PSYCHOSIS AND POLITICAL LEADERSHIP Richard Koenigsberg Joseph Goebbels' article of November 16, 1941 “The Jews are Guilty” “Every Jew is our enemy in this historic struggle, whether he vegetates in a Polish ghetto or carries on his parasitic existence in Berlin or Hamburg or blows the trumpets of war in New York or Washington. All Jews by virtue of their birth and their race are part of an international conspiracy against National Socialist Germany. They want its defeat and annihilation, and do all in their power to bring it about.” People like to believe or imagine that political leaders are "making it all up:" that they are liars or couldn't actually believe what they say. Why is this the case? People have difficulty with the idea that political leaders are delusional. Why don't I use the term "psychotic" to describe these political leaders (then and now)? Actually, they are psychotic. But when a sufficient number of people SHARE a delusion, then the political leader is rescued from his (clinical) psychosis. By virtue of sharing his psychosis, his delusion becomes a political norm.