ABSTRACT

This book explores the concept of "pre-conceptual trauma", drawing in particular on the pioneering research of Wilfred Bion. A comparison is established between two different groups of individuals: five well-known dictators and five famous creative individuals. The authors have defined "pre-conceptual traumas" as ubiquitous experiences that all human beings go through during the first years of their lives, when a temporary absence changes into a permanent presence, determining the outcome of what any individual might do or perform in the future. Pre-conceptual traumas split the mind into two dialectical and correlated states: the "traumatized" (conflictive or pathological), and the "non-traumatized (developmental or normal).

chapter Two|12 pages

Dictators' early traumas

chapter Three|10 pages

Communism as a form of psychopathology

chapter Four|5 pages

Capitalism: another form of psychopathology

chapter Five|6 pages

The acolytes

chapter Six|10 pages

Sycophants and socialist romantics

chapter Seven|4 pages

The claustrum

chapter Nine|10 pages

Hitler

chapter Ten|5 pages

Stalin

chapter Eleven|12 pages

Mao

chapter Twelve|4 pages

Castro

chapter Thirteen|3 pages

Hussein

chapter Fourteen|8 pages

Beethoven

chapter Fifteen|6 pages

Freud

chapter Sixteen|6 pages

Einstein

chapter Seventeen|21 pages

Gandhi

chapter Eighteen|9 pages

Picasso

chapter Nineteen|2 pages

General consideration