Ward 7: Psychological Portraits of the G7 International Club Leaders
The American Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, third edition (DSM-III) uses the term “neurotic” in the title of the section (group) of mental disorders: “Neurotic, Stress-Related, and Somatoform Disorders.” That is, we can argue that neurotic = related to the psyche, and not necessarily as a deviation from the norm. As confirmation we can quote from Randolph Nesse’s Good Reasons for Bad Feelings: “Like sweating, shivering, fever, and pain, capacities for fear, anger, joy, and jealousy are useful in certain situations… First, symptoms such as anxiety and sadness are, like sweating and coughing, not rare changes that occur in a few people at unpredictable times; they are consistent responses that occur in nearly everyone in certain situations. Second, the expression of emotions is regulated by mechanisms that turn them on in specific situations; such control systems can evolve only for traits that influence fitness. Third, absence of a response can be harmful; inadequate coughing can make pneumonia fatal, inadequate fear of heights makes falls more likely. Finally, some symptoms benefit an individual’s genes, despite substantial costs to the individual.”
Defense mechanism (psychological defense (neuropsychosis)—A concept of depth psychology that refers to an unconscious mental process aimed at minimizing negative experiences. Protective mechanisms underlie resistance processes. The term was first introduced by Freud in 1894 in The Neuro-Psychosis of Defence, and was used in a number of his later works to describe the struggle of the self against painful or intolerable thoughts and affects.
It is worth noting that there is no universally accepted classification of mental defense mechanisms, although many authors have published their own views. The main complaints about most classifications are either lack of completeness (the critic does not find an important mental process in the classification that he or she classifies as protective), or excessive completeness (the critic finds many mental processes in the classification that he or she does not classify as protective or does not identify as independent processes at all). To all appearances, it is connected with the fact that minimization of negative experiences is in general a natural need of any living organism (in particular, a human being), and with some assumption any mental process can be recognized as aimed at achieving this goal. The necessity of singling out separate protective mechanisms is connected with the practical need of psychologists to single out and describe the most universal of unconscious protective processes.
Most modern psychologists recognize a certain set of defense mechanisms, the names of which have become almost universal.
Protective mechanisms are usually divided into levels (from two to four), but there is still no consensus on the principles of this division and on where to include which defense. The following analysis in this article is based on the classification described in the book by Nancy McWilliams, who identifies four levels of defense mechanisms according to how “primitive” they are, depending on how much their use prevents a person from adequately perceiving reality. In her opinion, “The person using a defense is generally trying unconsciously to accomplish one or both of the following: (1) the avoidance or management of some powerful, threatening feeling, usually anxiety but sometimes overwhelming grief, shame, envy, and other disorganizing emotional experiences; and (2) the maintenance of self-esteem.”
Level 1 “pathological,” includes: delusional projection; denial; distortion.
Level 2 “immature,” includes: acting out; hypochondria; passive-aggressive behavior; projection; schizoid fantasies; cleavage.
Level 3 “neurotic,” includes: displacement; dissociation; intellectualization; isolation of affect; reaction formation; repression.
Level 4 “mature,” includes: altruism; anticipation; humor; sublimation; repression.
So, according to McWilliams’ classification, we can distinguish two groups of defense mechanisms, where the first will have a destructive effect on the person, and the second group is constructive.
Destructive impulses of the psyche that do not lead to rational perception and comprehension, but only seem to do so: dissociation, introjection, denial, defensive fantasy and primitive idealization, as well as split ego, annulment, displacement, displacement, disregard, moralization and separate thinking.
A Lie gets Halfway around the World before the Truth has a Chance to Put on its Pants
As far as the communicant-communicator relationship is concerned, almost all of the defense mechanisms fall into the group of destructive influence in the context of the perception of media information. Why is this so? It is natural for a person to believe the information, which he/she believes to be stated by an authoritative source or one of the key media; therefore, a person practically never thinks about the truthfulness of the information and does not reflect upon it. In most cases a person usually does not verify the information he receives from other sources, but fully trusts the direct message received in person (audibly, visually); and the psyche, seeing the immediate danger, either allows identification with another person or group of people, or allows inclusion of elements of the external world into his personality, perceiving them as part of his Ego. However, this is a destructive defense, unable to withstand prolonged distress, or capable of suppressing the intellectual functions of the personality.
To the constructive group of the influence of defensive mechanisms, when receiving information, we can include only a few of the above, namely, isolation of affect, acting out, rationalization, reversion, and reaction formation.
Based on defense mechanisms, manipulation and sophisticated lies often take place from people whose true thoughts and intentions remain secret, and psychiatrists and profilers often agree in discussions about their false and true selves. But is it possible to predict what to expect from a person and how he or she feels about what is going on if, for example, he or she holds an executive position? To do this we must look at the origins of not only the beginning of his career, but also in general the formation of him as a person. In this article we will consider the psychological portraits of the leaders of the Big Seven (G7): USA, Germany, France, Great Britain, Italy, Canada, and Japan.
In Whose Hands is America?
Joe Biden was born on November 20, 1942, in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Growing up in Scranton and New Castle, Delaware, he attended the University of Delaware and received his law degree from Syracuse University in 1968. Joe Biden’s paternal great-great-grandfather, William Biden, was born in Sussex County, England, from where he emigrated to the United States. His maternal great-grandfather, Edward Francis Blewitt, was a member of the Pennsylvania Senate.
He was elected to the New Castle County Council in 1970, and a year later, at age 29, was elected to the U.S. Senate from Delaware. Biden had a severe stutter as a child, but his speech improved as he “turned three decades old,” building his ideal image/picture as a politician.
In 1973, Joseph Biden became the youngest senator in U.S. history, taking office at age 30. Less than half a century later, Biden became the nation’s oldest president in U.S. history.
