“Breaking the Cycle of Trauma and Tyranny: How Psychological Wounds Shape History” by Dawn Drescher
A developmental perspective on authoritarian leadership and how we can build more resilient societies.
Introduction
Five years ago, David Althaus and Tobias Baumann published a delightful article “Reducing long-term risks from malevolent actors.” It focuses on the risk factors that “malevolent actors” pose when it comes to long-term catastrophic effects on civilization.
Large parts of the article are devoted to the screening for 99th percentile “Dark Tetrad” traits – traits of Machiavellianism, narcissism, psychopathy, and sadism. For comparison, I’m in the 7th percentile according to the “Dark Factor” scale.
I think there are many more places where we can intervene.
I propose a circular model where:
- Wars and societal collapses cause widespread trauma,
- Which causes widespread insecure attachment and personality disorders.
- People with these mental health problems grow up, and because they’re desperate for power and admiration, they form a large pool from which new authoritarian leaders are [...]
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Outline:
(00:31) Introduction
(02:04) Dolores
(12:20) Attachment
(13:52) The Psychology of Followership
(14:50) Breaking the Cycle
(16:58) Mitigating Trauma
(17:21) Healing Trauma
(20:29) Societal Resilience
(21:46) National and International Buffers
(22:57) Risks
(23:50) A Call to Action
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First published:
August 10th, 2025
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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.
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Senaste avsnitt
En liten tjänst av I'm With Friends. Finns även på engelska.