En el poder y en la enfermedad

A revealing book about the influence of diseases on the decisions of great leaders, from the First World War to the present day: Hitler, Roosevelt, Kennedy, Bush, Blair, Mitterand and Trump, among others. In Power and In Sickness is about the interrelationship between politics and medicine; addresses the impact of diseases and therapies -both physical and mental- on the decision-making of heads of State and Government to the extent of causing a kind of madness, in terms of foolishness, stupidity or thoughtlessness. Naturally, illness in public figures raises important questions about the dangers of keeping the illness secret, or the difficulty in removing sick leaders. As a doctor, David Owen had the opportunity to see the tensions of political life and its consequences, which can lead to alcoholism and drug addiction; Already as a politician, he became especially interested in the cases of rulers who do not suffer from mental illnesses but who developed what he has called "hubris syndrome" or intoxication with power: persistence in error and inability to change course. Always fascinated by this topic, which he has analyzed in various publications with recognized authority, in this book Owen reviews the cases from the perspective of the specific and diagnosable disorder, and studies the diseases suffered by heads of State and Government such as John F. Kennedy , the Shah of Persia or François Mitterrand, among others, in addition to an accurate analysis of the figure of Donald Trump.