Biden took the oath of office at the hospital where his children were staying after a terrible tragedy—Biden’s first wife, Neilia, and his one-year-old daughter, Naomi, were killed in a car crash, with only his sons Hunter and Beau surviving. Biden initially wanted to refuse to take the oath of office, arguing that if there was a dispute between being a good senator and a good father, he would choose the latter, since his children had no other father. So, Joseph gave the ultimatum that he would only take the oath of office at the hospital to be closer to his children. On the one hand, a rather eloquent act by a good father who did not want to leave his children in a difficult time, on the other hand, a promising politician who wants to serve the country, even at a critical moment in his life. However, if you watch the video of his oath [The Biden’s oath, 1973, PBS NewsHour] you will notice that it was filmed in a movie pavilion, not in a hospital room (many extras, cameramen with cameras and lighting directors)—that is, Biden literally danced on the graves of his recently occurred tragedy.
Here one can notice the desire to serve and to add weight to his own persona, as a high moral, and clearly aware of his priorities. Biden was often accused of being insensitive and rigid, so the tragedy played into his hands. In the swearing-in video, which was filmed two days after the car crash, Biden does not look grief-stricken, which can be seen as:
a) complete detachment from the situation and its blocking (a protective reaction of the psyche to strong shocks);
b) a defensive reaction, which in profiling is commonly referred to as the thrill of deception (when a person’s lies, first of all, their nonverbal manifestations are mistaken for the truth).
However, even such a performance did not contribute to a resounding success. A couple of years later in 1978, Biden was forced to withdraw his candidacy because of accusations of plagiarism in his campaign speech.
Biden was a longtime member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and also served as its chairman. He opposed the 1991 Gulf War, and supported NATO’s expansion into Eastern Europe and NATO’s involvement in the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s, and the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
However, if we go back to Biden’s personality, we note an almost constant contradiction in his verbal and nonverbal language. It is most often expressed in those moments when Joe Biden is either trying to lie convincingly or answer uncomfortable questions. In one interview, for example, where he talks about meeting his second wife, Jill, Biden makes a sharp chopping gesture with his hands almost the entire time, as if to cut himself off from what he is saying, with his body in tension and his answer often accompanied by a deep sigh. Although Joe and Jill tell a rather romantic tale of their meeting, Jill’s first husband talks about how she cheated on him with Biden, who was his friend, and he told him right to his face that he still remembers Neilia. In this regard, it is reasonable to argue that this chopping hand gesture is deception and detachment.
Also, one of Biden’s frequent gestures, which has a relatively negative meaning, is the scrolling of a circle silhouette in the air with his hand or finger, as if visually repeating everything he says, and convincing of the reality and truthfulness of his words. That is, in media space, Biden is creating a new pseudo-reality of a “good hero” that the American public is sure to believe.
Not to mention Biden’s drug policy of the 1990s and his son Hunter’s world-famous addiction. Biden gave an impassioned speech on the Senate floor in support of stiffer penalties for drug trafficking and possession, but at the same time his son Hunter was never convicted of clearly over the legal limit of white powder possession. What is this: a lie from the podium in the name of saving his son, or another mask that Biden changes with enviable regularity? If you follow the logic, Biden should have sent Hunter to jail to keep his reputation on track and prove his words in action. After all, his image as a manager and his policy line were built primarily on a religious family, on family values and proper parenting. And, as you can see, with each of these points Joe Biden failed. In addition, Hunter only hyperbolized the problems within the family, taking them to the world level.
Also, don’t forget the story of Biden’s daughter Ashley’s diary, where she wrote, “I’ve always been turned on by guys. Hyper-obsessed from a young age. I remember being sexually attracted to one of our family members. I remember having sex with friends in my early teens, showering with my dad, which is probably not allowed… Was I molested? I think so. Was I abused? I think so… I don’t remember the details, but I remember the pain. At a young age I showered with my father. Perhaps it was inappropriate.” In 2009, a friend of Ashley Biden tried to sell a $2 million video to The New York Post in which Ashley allegedly used cocaine at a party. Negotiations brought the price down to $400,000, but the tabloid rejected the offer, opting instead to publish a story about the alleged video. After The New York Post published the story, it emerged that Ashley had previously been arrested for marijuana possession in 1999 in New Orleans, but the charges were dropped and she was released.
But going back to the psychological portrait, we can note that over the years, Biden himself has believed all the lies he has been telling to the people for years. Here we can also note the so-called “mythomania” and the propensity for pathological lying. Although the term “pathological liar” is not used in clinical diagnosis, most psychiatrists believe that this type of personality is either the result of mental illness or low self-esteem. Lying is the intentional and deliberate or not deliberate provision of false information; but common lies are defensive in nature and are used to avoid the consequences of the truth, while pathological lying can be described as a habituation to lying; and a situation in which one lies constantly, without personal gain, is considered pathological.
It may also be noted that Biden has recently been noted to have pathological phantasm, a memory disorder in which events that a person has invented or imagined seem to him to have actually occurred.
And if we classify more specifically, we can note in his speech and behavior paralytic phantasms. They arise against a background of dementia, euphoria and are often a part of paralytic delusions of grandeur. Close in clinical manifestations to fantasy confabulation, but differing from it in gross ridiculousness (for example, at one speech in 2022, Biden not only got lost in space when speaking in Pittsburgh, where he got confused trying to leave the stage, but also in a congratulatory message to Vice President Kamala Harris called her “the great president.” That same month, Biden declared that the U.S. has 54 states, as opposed to only 50).
Also, Biden has pathological narcissism, which has been slow enough to develop to pathological since the beginning of his career as a senator. Up until the 1990s, one could see not only embarrassment, but also a healthy insecurity about the role that Biden was playing. By the end of 2022, however, one can see how Joseph literally dedicates literally every speech to himself and his role in the world process (e.g., his speech on 02/21/2023 in Warsaw). Because of his low self-esteem, which has been, it is fair to say, regressed by stuttering, Biden has not yet gotten rid of his inner complexes; and now that he gets every recognition and affirmation of his importance, the better and more successful it is to feel as if HE is the one who can rule the WHOLE world.
