The Great Greek Psychopath
Sept. 8 9:40–11am
The third week of class started with a discussion of Plutarch’s reading about Alcibiades. This discussion was enlightening for me because I was unable to fully grasp everything in the story. There was a large amount of content that I needed the professor to decipher in order for me to fully grasp the story. For most of the class period, I listened to the class as they talked about Alcibiades’s behavior and how it parallels to that of what we now know is a psychopath. We also discussed his qualities as a leader.
Sept. 8 10:03pm- 12:00am
It was difficult for me to read this story due to the format in which it was written. The writing seemed to have a significant amount of extra fluff throughout the writing, which was the primary style in which authors wrote at the time. This required me to reread multiple passages from the reading repeatedly until I was able to semi-comprehend them. Throughout the reading, I made mental notes of Alcibiades’s behavior that could be considered psychopathic. The main traits that I felt he exhibited were his glibness/superficial charm, emotional shallowness, and his impulsiveness/recklessness. Analyzing this leader from ancient Greece based on the previous articles we have read in class was interesting due to the fact that, even in the past, people were more susceptible to wanting people in power who showed strong signs of psychopathy.
Sept. 9 12:09 am- 12:35am
The question of whether or not Alcibiades was a psychopath can easily be answered yes based off Plutarch’s story. Throughout his childhood and well into his adulthood, Alcibiades showed many signs of having psychopathic traits. The beginning of the story started by mentioning his lisp and how he was extremely charming to everybody. Throughout the story, it details his boldness in his childhood and recklessness in his adulthood. It also goes to show how people reacted to these traits and how they loved him as a leader nonetheless. Further proving the belief that people are more inclined towards leaders that exhibit psychopathic traits.
Sept. 10 9:40–11:00am
In class, Professor Sandridge went over his views on Alcibiades’s psychopathy. He wrote down all of psychopathic traits on the board and as he wrote them he asked us to give examples from the story of Alcibiades that matched these traits. While listing these traits, I began to think about people in positions of power throughout the world. After doing this, I posed a question to the class and to the professor. Being that the general public knows that, individually, many of the psychopathic traits are necessary in being a leader, I wanted to know if they believed that if people wanting positions of power showed these traits more openly, the public be more likely to choose them as their leader. The multiple responses from both the professor and the class sparked great dialogue. The class discussion made the topic less repetitive and gave new insight to the topic.
Sept. 10 8:45pm-11 pm
I decided to reread the several parts of the story that I still did not fully understand and both of Alcibiades’s speeches. After, I answered the questions asked in the syllabus about Alcibiades’s speech. Every time he speaks there is an aura of confidence that he exudes. This high level of confidence causes everyone to want to follow what he is saying and agree with him because he sounds right. As far as public speaking is concerned, I would want to emulate him in order to actually engage my audience in the subject matter of my speech and get them to agree with what I am saying. The art of persuasion is one that is easily mastered by psychopaths and it shows in the manner in which Alcibiades speaks.
Sept. 12 11:30 pm-12:45pm
My friends and I went to the Lincoln Memorial late at night in order to truly get a chance to reflect on it without hundreds of people there. Being there at night allowed me the opportunity to truly take in the beauty of the memorial and its purpose. While standing on the steps of the memorial imagining I was giving a speech, so many different types of speeches and audiences came to mind. For many Americans, this memorial is symbolic of freedom for all. If I were to do a speech, it would be addressing the lack of rights of those groups in America that are often discriminated against. Many of the great speeches in our country came from the civil rights era in which there was civil injustice and discrimination. These inhumane conditions left people no choice, but to speak out against it. This was the reason I chose Malcolm X’s The Ballot or The Bullet” speech to analyze. The purpose of this speech was to inform black people of the upcoming presidential election and tell them that their voice makes a difference. It was also a call to action for those who vote for a certain politician and do not get the change that they seek. Malcolm X was one of the most influential leaders of his time. He was confident and personable, but he also knew how to get things done whether violent or not. He knew how to persuade people into believing everything he spoke. It was a fragile time for black people in America and he was able to uplift people while still maintaining his agenda.
I found this speech to be persuasive to the people of the time because this is what they wanted to hear. Black people needed to hear that they had some type of power when everyone else in America told them they had none. They needed to hear this type of message in order to lift their spirits and continue fighting for their rights.
