How do psychologists analyze the behavior/mentality of people like Bernard Madoff?
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everybody thought Bernard madoff as brilliant investor, philanthropist, pillar of community-was a phoney has shocked the world. the scale of his alleged $50 billion Ponzi scheme is hard to comprehend( Paul Krugman---New York times news service)
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Answer:
I am a psychologist. I think other psychologists would find a diagnosis for it, but in my mind, he acted like another immature human being. His scheme was so common there is a name for it - tell you something? It tells me it is a common human trait. Every human has larcenous thoughts, but only idle minds find time to carry them out. Idle minds are the devil's workshop, but, of course, most people do not look for evil as they do to make a quick buck. The people who contributed to him also had larceny in their heart and sought to circumvent ordinary channels us ordinary humans use to make a buck in order to make more money than the rest of us. So the con-man knows his mark because they think alike and are willing to act on it. By the way, my state encouraged people to state workers to invest in his funds to supplement their retirement account. No one is immune. I did not because I always thought I could do better on my own and I started investing before they offered it. I also don't believe that tax-free funds are good for everyone - you have to wait to long to use them and there is a penalty for using them early.
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Other answers
Psychologists might suggest someone like that has an antisocial disorder that prevents them from feeling empathetic with the victims of their Ponzi scheme. They don't understand or care about what they put other people through as long as they're benefiting. As for his intellect, someone can be brilliant, a total genius, and still be mentally and morally unsound.
Sev
I'm a lawyer not a phsychologist danm it!! He is just another phoney and a crook. People use shorthand (prejudice) to figure out what someone is like. For instance in his case "oh he is a fellow religious Jew so he is trustworthy" "He has a lot of expensive things, he must be successful and brilliant" "He belongs to the Roslyn Country Club/Palm Beach Country Club, he must be one of us and trustworthy" "He's been in the business a long time, he can't be a crook"
♥Rich♥
I would say Madoff suffers from Anti Social Personality disorder. In his Ponzi scheme, he ripped off billions of Dollars from persons. some of whom may have been friends friends or colleagues. The fact that he did that and expressed no compuction,validates the above diagnosis.He also engaged in questionable investment strategies for many years. Madoff was involved in a large number of charities to which he was a generous giver. In addition he was one of the largest contributors to the Democratic.Party. The above suggests that he may have had some humanitarian instincts, which many sociopaths do. Or conversely he might have been trying to clean up his image.
Dr.John L
For one thing, most psychologists would separate Bernard Madoff's behavior from the people he swindled. It might be productive to know if there was a particular type of investor that was especially prone to his schemes, but its much more informative to understand the person solely by themselves, their background before the scheme took place. Anti-social personality disorder is so broad it is almost meaningless. And it more clearly applies to people who have little in common with madoff; socially insecure, limited social circle, reliance on family mostly, trouble making connections. His reluctance to meet with clients can be ascribed to something as simple as guilt, an unwillingness to make a human connection for fear that their ruse will be discovered. The same goes for his small cadre of family and friends he kept close to. Just as there is a difference between someone who is paranoid and someone who has legitimate fears about whatever, not all of Madoff's behaviors can be so easily understood at this time. He could easily have a massive inferiority complex, thus needing to 'prove' to others, and himself, that he can be as successful as he always wanted. Thus, his ponzi scheme is merely his shortcut to living the kind of life, and getting the kind of recognition, he always wanted. Not everyone commits a crime, even the same one, for the exact same reasons. Ascribing one set of variables to a wide swath of people is why most psychological stuides and opinions are held to be of such a low value: their misses distract from the very real hits that lay underneath, the speculation undercuts the very real science behind it.
Khnopff71
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