A few more characteristics of Biden: hypocritical, unprincipled, cruel and totally contradictory to his public image.
Abused Liverwurst, or the Scholzomat
Olaf Scholz was born to a family of salesmen on June 14, 1958 in Osnabrück, Lower Saxony, but grew up in the Rahlstedt district of Hamburg.
Scholz’s father recalled his son as an ambitious “smart guy,” using sarcasm from childhood to appear witty, and also recalled how Olaf annoyed his brothers and spoke Latin to his teacher. “He told me when he was 12 that he wanted to be chancellor,” Gerhard Scholz says. Watching his son finally lead Berlin, he says, gave him “an invigorating sense of happiness.” At the same time, Olaf Scholz is known to have made an agreement with his brothers not to say anything at all about what happened as a child and what is happening now in their family.
Scholz joined the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), in 1975 as a high school student, where he became a member of Jusos (short for Young Socialists), the youth organization of the SPD. From 1982 to 1988 he was Deputy Federal Chairman of Jusos, and from 1987 to 1989 he was also Vice President of the International Union of Socialist Youth. During his time at Jusos, he supported the Freudenberger Kreis (the Stamokap wing of the Jusos university groups) as well as the SPW magazine; and in articles he advocated “overcoming the capitalist economy” and criticized NATO. In 1985 Scholz graduated from the University of Hamburg as a specialist in labor law.
Before Scholz became Federal Chancellor of Germany, he worked as Chairman of the SPD, the first mayor of Hamburg, Minister of Labor and Social Development, head of the Ministry of Finance, Vice-Chancellor of the government. There is even a legend in German society that the real Chancellor Scholz owes his career to Gerhard Schroeder, whom the then young Olaf openly scoffed at, at one of his meetings, saying: “It would help us a lot if you had at least a little understanding of the matter.” Despite his impertinence, Schroeder took a liking to Scholz and took him to Berlin, making him General Secretary of the party.
Scholz became one of Germany’s oldest postwar leaders. He is also one of Germany’s most static, unemotional and secretive politicians. Scholz always has everything clearly, precisely, and literally systematized in every speech, for which he even earned a nickname, designed by analogy to a robot or automated construct for communicating with the population, the “Scholzomat”: “Today is essentially Christmas and birthday all in one for you, and yet you look as euphoric as an English butler at tea time,” remarked an astonished TV interviewer to Olaf Scholz the evening after his election as mayor of Hamburg in 2011. It was a characteristic performance of the man known as “Scholzomat” for his mechanical, austere and laconic style of communication. Ten years on, Scholz’s style has not changed a bit. But in the September federal elections, the “Scholzomat” seemed to offer exactly the quality that the German public craved, in the absence of the retired Angela Merkel.
Speaking of Angela Merkel, according to biographer Lars Haider, Scholz, the Germans “chose him because he looks a lot like Angela Merkel. That was the expectation.” But while almost everything is known about Merkel, almost nothing is known about the life of the current chancellor except his income and his beloved wife Britta Ernst, to whom he has been married for 40 years. Ernst was also an opinionated and eccentric politician in her youth, but as a child she had less ambitious dreams and wanted to be an ordinary schoolteacher. One got the impression that Olaf Scholz had become an exemplary and obedient student: Always well-dressed, with his suits buttoned up, he came to the podium with texts of his speeches and hardly interacted with the public in social networks. So, on the eve of the election, he looked like an ascetic who is only interested in work. Germans appreciated this. However, thanks to the work of the image-makers, Scholz recently began to appear in public without a tie, began to communicate more on social networks, and spoke “without notes,” and tried to look livelier than a Scholzomat.
In German society, Scholz has a reputation for being secretive, nonpublic, meticulous, but also ambitious and extremely confident. But despite his ambitious goals as a child, Scholz visibly panders to the American leader and yields on most issues, sometimes even carrying out direct instructions from the American government, receiving approval from the overseas side.
Such a personality reversal is quite real for narcissistic personality disorder (NPD), when self-esteem is quite unstable, and can regress from ambitious plans to an obedient henchman. Such changes are noticeable not only in character, but also outwardly. Regarding Olaf, it can be noted that the peak of his “grandiosity” came in his youth, when he wanted to appear bigger, to occupy a wide information space and to receive confirmation of his actions; at this time, his image with puffy hair, flared pants and jackets, non-verbal gestures with an overt undertone (arms extended/elbows spread on the table/steady posture with feet at shoulder width) were typical. However, a regression of NPD can be observed now, when Scholz tries to shrink outwardly, as if to become smaller than he is; he has a bald head, and almost all non-verbal gestures are reduced to hands folded at belly level, which characterizes the feeling of discomfort of being in this or that place or position, a kind of fence from the outside world, similar to the children’s “Ollie Ollie in come free” game.
Narcissistic personality disorder is characterized by a belief in one’s own uniqueness, superiority over others, grandiosity (wanting to become chancellor, i.e., a leader of society, from age 12); an exaggerated opinion of one’s talents and accomplishments (here we can quote Scholz Sr.’s words about his son in the reference above); an absorption in fantasies about his success; an expectation of unconditional good treatment and unconditional submission from others; a seeking of admiration from others to confirm his uniqueness. Nancy McWilliams describes a person with narcissistic disorder as ” organized around maintaining their self-esteem by getting affirmation from outside themselves,” specifying that we are talking about people for whom this task overshadows all others, not just those sensitive to criticism or praise. “Preoccupied with how they appear to others, narcissistically organized people may privately feel fraudulent and loveless.” It is also pointed out that narcissistic pathology is not a normal childhood sense of grandiosity preserved into adulthood, but rather a compensation for early, and therefore profound, disappointments in relationships.
It is also worth noting that NPD often appears in people with an inferiority complex. It cannot be argued, but it can be stressed that being short, burly and clumsy, unable to fight back, and politically unaccountable, hardly added extra points to Olaf Scholz’s self-confidence. He may also have been bullied as a child or as a young man, for the real reasons, for which he hides these particular periods of his life, are not known for certain.
