[Time to bring the corporations off their psycho paths !]
http://www.suite101.com/discussion.cfm/npd/82139/latest/6 Thursday, August 29, 2002 Evil lurks at the top? MD urges screening CEOs for psychopaths By ALAN CAIRNS, TORONTO SUN ST.JOHN'S, Nfld. -- A leading expert on psychopaths said the heartbreak, chaos and economic slump caused by corporate corruption could be avoided if prospective CEOs were screened for psychopathy. Saying he was ill at ease with many of North America's top executives who are currently under fire for misleading shareholders and milking hundreds of millions of dollars in company cash, Dr. Robert Hare said corporate North America is likely rife with psychopaths. Hare, whose psychopathic checklist diagnostic tool is used around the world, said ruthless psychopaths who have managed to hide their true nature because of a privileged upbringing can commit their crimes with impunity in the business world. THEY FIT THE MOULD While he stressed that many thieves and fraud artists are not psychopaths, Hare said when executives take hundreds of millions of other people's cash "blatantly and with malicious forethought" they fit the psychopathic mould. "Many people will lose their life savings. Some will have heart attacks, commit suicide. If they are not psychopaths, they sure as hell are not model citizens," he said. Hare said psychopaths typically "eat up" interviewers and head hunters who scrutinize CEO candidates. "For your average psychopath, it's no problem at all." He said screening CEOs and financiers who handle millions could be easily done. "You would check into his family background. He is what he is in all domains -- a rule breaker. The rules don't apply." Hare said companies are more at risk in today's tough economy. "That's when the psychopath moves in ... where there is chaos and the rules no longer apply. Enter the psychopath ... saying: I've got the solution." Hare gave the analogy of psychopaths who rise to power whenever there is chaos in political structures, noting African warlords, the former Yugoslavia and Nazi Germany.
