Two Birds in a Tree: Power corrupts

Jesus washing the disciples feet, 16th century

(Image from Wikipedia)

Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority; still more when you superadd the tendency of the certainty of corruption by authority.

~ Lord Acton

The effect of power and publicity on all men is the aggravation of self, a sort of tumor that ends by killing the victim's sympathies.

~ Henry Adams

So, lately I’ve been obsessed with podcasts about con artists, cult leaders, and serial killers. They all seem to share the same basic qualities – basically, psychopathy – and I keep seeing similarities in corporations and those who run them. I think I’m compelled to explore this side of humanity because I’m trying to work some shit out re: the negative animus and the dark side of the Self, or Evil.

One key that recently fell into my lap was the fact that power itself changes the brain, killing empathy. This explains a LOT. One thing I’ve noticed in many of the podcasts I’ve been listening to is that, even when the cult leader or whatever isn’t a psychopath or a narcissist in the beginning, and even though may have had the best of intentions, as soon as they get power everything changes.

Last year, I worked with a senior executive — let’s call him Steve — who had received feedback from his boss that he was wearing the power of his new title in an off-putting way. Steve’s boss told him that he had developed a subtle way of being right in meetings that sucked all the oxygen out of the room. No one wanted to offer ideas once Steve had declared the right answer. Since his promotion, Steve had become less of a team player and more of a superior who knew better than others. In short, he had lost his empathy.”

“Why does this sort of shift in behavior happen to so many people when they’re promoted to the ranks of management? Research shows that personal power actually interferes with our ability to empathize…. [P]eople who have power suffer deficits in empathy, the ability to read emotions, and the ability to adapt behaviors to other people. In fact, power can actually change how the brain functions…

- Lou Solomon, "Becoming Powerful Makes You Less Empathetic"

Power literally rewires the brain:

Subjects under the influence of power, he found in studies spanning two decades, acted as if they had suffered a traumatic brain injury—becoming more impulsive, less risk-aware, and, crucially, less adept at seeing things from other people’s point of view… [W]hen he put the heads of the powerful and the not-so-powerful under a transcranial-magnetic-stimulation machine, he found that power, in fact, impairs a specific neural process, “mirroring,” that may be a cornerstone of empathy. Which gives a neurological basis to what Keltner has termed the “power paradox”: Once we have power, we lose some of the capacities we needed to gain it in the first place.

- Jerry Useem, "Power Causes Brain Damage"

I suspect what’s going on is possession of the ego by the archetype of the Self. The ego (the center of the conscious personality) is already a miniature version of the Self (the center the entire psyche, conscious and unconscious). The Self is the archetype of wholeness, completion, and the carrier of the sacred. Because of this the ego always tries to push itself and it’s agenda forward, at the expense of the rest of the personality, the way that a person with an inflated ego tries to push themselves and their agenda forward at the expense of everyone around them. The cure for inflation, for the possession of our ego by the Self, is service and humility, or humiliation, the deflation of the ego.

I've seen abuse of power happen, and experienced the lure of power myself despite my strong efforts to resist. Other people treated me as special and I began to believe it… One thing I notice in hindsight is that I stopped wanting to hear any criticism from people I perceived as not supporting me. Now I see that my very resistance to the criticism was an indication that there was a problem that deserved close examination. My emotions - anger, fear, pride - got in the way of my willingness to engage in self-examination, even through a 360! Today I remember what Spiderman says: "With great power comes great responsibility." I focus more now on how I can serve others, rather than what I can achieve [emphasis mine].

- Julie Erickson, commenter in "Becoming Powerful Makes You Less Empathetic"

The above bolded sentence is the cure for the mental disorder caused by power. I think it’s interesting that the shadow ego of the ENTJ, the type with the greatest tendency towards traits we think of as pychopathic (lack of empathy, drive to succeed regardless of their effect on others) is the service oriented ESFJ. I don’t think this coincidence. Here is a short description of ESFJs:

ESFJs who have had the benefit of being raised and surrounded by a strong value system that is ethical and centered around genuine goodness will most likely be the kindest, most generous souls who will gladly give you the shirt off of their back without a second thought. For these individuals, the selfless quality of their personality type is genuine and pure.

- Personality Page, ESFJ

ESFJs are powerful and love structure, just like ENTJs, but they are service oriented. This focus on how I can serve others, rather than what I can achieve is a key to not losing our damn minds when we get a little power. The other and related key is humility. By putting ourselves lower rather than above others – by stressing the service element of leadership – we not only rescue ourselves from possession, our power actually serves to make the world a better place.

Now before the feast of the passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end… He riseth from supper, and laid aside his garments; and took a towel, and girded himself. After that he poureth water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded… Know ye what I have done to you? Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you.