Regarding American-German relations, I would like to focus on the Stern magazine cartoon (“Der grosse Bruder ist zurück”—“Big Brother’s Back”) and Scholz’s non-verbal body language. In the negotiations with Joe Biden, where Olaf sat in the closed posture described above, there was one distinctive gesture that indicated Scholz’s desire to dominate and point to Biden, rather than being in a dependent position. This gesture was evident in the Chancellor’s hands: the hand with the outstretched index finger was covered by the other hand—that is, he was suppressing his desire by simply nodding his head in response and losing interest as the conversation progressed. Joseph Biden read the text on then page, without even looking in the direction of his interlocutor.
So how can we characterize the psychological profile of Olaf Scholz? He knows how to skillfully adjust not only to the party line, but also to the dominant players. Although he is not a pathological liar like Biden, Scholz often mirrors not only politics, but also gestures, facial expressions, and words of the interlocutor, in his role as a dependent player, a behavior characteristic of narcissists. Scholz also easily changes masks, as well as his interests, because he does not have his own moral and ethical attitudes to defend, so he accepts and adopts from those who give him power or a certain dominance, and for this encouragement Scholz is willing to literally mimic to achieve his goals.
Assistant Philosopher
Emmanuel Macron was born on December 21, 1977 to Jean-Michel Macron, a professor of neurology at the University of Picardy, and Françoise Macron-Nogues, a doctor. He studied at the University of Paris X-Nanterre, the Institute of Political Studies and the National School of Administration. From 1999 to 2001 he was an assistant to the philosopher Paul Ricoeur.
Macron worked as an inspector at the Ministry of Economy from 2004 to 2008. From 2007, he was deputy rapporteur for the Commission for the Improvement of French Growth, headed by Jacques Attali. He was an investment banker at Rothschild & Cie Banque, for which he was nicknamed “the financial Mozart.”
The figure of Macron of recent years is quite feasible to examine from the symbiosis of the archetype of the Magician and the King, because with all his appearance he seems to show that he is worthy of this mission—to reconcile everyone and find a compromise with everyone. This archetype worked to his advantage during his second presidential campaign in 2022: the platform presented in Aubervilliers included no less than 100 reform projects. Among them, ensuring France’s energy independence through the construction of wind farms and nuclear power plants and the self-sufficiency of national agriculture; new allocations were promised to the armed forces of the Republic, assuring that the industry could expect extensive investments (the French defense budget would increase to €50 billion by 2025); and Macron also promised that France would play a “consolidating role” in strengthening European security. If in the first presidential campaign Macron bet on an optimistic France that he could build, and thus won a larger percentage of the vote: “The genius of Macron is that he managed to transform the anger of the French into optimism… Emmanuel Macron has in his hands a fantastic instrument of power, strong both in the number of officials he elected and in the dispersion of his opponents,” noted French socialist Nicolas Beytout. Then, in the second presidential campaign, Macron bet on the self-sufficiency of the country.
I will make a contextual insertion to clarify the qualitative meaning of archetype and archetypes. Archetypes are difficult to describe, and psychologists have never come to a conclusion as to how many there are, especially since Carl Jung did not have a fixed list of archetypes, and it was constantly varying. However, the theory of 12 archetypes is considered one of the major ones. So, according to Carl Jung, the main archetypes are: persona, anima and animus, shadow and self. His famous followers Margaret Mark and Carol Pearson expanded this number to 12 archetypes: Innocent, Orphan, Warrior, Caregiver, Seeker, Revolutionary, Lover, Creator, Ruler, Magician, Sage, and Jester. It is worth noting that Pearson used the theory of archetypes in marketing, explaining how to create a brand that customers will love, even if the product is mediocre. According to Pearson, it is enough to create an attractive brand image, in which the buyer can see himself or something close to his lifestyle/worldview, for it to be popular. This theory is true not only for marketing, but also for other socially relevant areas, because archetypes help to create a brand/film/ advertisement/literary or political character that resembles people.
The Ruler is one of the older (mature) archetypes in the theory of the 12 archetypes, and is based on the Creator archetype. This archetype takes everything under its control to prevent chaos; it relies only on itself and its powers.
The Magician is one of the older (mature) archetypes in the theory of the 12 archetypes. The ultimate goal of the Magician as an archetype is the encounter with selfhood. Unlike the lower archetypes, the Magician has learned not only to create, but also to increase expediently what he has created. If the Ruler takes responsibility in the material world, the Magician can resort to the help of the invisible world (the unconscious). In the modern world, the prototypical Magicians are psychologists, psychotherapists and gurus ready to share skills and secrets of spiritual enlightenment; but one type of Magician remains unchanged at all times—charlatans (in the present time this can include online conmen).
In reality, however, it turns out that Macron has only created a magical overlay, remaining in fact an ordinary charlatan (for example, the pension reform involving an increase in the retirement age in France from 62 to 64 years, which he had firmly promised not to touch, will come into force this fall). It is worth noting how tense Macron’s body is as he announces this reform. His eyes are wide open, indicating an aggressive demeanor, and a readiness to attack in case of retaliatory aggression. Also, there is the chopping hand gesture, which was discussed above with the example of Biden, indicating a deliberate lie. Macron was hunched over and tense, so much so that he seemed ready to pick a fight if he heard criticism in return. It’s as if he was showing that it’s none of your [population’s] business to bring about reforms.
