In interpersonal relationships, individuals repeat past patterns
of interaction in the present, and in the process many regressive forces
come into play. Leaders are ideal outlets for these transference reactions. (M.
K. de Vries [1])
In Part
One of this series, the main life
events of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the late Shah of Iran, were briefly recounted. Here,
we will attempt to sketch a psychological profile. In this
context, the use of certain psycho-analytical terminology and
concepts seems appropriate. Naturally, the characterizations
set forth herein bear no clinical significance and should therefore
be taken, simply, as indicative of one possible paradigm for
understanding this complex multi-facetted personality.
Mother
It can be safely assumed that Mohammad
Reza's mother, Taj-ol-Moluk, strongly
resented Reza Shah's decision, in 1922, to get married again.
Moreover,
it is likely, as hinted by Zonis [2],
that manipulation of the young boy (attempting to turn him
against his father) was seen by his mother as the ideal instrument of her revenge from her husband.
During the first six
years of his life, Mohammad Reza was very close to his motherand
although she may not have provided him with all the love he
needed, she, nonetheless,
became the main object
of psychological identification in the early days of the child's
life. Despite their abrupt -- and certainly traumatic -- separation
in 1925 (when Reza Shah decided that Crown Prince should
live in an entirely masculine environment, separating him from
his mother and sisters and sending him to another palace), she remained, through adulthood, an essential pillar of
Mohammad Reza's psychic balance. In his adult life, he used to
dine with her several times a week. Perhaps
as an unconscious reaction to the overwhelming psychological
influence wielded by his mother during those early days,
he seldom mentions her in
his books (in sharp contrast with his father) and always showed mixed feelings toward women in general:
Nobody can influence me, nobody at all. And a woman still less... All I can say
is that women, when they are in power, are much harsher than men. Much more cruel. Much more bloodthirsty. I'm quoting facts, not opinions. You're heartless when you're rulers ... You're
schemers, you're evil. Every one of you. [3]
HIM [His Imperial Majesty] remarked that every woman is
flawed in some way, however trivial. (Alam [4], Entry
dated 16
June 1975)
Notwithstanding his
own -- and his father's -- resentment
of this aspect of his personality, it can be argued that his
feminine identification defined the basis of Mohammad Reza
Shah's innermost (hidden) self. He would often regress to a
passive and dependent state in the face of danger. Certainly,
the most visible instances of such regressions are his flight
to Italy in
1952 in the height of the Mossadegh crisis
[5] and his flight to Egypt during
the 1979 revolution. But anecdotal evidence for similar behavior
during periods of crisis abound. Shawcross [6],
for instance, reveals that, in the days preceding his final
departure from Iran, the Shah received Admiral Habib Olahi and several
other officers who had come to ask for his authorization to
act. The Admiral was struck by his ambiguous and aloof attitude:
He seemed to refuse to accept responsibility for any initiative,
even when he would be outside the country... If it worked,
he would come back. Otherwise, we would be judged and executed.
Fereydoun Hooveyda [7]
has a congruent assessment:
Everyone now agrees that during the last eight months of
his reign the Shah was not functioning. He listened to visitors
but did not hear them. He had long bouts of silence and stopped
issuing instructions.
No doubt Mohammad
Reza's formidable and perceptive father (who, said
the son, "had an almost devastating ability to assess
human nature" [8]) had come to recognize and loathe this aspect
of his son's personality.
The very last message I received from him in his exile
was on a phonograph record. "My son," he said to
me, "fear nothing." [8]
Visions
As mentioned in the
previous article, the Shah started having visions soon after
being separated from his mother. Within eighteen months of
that traumatic event, he contracted a number of life-threatening illnesses (typhoid fever, whooping cough, diphtheria, malaria). And it is
not surprising that he came to the belief that his survival
could only be a result of divine intervention:
In my dream, Ali [the son-in-law of the Prophet] ... held
a bowl containing a liquid. He told me to drink
which I did. The next day, the crisis of my fever
was over, and I was on the road to rapid recovery. [8]
He also describes
a vision he had the following year when falling from his horse:
When I regained consciousness, the members of the party
were expressing astonishment that I had not even a scratch.
I told them that as I fell, I had clearly
seen one of our saints, named Abbas,
and that I had felt him holding me and preventing
me from crushing my head against the rock. [8]
And
the following year, walking near the palace with his guardian:
I clearly saw before me a man with a halo around his head...
As we passed one another, I knew
him at once. He was the Imam or descendant of Mohammad
[the Prophet] who, according to our faith, disappeared but
is expected to come again to save the world. [8]
Later, in his famous
interview with Oriana Fallaci [3],
he describes his mystical interaction with God within the context
of the loneliness imposed
by his function:
A king who doesn't need to account to anyone for what
he says and does is unavoidably doomed
to loneliness. However, I am not entirely alone, because
a force others can't perceive accompanies me. My
mystical force. Moreover, I receive messages. I have
lived with God beside me since I was 5 years old. Since,
that is, God sent me those visions... You don't believe in
God and you don't believe in me. Lots of people don't. Even
my father didn't believe me. He never did and laughed about
it.
