Mad as a March hare

 

While trawling the web I unexpectedly came across the biography of Joseph Stalin. His career was summarized as follows:

Joseph Stalin, General Secretary of Soviet Communist Party 1922–1952 and Dictator. Narcissistic Personality Disorder, Paranoid Personality Disorder, manic-depressive.

I was not the least surprised to notice that the old comrade had numerous personality disorders.
My curiosity aroused, I followed this trail trying to find out how many world leaders actually suffered from mental problems.

Mad King George III

According to the “History.com” website there were plenty of these loonies over Europe and in many parts of the world.

The most notorious were:

King Charles VI of France (1368–1422; ruled 1380–1422), known as Charles le Fou (Charles the Mad)

King Henry VI of England (1421–1471; ruled 1422–1461 and 1470–1471
Suffered numerous breakdowns and bouts of madness.

Queen Joanna of Castile (1479–1555; ruled 1504–1555), known as Juana La Loca (Joanna the Mad)

King Eric XIV of Sweden (1533–1577; ruled 1560–1568), he suffered from alcoholism, explosive rage attacks, serious mental instability and paranoia. Ordered mass executions and murdered his own son.

Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II (1552–1612; ruled 1576–1611).

Tsar Ivan V of Russia (1666–1696; ruled 1682–1696) 11th child of Tsar Alexei, joint ruler with Peter the Great, he had serious mental and physical disabilities.

King Afonso VI of Portugal (1643-1683; ruled 1656-1668), he had serious mental and physical disabilities.

King Charles II of Spain (1661-1700; ruled 1665-1700), known as el Hechizado (the Bewitched)

Queen Maria I of Portugal (1734–1816; ruled 1777–1816), known as Maria a Louca (Maria the Mad)

King Christian VII of Denmark (1749–1808; ruled 1767–1808
Christian’s reign was marked by mental illness which affected government decisions, and for most of his reign Christian was only nominally king.

King George III of the United Kingdom, suffered from Porphyria which gave him explosive rage attacks, panic attacks, delusions and visual and auditory hallucinations. (1738–1820; ruled 1760–1820)

It is to be noted that most of these people were forcibly removed from office after numerous excesses.

So as you can see, there is nothing new about a narcissistic, paranoid individual hopelessly trying to run a country.

Covfefe you all!

Alain