Also, the Magician archetype failed at the talks in Beijing with Xi Jinping on April 5, 2023, where Macron arrived with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, following Xi Jinping’s visit to Russia. Initially, Macron, trying to indicate his dominance, made a mistake in the greeting protocol, using a “power gesture” that is in line with the American diplomatic tradition, not the French and even less so the Chinese, where a handshake is not particularly welcome—Macron put his hand over Xi Jinping’s hand in shaking hands, and then patted him on the back. And this despite the fact that Emmanuel himself looked awkward and confused, as evidenced by his unsure, bouncing step and jumpy facial expression. Then, at the negotiating table, the pair of Macron and von der Leyen were practically seated at another table from Xi Jinping, which, of course, diminished the power and confidence of those arriving in Beijing, and drew public derision. If we turn to archetypes, we can already notice the Sage archetype in Xi Jinping’s figure upon meeting: the center of the body is forward, the gaze is slightly down on the encounter, and there is a certain permissible reticence. Macron, on the other hand, appears as the Wizard who fails.
By the way, the Magician archetype is very often superseded by his real role—the Jester. The oldest image in the world, close in age to the image of the ruler, and the last of the four senior (mature) archetypes in the theory of the 12 archetypes. In his image he combines features of all 11 archetypes analyzed before, but the Jester is a hostage of his role, dependent on the surrounding reality. The Jester has no desires or purpose, because without the surrounding reality he has nothing to do. He combines the playfulness and naivety of the Innocent, he portrays Rulers and Sages, he rebels against some events, he is two-faced as a Magician, being in the world of illusory art. In general, the Jester is always paired with another archetype, such as the Orphan (this is the image of “his own guy” that Emmanuel Macron also often tries to demonstrate to the public).
Such a pair (Jester + Orphan) can be seen again in the negotiations in Beijing, where Macron, according to contemporary rhetoric, concluded as follows: “I know I can count on you to bring Russia to its senses and bring everyone back to the negotiating table. A lasting peace must be achieved in which all internationally recognized borders are taken into account and escalation is ruled out. I think this is an important issue for China as well as for France and for all of Europe.”
It is important to note that Macron was trying to match his image in his head, and the main disappointment for him was not the achievement of any goals in the negotiations, but the discrepancy between what he had imagined in his head and what actually happened. Such castles in the air are called false expectations, and when confronted with a different reality at such times, a person becomes anxious, tense, resentful, irritated, angry, and disappointed. As a rule, all the negative emotions that swarm inside are released upon others. False expectations are a middle-ground between pathological escapism and intrusive reveries.
A Russian Emigrant?
Former British Prime Minister (2019 -2022), former Mayor of London (2008 -2016) and former British Foreign Secretary (2016 – 2018) Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson was born on June 19, 1964 in New York, USA. As a child, Boris suffered from deafness and underwent several surgeries. Johnson’s parents divorced when he was 14 years old.
Johnson’s background is interesting. His great-grandfather on his father’s side, the Turkish journalist Ali Kemal, was briefly interior minister in the government of Ahmed Okday, the last grand vizier of the Ottoman Empire. In this position, he ordered the arrest of Kemal Ataturk. Later, after Ataturk came to power, Okday was executed by order of Nurredin Konyar. After that, Boris Johnson’s grandfather, Osman Ali, fled to Great Britain, where he took the name of Wilfred Johnson. The second surname “Pfeffel” goes back to the German great-grandmother, Baroness Maria-Louise von Pfeffel, who was the granddaughter of the famous chess player Arne de Rivière, great-granddaughter of Duke Paul of Wurttemberg, grand-niece of Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna and Ernestina Pfeffel (wife of poet Fyodor Tyutchev). Boris Johnson’s maternal great-grandfather, the American paleographer Elias Avery Levy, was born in the Russian Empire in Kalvaria (Poland) to a Jewish family. Johnson is a distant descendant of King George II. He himself is named after a Russian émigré whom Johnson’s parents had met in Mexico.
Interestingly, Boris Johnson once referred to himself as a “Russophile” because of his Russian roots. In 2017, during talks with Sergei Lavrov in Moscow, he said: “Let me say that I am a Russophile, a convinced Russophile. I have ancestors in Moscow. I am convinced that I am the first British Foreign Secretary whose name is Boris and please don’t doubt that I want to improve our relations.” Here we can also note Boris’ love of languages: at one time he tried to learn Russian, but now he has switched to Ukrainian.
In the early 1970s, Boris’s father, Stanley Johnson, was one of the first commissioners of the United Europe Pollution Control Commission. Boris received his primary education at a European school in Brussels. In 1979-1984, Stanley Johnson was a member of the European Parliament. Later the family moved to Great Britain, and he continued to study at the preparatory school in East Sussex, and then at Eton. In 1983-1984, he studied at Balliol College, Oxford University. He was elected to the elite Bullingdon Club. Boris did not often attend club meetings. In 1986 he became co-chairman of the famous discussion club Oxford Union Society. His close friends include Charles Spencer, younger brother of Princess Diana, and David Cameron, leader of the Conservative Party (2005-2016).
Johnson began his career as a journalist, but even at that time was fired from The Times for lying in his story. And as Foreign Minister, he made a lot of enemies, insulting his partners with caustic comments about them. And in the midst of the Covid pandemic, in the midst of a hard lockdown, he was unable to give up his “wine Friday” party (later, these parties during the Covid epidemic became known as “partygate” and had the status of a political scandal), for which he received absolute disrespect from the public, who reminded him of all his sins. And after the start of the Special Military Operation, he was the instigator of British involvement. But despite this, Boris Johnson remains one of the most charismatic British politicians.
From Johnson’s nonverbal language, his sarcastic manner, and his flamboyant goofiness, you can tell he is symptomatic of ADHD, and the fact that his mother was treated in a psychiatric clinic for depression and the children were in boarding school during treatment only confirms the basis of this syndrome.
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a behavioral and mental developmental disorder that begins in childhood. It is manifested by symptoms such as difficulty in concentrating, hyperactivity and poorly controlled impulsivity. Clinically, people with ADHD react too quickly to tasks without waiting for directions and instructions on how to perform them, and inadequately evaluate the demands of the task. As a result, they are very careless, inattentive, reckless, and frivolous. Often, they cannot predict the potentially negative, harmful or destructive (and even dangerous) consequences that may be associated with certain situations or their actions. They often expose themselves to unreasonable, unnecessary risks in order to show their courage, whims and quirks.
