# A first-rate madness

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/books/a-first-rate-madness/
- Published: 2013-01-10T00:44:00+00:00
- Author: Howard Lake

**Uncovering the Links Between Leadership and Mental Illness**.

This _New York Times_ bestseller is a myth-shattering exploration of the powerful
connections between mental illness and leadership.

Historians have long puzzled over the apparent mental instability of great and terrible
leaders alike: Napoleon, Lincoln, Churchill, Hitler, and others. In _A First-Rate
Madness_, Nassir Ghaemi, director of the Mood Disorders Programme at Tufts Medical
Center, offers and sets forth a controversial, compelling thesis: the very qualities
that mark those with mood disorders also make for the best leaders in times of crisis.

From the importance of Lincoln’s “depressive realism” to the lacklustre leadership
of exceedingly sane men as Neville Chamberlain, _A First-Rate Madness _overturns
many of our most cherished perceptions about greatness and the mind.

Recommended by Alan Clayton.