Papers by Norman Sandridge
Working from a critique of Aristotle’s treatment of pity in the Ars Rhetorica, this article ident... more Working from a critique of Aristotle’s treatment of pity in the Ars Rhetorica, this article identifies a type of non-merit-based, non-familial, self-regarding pity in three plays of Sophocles that is both remarkably intense and uncommon in Greek literature and history. This pity implies that the protagonists (or “heroes”) in these plays are neither beasts nor greater than other, more civilized characters, but human.
Drafts by Norman Sandridge
In the 5th edition of his seminal work on the study of psychopathy Hervey Cleckley attempts, with... more In the 5th edition of his seminal work on the study of psychopathy Hervey Cleckley attempts, with thoughtful caution, to diagnose a number of historical and literary figures. Alcibiades receives special attention: " Though it would hardly be convincing to claim that we can establish a medical diagnosis, or a full psychiatric explanation, of this public figure who lived almost two and a half thousand years ago, there are many points in the incomplete records of his life available to us that strongly suggest Alcibiades may have been a spectacular example of what during recent decades we have, in bewilderment and amazement, come to designate as the psychopath " (Cleckley, Mask of Sanity , 1988:335). More recently, Cleckley's assessment of Alcibiades has been used to help make the case that psychopathy has been a crosscultural disorder since ancient times ( Handbook of Psychopathy 2007:437). Genetic studies and fMRI analyses of the paralimbic regions of the brain further bolster the claim that psychopathy, in addition to being a pervasive social construct, is a biological phenomenon (Glenn and Raine, Psychopathy: An Introduction to Biological Findings and Their Implications , 2014). Though Cleckley did not distinguish the historical Alcibiades from Alcibiades as the more malleable construct of historians, philosophers, and moralists, and though we have learned much more about psychopathy in the past thirty years, I argue that Alcibiades is still an important " hub " for us to understand psychopathy. In particular he helps us to explore two related questions: (1) how does the " psychopath " differ from related constructs across different fields, e.g., the trickster figure (folklore), the alpha male (psychology), the freerider (economics), and the tyrant (politics); and (2) to what extent do such figures make good leaders? By paying specific attention to Plutarch's Life , we can see how ambivalent Athenians (and by extension we ourselves today) were toward such a leader.
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Papers by Norman Sandridge
Drafts by Norman Sandridge