It is worth remembering that Johnson supported the Brexit decision only because he wrote two columns about it, with an opinion for it and an opinion against it, and the column with a positive assessment gathered more votes among readers. In fact, Boris’s antics are known without exaggeration to the whole world. Also, adults with the syndrome have a problem with organizing the space around themselves (it is enough to remember how in 2021, after losing the thread of the narrative, Boris was looking for something to hang on to in his notes, and then he started talking about Piggy Peppa and her artistic connection to Picasso) and difficulties in interpersonal relations (Johnson insulted his subordinates and called himself “the Führer” in their presence).
We can also note the pathological lying and populism that has accompanied Johnson since his job at The Times, Boris even lied to Queen Elizabeth II when he asked for a parliamentary recess to promote his Brexit deal with the EU and keep MPs out of the House of Commons—this led to a conflict between the branches of government.
What other touches can be added to Boris Johnson’s psychological portrait? Boris’ idol is Winston Churchill, who was not only a flamboyant politician, but also led a lavish lifestyle. Boris Johnson is notorious for quite a bit of profligacy: he was short of money, according to British press headlines, right from the beginning of his tenure at The Times. Not only was Johnson asking for a quite a sum to renovate his Downing Street residence, but in 2021 Johnson was short of money for sustenance, and conservative party sponsors bought him food from the Waitrose supermarket and delivered it to Downing Street. Johnson was also famous for being a populist and flattering the establishment to get more income.
Slumdog Millionaire
The present British Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, was born on May 12, 1980 in Southampton, the son of Yashvir Sunak, a general practitioner in the public health system, and Usha Sunak, a pharmacist. Sunak’s parents, Hindus, immigrated to Britain from East Africa, where in turn their parents had migrated in colonial times from the Punjab, both from what is now India and from what is now Pakistan. His father, Yashvir Sunak, was born and raised in the colony and Protectorate of Kenya (present-day Kenya) and works as a general practitioner for the National Health Service. His mother, Usha Sunak, born in Tanganyika (which later became part of Tanzania), was a pharmacist and owned Sunak Pharmacy in Southampton from 1995 to 2014, and has a degree from Aston University. Rishi received his secondary education at a prestigious private school, Winchester College. In 2001, he graduated from Lincoln College, Oxford University, where he studied philosophy, politics, and economics. From 2001-2004, he worked at Goldman Sachs, then earned an MBA from Stanford University. He returned to the City and worked for the hedge fund TCI. He founded a $1 billion global investment company, specializing in supporting small businesses in the UK.
In 2015, he won the 2015 parliamentary election in the Richmond (Yorks) constituency, managed to be Chancellor of the Exchequer (2020-22), and ousted Boris Johnson (according to the intraparty conspiracy theory) as Prime Minister of Great Britain after Liz Truss resigned on 20 October 2022, becoming the unelected but incumbent Prime Minister of Great Britain.
Rishi Sunak quite often bases his public appearances and outputs on the archetype of the Orphan. The Orphan is not necessarily someone deprived of parental care and, as is already clear, not necessarily a child. It is more about the experience of loss and loneliness that people experience at different ages. This archetype can also be characterized as “his own guy,” who is easy for us to understand because he knows the rules of social behavior, and he is easy to relate to. But at the same time, in all his gestures, demeanor, behavior, and linguistic landscape, there is a clear sense of his superiority and a clear awareness of his position in society, which is even readable in his appearance: Sunak’s favorite form of wearing his jackets is open, and the jacket is so open that one can literally read the couturier’s name from a distance. According to behind-the-scenes interviews, with people who work closely with him: directors, screenwriters, writers of his speeches, etc., speak of him as a “capricious child,” who does everything as he wants, does not like to walk the line and is epathetic.
Also, in addition to the Orphan archetype, it is possible to identify the type of human opportunist, but not the mimicry type like Olaf Scholz, since he has no deep attachments. According to Erich Fromm: “An enterprising ‘conformist opportunist’ with a consumerist goal (‘fool’) differs significantly from a ‘dullard’ precisely in initiative, the source of which is ‘Festinger dissonance’ turned inside out: he perceives painfully any deviation from social norms and actively prevents it. He is stubborn, willful and authoritarian-dominant. Personal lifestyle sense is created by a firm belief in the impeccability of his own opinions and decisions, which is constantly confirmed in practice. It is an ideal caporegime and constitutes a personnel source for the system of power.” And according to the type of social character, also based on Fromm’s analysis of personality, Rishi Sunak can be characterized as a person with: “market orientation. For this type, personality is valued as a commodity that can be sold or exchanged profitably. These people strive to always look neat and are willing to demonstrate any personality trait that would increase their chances of success.”
I Drank until I Lost my Memory, Only Once a Year
Fumio Kishida was born in Shibuya, Tokyo, on July 29, 1957, to a family of hereditary politicians. His father, Fumitake Kishida, was a civil servant in the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and director of The Small and Medium Enterprise Agency. Because the Kishida family was from Hiroshima City, the family returned to Hiroshima every summer. Many members of the Kishida family were killed in the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, and Fumio grew up influenced by the stories of surviving relatives about the atomic bombing. The sixth mayor of Hiroshima, Kan’ichi Oda, was his great-great-grandfather, and his father Fumitake Kishida and grandfather Masaki Kishida were politicians who were members of the lower house of parliament.
Fumio Kishida went to PS 13Q The Clement C. Moore School, in the Elmhurst district, in Queens, New York, because his father was working in the United States at the time. Fumio then graduated from Kaise High School and studied law at Waseda University and graduated in 1982. At Waseda University, he became friends with the future Japanese politician, Takeshi Iwai.
