A first-rate madness: uncovering the links between leadership and mental illness, paperback/nassir ghaemi

This New York Times bestseller is a myth-shattering exploration of the powerful connections between mental illness and leadership.

Historians have long puzzled over the apparent mental instability of great and terrible leaders alike: Napoleon, Lincoln, Churchill, Hitler, and others.

In A First-Rate Madness, Nassir Ghaemi, director of the Mood Disorders Programme at Tufts Medical Center, offers and sets forth a controversial, compelling thesis: the very qualities that mark those with mood disorders also make for the best leaders in times of crisis.

From the importance of Lincolns -depressive realism- to the lacklustre leadership of exceedingly sane men as Neville Chamberlain, A First-Rate Madness overturns many of our most cherished perceptions about greatness and the mind.