A Look Into Psychopathy, Decision-Making, and Agency with Dr. Emily Bashah

In this video, Paul Johnson welcomes back Dr. Emily Bashah to discuss psychopathy, decision-making, and agency in the context of hierarchy.

The two also discuss their book Addictive Ideologies, Stanley Milgram’s 1960s experiment and tyranny. Dr. Bashah explains that not all convicted killers are psychopaths, and that not all psychopaths are killers – there are CEOs, successful politicians, and companies that do share psychopathic traits and tendencies.

Paul and Dr. Bashah talk about whether psychopathy has a genetic nature to it or not, and about the differences between narcissists and psychopaths. Paul shares his definition of power and his hypothesis about how it manifests in different contexts, such as parenthood and politics.

Paul and Dr. Bashah go over taking action, guilt, making decisions, and doing so as an informed person, as well as the tyranny and persecution that happened in Iraq with Saddam Hussein, during the Second World War, in the Bosnian War, and in Rwanda. They bring up the role that agency has in the context of hierarchy, and they go over the psychology of a con artist.
Paul’s and Dr. Bashah’s new book is called Addictive Ideologies – they also focus on one of the key points they make in it.

Addictive Ideologies: Finding Meaning and Agency When Politics Fail You –
https://amzn.to/3WmWWip
Dr. Philip Zimbardo – https://twitter.com/philzimbardo?lang=en
How to Become a Tyrant (Netflix series) – https://www.netflix.com/title/80989772
Stanley Milgram – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Milgram

We are The Optimistic American, and we are in the business of promoting what is going right in our country. Every day, there is tremendous progress being made in America — across technology, public policy, science and medicine, and much more — that will set current and future generations up for success. Our goal is to highlight these advancements and tilt the scale of news and information from pessimism towards optimism.

This interview reflects the best themes of The Optimistic American, that our best days lie ahead.

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