Kishida’s political career developed smoothly. After working at the now-defunct Japan Long-Term Loan Bank, and then as secretary of a member of the House of Representatives, Fumio Kishida was first elected to the House of Representatives in July 1993, from the Liberal Democratic Party, representing Hiroshima District 1. He then served as Minister of Okinawa and Northern Territories Affairs from 2007 to 2008, after which he was appointed Minister of State for Consumer Affairs and Food Safety in the cabinet of then Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda in 2008. Kishida was also Minister of State for Science and Technology Policy, Quality of Life and Law and Government Reform in Yasuo Fukuda’s cabinet. In 2012, he was appointed foreign minister in Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s cabinet. In 2017, he chaired the political council of the Liberal Democratic Party and was elected Chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan, on September 29, 2021.
According to Kishida, alcohol has accompanied him throughout his political career, and although he notes that alcohol has a very important place in Japanese diplomacy, “[I] drank until I lost my memory at least once a year,” hardly sounds like diplomatic protocol. Although withdrawal syndrome is temporary, alcoholism is almost always permanent. Kishida insists that he is done with alcohol, and probably began to watch his reputation more closely afterwards. He even fired his own son, Shotaro, who worked as his secretary, after a scandal erupted around a party at his official residence. It is unlikely that Kishida suffers from allodoxaphobia, but he says Miyazawa’s words are his favorite expression: “Those in power should not forget modesty.” But like Rishi Sunak, he tries to use the Orphan archetype—he orders cheaper food in restaurants and sits down at smaller tables, and he says he doesn’t shy away from household chores; in the family, he is in charge of washing dishes and cleaning the bathroom. Yet Fumio Kishida’s appearance—a tailored suit, expensive shoes, and other attributes of clothing—gives reason to doubt Orphan’s sincerity.
Regarding relations with Russia and other world leaders, Kishida is duplicitous: while maintaining a tough policy toward Russia, Kishida is very compliant to the American agenda. “It’s hard to imagine Japan becoming even more pro-American,” Glosserman noted. “They support any initiative of Washington and are even offended when they are forgotten.” Thus, Tokyo was unhappy that they were not invited to join the new AUKUS alliance. And in domestic politics, Kishida has already promised a number of changes, in particular by pledging to create a “new capitalism” in the country.
However, when speaking to foreign leaders, Kishida often stands in a closed posture, extending his far hand across his body to shake hands rather than closer to his interlocutor—an indication of detachment from the situation and an internal dissent with what is happening. This is confirmed by the body torso, which is also often not turned toward the interlocutor. Even so, at the G7 meeting, Kishida is by no means at the end of the procession: Kishida walks ahead of everyone, even ahead of Joe Biden, the unspoken dominant of the club.
In public appearances, Kishida often assumes a brisk gait, a hunched back, and raised eyebrows, indicating discomfort in the moment. Also, one can notice that Kishida prefers to keep his hands near his pockets or in his pocket, which indicates that the person is either hiding something (metaphorically hiding something in his pocket) or lying, also his neck and body are often tense.
Former Teacher
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was born on December 25, 1971, to Pierre Elliott Trudeau, a former Prime Minister of Canada. In April 1972, at a reception at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, U.S. President Richard Nixon (who did not get along with Pierre Trudeau and called his visit “a senseless waste of time”) toasted the boy, to whom his wife Pat Nixon had given a toy Snoopy: “To the future Prime Minister of Canada, to Justin Pierre Trudeau.”
Justin’s parents divorced when the boy was 6 years old, and after Pierre Trudeau left politics, he moved his sons to Montreal. There Justin graduated from the same high school as his father, the Collège Jean de Brebeuf. After high school, he earned a B.A. in English Literature from McGill University (in 1994) and a B.A. in Education from the University of British Columbia (in 1998). After working as a substitute teacher in Coquitlam for a while, he found a full-time teaching job at a private school in Vancouver, West Point Grey Academy, where he taught French and mathematics. Later, he taught at Winston Churchill Public High School, also in Vancouver. In 2002, he returned from Vancouver to Montreal, where he studied first engineering at the Polytechnic School of Montreal and then environmental geography at McGill University, but did not graduate in either field.
Trudeau, like his associates, has also built his policy line on the Orphan archetype, but unlike the others in the G7 who also use this archetype, Trudeau does pose in public, for example with bags from the Metro supermarket, which he reuses. He often posts memes on social media, goofs around and dances, on par with the general population. He is beloved by voters, not only for his awareness of many issues, but also for two things: his colorful socks and his close relationship with pandas.
However, none of this can be attributed to anything. And in Trudeau’s case it is due to the unclosed gestalt of the father-son relationship: “My father was an incredibly tough, bright, strong man in all the classic manifestations of leadership, but at the same time he had problems because he often kept his distance when showing emotion. People tried to insult me by saying, ‘He’s not his father’s son—he’s his mother’s son.’ And I always responded to that: ‘Thank you very much.’” Children whose parents were very strict have much more persistence and self-confidence; they also have strong empathy and much developed psychological sensitivity.
But there is a downside—such children are skilled liars, prone to rebellious, aggressive behavior, or depressed moods and depressions, and they are also easily influenced by others. Interestingly, Trudeau devotes a lot of attention to child-rearing in his speeches and praises himself for cutting taxes for the middle class and raising them by one percent: “We give nine out of 10 families more money every month to help with the costs of raising their children.” He could have started with any thesis in his speech, but he starts specifically with parenting. And it’s certainly not just because he chose to teach; because children who have had traumatic experiences with their parents often want to show, despite these experiences, that they can take a completely different path; and they believe, create and build more wisely than what was done for them. It can also be seen as a kind of father-child race, where the loser gets to watch the offspring’s actions as punishment.
One might question Trudeau’s Oedipus complex, but it leaves no doubt that the rudiments of the Iocasta complex were/are present in his mother, Margaret, who once came to his school in despair over a boyfriend who had left her, who was diagnosed with bipolar illness.
“My mother was always so generous and so sensitive and so vulnerable, and at the same time she radiated so much strength,” Trudeau says. “Even though she had huge, real mental health issues. She understood people and built interpersonal relationships to a greater degree than perhaps my father did.” There is a typical attempt here to justify the abusive parent and find sanity in the sick behavior, something most often found in people who are afraid of being left alone, empaths and those who were raised in austerity but retained psychological attachment (a type of Stockholm syndrome).
