasy obsession coupled with the NPD explains the western Russian oligarchs where Putin sees himself as the super-KGB agent a fantasy exacerbated by the fact that his true KGB career was mediocre, and he was never a field agent. The rich Russian oligarchs in the West are intended to be '' in plain sight'' sleeper agents penetrating the western financial system on behalf of the fantasy KGB super spy Putin and these sleeper agents get the benefit of their wealth but must respond when activated. This fantasy ignores the fact that by putting large wealth in the western financial system conversely means the West penetrates the oligarchs and Russia, like the freezing of $300 billions of Russian assets. The failure of some oligarchs to respond to Putin's activation of their sleeper status because they like the money and living in the West has led to oligarchs falling out of windows, poisonings and other murders of oligarchs abroad. Another symptom of Putin's personality disorder is that he does not admit that his plans backfire to himself but sees them instead as a subjective personal injustice. If you study how Putin sees the West, it comes from movies, and this too is a fantasy. The West in Putin's fantasy reality from his speeches and interviews is more like some theme park on a distant planet in a faraway galaxy. The third behavioral point to remember is that Putin is a KGB lawyer that knows very well how the law on illegal wars of aggression work and the KGB tactic to avoid this law in Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Afghanistan that he did not admit backfired in Ukraine until his illegal annexations when he then hatched a plan with the Chinese to destroy the international legal system through q dirty deal that the stupid media misunderstands. If you know this law, you can track all of Putin's behavior including his clinical insanity. I have much more but I think this gives a more specific diagnosis of his clinical not legal insanity. Do not do a deal with him I know what he is up to and he does want a deal and has a nefarious plan backed by China that is some of my other posts.

[@yajatpal4698]

Thanks

[@forex7769]

So many great questions wow

[@knoxvillehermitfreemoviesm3625]

what are some good places where to avoid psychopaths? to meet good people

[@gammaraygem]

A maternity ward, without the mothers and the medical staff. If you are lucky

[@knoxvillehermitfreemoviesm3625]

yes there are psychopath doctors as well

[@darkrain491]

Yes. Next Question.

[@herrDOS]

Emm, no, subjectively, narcissism is worse.

[@susub75]

Parents drink too much in Russia

[@amazingsylvie1474]

They started doing Psychologist testing in the Army for Commanders and people were set to take over did not pass and they ended up with Commanders who would normally get promoted.

[@Karch.Dah-Veed]

What's the mental disorder called when you FIXATE on global figures like Putin and Trump, assign to them all kinds of negative psychological traits, and ignore the negatives of the people who actually rule you and/or share your political ideology?

[@herodotus6235]

I can’t believe this question is being asked! Of course he is!

[@KT-gi9do]

It really doesn't matter. He is a genocidal war criminal as well as a mafia criminal. The murderer should rot in a high security prison for the rest of his life.

[@rover5058]

He's cold blooded, ruthless and very intelligent

[@derberggraf5297]

You still think, that Putin is intelligent???

[@brianbozo2447]

Never understand why people keep crediting Putin with being " very intelligent" Many of his actions suggest otherwise.

[@johncarroll772]

​@@derberggraf5297Trump says he's a genius

[@derberggraf5297]

@@johncarroll772 The stable genius Trump calls Putin a genius. Enough said!

[@McConnachy]

Putin is cunning, but highly stupid

[@Exodus26.13Pi]

SOB they had to bring up the president that visited NK? You people

[@amorosogombe9650]

Netanyahu is also a psychopath. That's why he doesn't feel any remorse or regret or hurt like we do when we see thousands and thousands of maimed and killed Palestinian children and yet the United States just keep saying, "said with Israel". Why? This kind of unthinking dogmatism needs to stop!

[@coralklaas4345]

My last name is Klaas. Cool.

[@marianorszulak-ru7jh]

Compared to who ?

[@brianbozo2447]

I thought the first question was what are your qualification in order to be able to reliably assess a political leader. e. g. Have you a degree in psychology or even better a degree in forensic psychology with expertise in assessing personality disorder etc. But this seems to be completely avoided. He prefaces his commentary by saying " he probably is a psychopath" in a throwaway manner without any valid measures or criteria.

[@johncarroll772]

Don't think you need a degree to diagnose a psychopath

[@lesliemcgovern4724]

You need a serious psychological assessment to accompany your thesis here, as this is not only a ‘mindset’ issue.

[@catherinemurray2211]

I’d say so due to his background they all are aren’t they ?!!

[@RR-et6zp]

nope

[@g0679]

Does a bear leave its calling card in the woods?

[@norinretrescu2474]

(Putin)"clearly unfit to lead" 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣what a clown. 🤣🤣🤣🤣"Leadership" is a product, its quality as a product is appreciated by the beneficiaries of this product (those led by the leader). Only the beneficiaries of the product can decide whether the service provider is "fit" or "unfit". Those who give their opinion from the outside are just idiots who have the impression that reality should adapt to their opinion, such as: "the parable of the living" or "the possessor of the absolute truth"🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@eddy_malouempereur_du_cong6536]

Russian and psychopath are synonyms

[@magenta6]

Therein lies the prejudice of your audience.

[@rubyblu21]

Depends which media outlet you watch him on, if you listen to his full speeches and know what's going on in the Russian politician arena then no, no he is not.

[@drzeworyj]

it's exactly when you know he is. I speak fluent Russian and it was clear since Kursk

[@Ira__L]

of course, a man rewriting constitution however he pleases, starting a fourth war in 20 years, staging false flag operations, assassinating oppositional politicians and journalists (including one on his birthday) and publicly gloating about their demise is just an Easter bunny, totally not a psychopath!

[@McConnachy]

Putin is the Russian media.

[@shelleyscloud3651]

Two dilettantes…must’ve been better candidates for this discussion?

[@mariadange06]

No... Highly intelligent and strategic.

[@theflowmaestro]

Could be Machiavelli then?

[@mariadange06]

@@theflowmaestro All politicians read Machiavelli's book.

[@davidmayhew8083]

Not necessarily a good thing.

[@sunkissedswoozeyray6055]

Being highly intelligent/strategic and being a psychopath are not mutually exclusive. In fact, all of the psychopaths who make it to the top ARE highly intelligent and strategic. The stupid ones end up in jail.

[@mariadange06]

@@sunkissedswoozeyray6055 Sure Bill, Hilary, Obama, fits the bill, dont know how Biden got in him acting dumb as they come other than his corrupt dealings in Ukraine & China...

[@drendelous]

such a speculative and hypocritical view..

[@jimjordan9455]

NO BRANDON IS ! LMDAO !

[@NorthwestSkiBum]

"Brandon" isn't the one invading sovereign nations and bombing civilians

[@FoundSheep-AN]

No he is not

[@RR-et6zp]

9.44, nope. It has to be congruent to what's actually true, the fundamentals of logic. Your psychology stuff is BS

[@prague8299]

No he is not. . . . . . Edit: Fully analyzed NOT a psych.

[@1991windsor]

Have you really done your research or ever been involved with somebody with a Cluster B personality disorder? Putin's a poster child for it!

[@drzeworyj]

if he's not, then I don't know who is. of course he has all the symptoms!!

[@RR-et6zp]

@@drzeworyj he isn't. Psychology is just BS. Evolutionary biology is true but the rest is BS. The guy isn't reasoning well in the video, eg. at 09.44, nope. It has to be congruent to what's actually true, the fundamentals of logic. Your psychology stuff is BS

[@banjogeb]

Notorius massmurder, lier, torturist and thief, but still he is not? how are you my friend?, and for god sake where do you live?

[@ML-jf1xe]

Yes