Germany and its Nazi leaders were not much different, psychologically, from any nation or any leaders. And that’s the scary part.

When our world is in tumult, mentally ill leaders function best.

When not manic or depressed, those with bipolar disorder are normal, just like everyone else, but they retain an awareness that makes their perception just different enough to be unusually creative.

The unlucky, who, early in their lives, endure hardships and tragedies—or the challenge of mental illness—seem to become, not infrequently, our greatest leaders.

Our want of independence began to smart. It was unbearable that we should be unable to do anything without the elders’ permission. At last, in sheer disgust, we decided to commit suicide! But how were we to do it? From where were we to get the poison? We heard that Dhatura seeds were an effective poison. Off we went to the jungle in search of these

Searching for a term less loaded than “normal” to describe these people, Grinker called them homoclites, a Latinate term he invented to indicate “those who follow a common rule.”

Karl Jaspers made empathy central to psychiatry, a revolutionary idea at the time.

illness. They both attempted suicide as teenagers, endured at least one depressive episode in midlife, and suffered a very severe depressive episode in their final years, before they were killed.

depression led to more, not less, realistic assessments of control over one’s environment, an effect that was only enhanced by a real-world emotional desire, like making money.