When he speaks, Trudeau often shows his disposition: the palms of his hands are turned upward, his shoulders open and his face relaxed, but a certain tension remains in his non-verbal language, as if he is waiting each time for his father to appear and evaluate him.
Despite his developed emotional intelligence, Trudeau’s tenseness is reflected in ridiculous and outlandish antics: on Canada Day, Trudeau’s speech praised all of Canada’s provinces, but somehow he forgot Alberta. Then, Trudeau jumped up on stage and tried to set the record straight. “Let me just start by saying I’m a little embarrassed—I got excited somewhere over the Rocky Mountains. Alberta, I love you. Happy Canada Day.” But hours later, some Alberta politicians said the neglect was intentional.
Also, oddball behavior accompanied him in his youth—he had a habit of throwing himself down flights of stairs at parties in order to get a laugh.
His morbid self-love, or narcissism (critics call him a “shiny pony”), sometimes overshadows this tension with strange and inappropriate jokes: “I could probably beat Vladimir Putin (in a hand-to-hand fight). Maybe you’re not aware of it, but I was actually a boxer and, according to my mother, pretty good at it. He has bare-chested pictures, and so do I. Why not let people decide who’s stronger, huh?” [in February 2018 on his social media page]. And his sense of humor often raises many questions, and one that doesn’t score points at the expense of his enemies. Thus, Trudeau, as the equivalent of a centrist Democrat, sought to bring the optimistic “sunny ways” back to governing the country after nearly a decade of Dick Cheney’s rule. Thus, as he left a parliamentary hall filled with portraits of French kings, he falsely sang a verse from Bob Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone,” pointing to a portrait of Louis XIV. Such behavior clearly does not fit the orphan archetype described above, for “his own guy” clearly would not compare himself to a king.
Italian Passion
Giorgia Meloni, the first woman ever to chair the Council of Ministers of Italy, was born on January 15, 1977, in Rome. She is the daughter of Francesco Meloni, a lawyer originally from Sardinia, and Anna Paratore, originally from Sicily. At the age of three she moved with her sister and mother to the poor quarter of Garbatella after, according to her own recollections, she accidentally set fire to her former home together with her sister. Her father had left the family by then, and since the age of twelve Giorgia has had no contact with her father.
She graduated in linguistics at the Amerigo Vespucci Institute in 1996. At the age of 15, she founded the student association “Ancestors” (Gli Antenati), which had as its goal the fight against the school reform project conceived by the Minister of Education, Russo-Ervolino. In 1996, she headed the organization Student Action (Azione Studentesca). In 1998 she was elected to the Provincial Council of the Province of Rome by the National Alliance and became a member of the Commission for Culture, School and Youth until 2003. In 2008 she became Minister without portfolio for Youth in the fourth Berlusconi government. Later she also headed the youth organization of the People of Freedom “Young Italy” (Giovane Italia). In June 2012, Meloni left the People of Freedom, and in December of the same year, together with Ignazio La Russa and Guido Crozetto, she founded the “Italian Brothers-National Right Center” party. On March 8, 2014, Meloni was elected chairman of the Italian Brothers party, and by the spring of 2014, the press began to name Giorgia Meloni among the possible successors to Silvio Berlusconi as leader of the center-right forces of Italy. On October 22, 2022, after being sworn in and taking office, Giorgia Meloni officially became the first woman to head the Italian government.
Although Meloni describes herself as, “I’m cranky. I get angry very easily, I cry. I say a lot of bad words, but I know how to control myself,” she is masculine—primarily expressed in her nonverbalism. Meloni quite often assumes a masculine stance—feet shoulder-width apart, body thrust forward, which indicates a sense of her own dominance.
Although her shoulders are almost always open, Meloni often keeps her arms crossed at chest level or pressed against her body, thereby expressing her sense of detachment from the situation and her desire to distance herself from the question. Gestures with her right hand and open palm can often be seen, with her gaze moving in the opposite direction, indicating an attempt to lie or a full-fledged lie.
Also, Meloni often clenches her hands into a fist while tensing her shoulder muscles and neck, which indicates not only ostentatious belligerence, but also inner belligerence. That gesture is usually accompanied by a furtive glance, which in this case indicates internal secrecy, constant vigilance and accuracy in her words.
The slashing hand gesture accompanies Meloni in almost every speech, especially the rhetoric of modern weapons supplies. But the gesture also accompanies the constant up-and-down pumping of her hands and nodding of her head, as if she were trying to “drum up” her words to her listeners.
Often one can see Meloni’s hands folded at the level of her belly, which attests to her discomfort and inner desire to distance herself from what is happening. Moreover, she breaks this “posture” only for a handshake, and then she opens her palm only halfway, which also testifies to her discomfort at these moments.
Although Meloni could be characterized as a masculine woman, the fact that she grew up without her father’s attention is quite overt in her behavior and self-perception. She is not just a woman politician, she “achieved everything on her own” according to the formula “not because, but in spite of.” This behavioral line can be explained from the Freudian point of view of psychoanalysis. According to Freud’s theory, a girl who realizes that she lacks male authority experiences an inferiority complex with a simultaneous manifestation of anger towards her mother. And then there are only two ways of development: phallic fixation occurs and in the future such girls show tendency to polygamy, defiant behavior and desire to please all men, which leads to inability to be in a healthy relationship with one partner or, as can be observed in Meloni’s case, there is no division into male and female in the subconscious; the girl does not understand that each sex is strong in its own way and each has its distinctive features.
A competitive type of thinking is formed, where regardless of the presence or absence of masculinity, everyone is to some extent male. Moving forward, such girls show excessive independence, masculinity and, as they say in society, they become strong and independent. It is no coincidence that Meloni says about herself: “I know how to control myself.”