Undoubtedly, he genuinely
believed that he benefited from divine protection not only
during childhood but throughout his entire life:
I have learned by experience that a tragic end awaits anyone
who dares cross swords with me; Nasser is no more, John and
Robert Kennedy died at the hands of assassins, their brother
Edward has been disgraced, Khrushchev was toppled, the list
is endless. (Alam [4], Entry dated 16 February 1971)
This belief was probably
shattered when he discovered that he was terminally ill [9].
One possible interpretation
of this perceived special link to God is that he was thus expressing
his desperate need for protection by a heavenly parent where his father
had failed him. Indeed it is not hard to see how the austere
Reza Shah, despite his undeniable love for his son, by separating
him from his mother (at the age of six when he sent him to
a different palace, and then again at the age of twelve when
he sent him to Switzerland), may have come to represent a threat
for the psychic balance of the traumatized child.
As for the visions,
enacting and enabling his direct connection to God, they may
be interpreted as a symptom of a "borderline" personality
disorder (see, for instance, Kohut [10]), although, within the mystically oriented Iranian
society, they are usually considered much more benign, even
desirable for a ruler (see for instance an exposition of the
concept of King-Priest in my previous article entitled "The
King-Priest").
Ambivalent Personality
At the age of six,
Mohammad Reza was separated from his mother. Whether his father did this to punish Taj-ol-Moluk or to prepare his son for his future responsibilities by
giving him a "manly education" [8]
is irrelevant here. We can guess that in order to adjust to
his new environment, Mohammad Reza had to set up an appropriate facade
of virility, ruthlessness
and courage. The resulting conflict between his primary innermost feminine identification and this new "persona" [11]
would become the hallmark of his vacillating personality
as an adult.
An insight into this
tortured existence is provided by A. Alikhani (Introduction
to Alam's Diaries [4]):
In the wilderness years of his youth, the Shah once asked
friends at a party what profession each of them wished they
could pursue. The replies where ribald
and amusing until it came to the Shah's turn. Had he not been a king,
he said, he would have liked to be public servant, earning
enough money to indulge his passion for sports. He then went
on to make a significant remark, one that runs true to form: he would
prefer a job that spared him form the
burden of decision-making.
Sullivan, the last US ambassador
to Iran,
recounts another poignant story. Soon after arriving in Iran, he was
invited to view joint
US-Iranian air force maneuvers in a remote air base. There, he joined the Shah
in an air-conditioned trailer, waiting for the show to begin. Once inside the trailer,
the Shah ...
... unhitched his tunic, relaxed,
and talked in his usual easy, gracious way about a number
of things. Eventually there was a knock on the door, and an
adjutant indicated that the airplanes were approaching and
the air show was ready to begin. With a sign, the Shah straightened his
tunic, stood up, and performed
a small act that embedded itself in my memory. From the gracious, easy, smiling host with whom I had been talking,
he transformed himself
suddenly to a steely, ramrod straight autocrat. This involved
not only adjusting his uniform and donning dark glasses but
also throwing out his chest, raising his chin, and fixing
his lip in a grim line. When
he had achieved this change to his own satisfaction, he thrust
open the
door of the trailer and stalked out across the few remaining
steps to the reviewing stand. [12]
Fereydoun Hoveyda [7]
also detected a "deeply split" character, more precisely...
... a certain rigidity in his
decision-making, a separation from reality, and an insensitivity to human factors...
More and more he gave the impression of living in a world
of his own imagining. Schizophrenia? Delusions
of grandeur? Creeping megalomania?
In view of establishing
and affirming this "manly" persona, he liked to show his
physical courage. In particular, he was fond of speeding -- in plane, car, and boat. But according to his second wife, Soraya, through flying and driving sports cars, he
would "portray himself as more brave and reckless than actually was true." [13]
Grandiosity
Grandiosity [14] is
a common constituent of a narcissistic personality. There are
numerous instances of the Shah's grandiosity:
Why make me the owner of some trifling plot of land? The
whole nation is mine without me having to stake some petty
private claim. Everything is at the disposal of a ruler of strength. (Alam [4], Entry of 10
July 1972: His Imperial Majesty about the property documents of the Kish island)
To be first in the Middle East is
not enough. We must raise ourselves to the
level of a great world power. (Alam [4], Entry of 22 March 1974)
The Shah had an obsessive desire to be ranked amongst the
immortals of Iranian society; above
every statesman or hero stretching back into the mists of
time. Every achievement had to be credited to him alone... Sycophancy
became the order of the day. (Alikhani,
in his introduction to Alam [4]).
Now the Shah seems rather carried away by his own dreams.
He lives in the "grand designs" which he projects onto
reality... He even transforms the realities of the past for
his grand design. [7]
Almost to the end,
he never stopped proclaiming that he would transform Iran into
one of the "five industrial powers" of the world by the end
of the century [7]. " Within 10 years, Iran was
to reach the level of Germany,
and within 25 years she would exceed all European countries
[15]. In 1975, he instituted the unique party system ("Rastakhiz",
Renewal in Persian). As for those who did not join the "Great
Civilization", "we will take them by the tail and throw
them out like rats." In 1976 (50th anniversary of the Pahlavi dynasty),
he modified the traditional Islamic calendar in order to base
its origin on the reign of Cyrus the Great.
Women and love
His first wife, Princess Fawzia of Egypt was chosen for him by his father without ever
consulting him. He divorced in 1948, the year of his personal consolidation
(in which flying played a major role [16]). Since Fawzia did not give him a male child, the Shah was pressured
by the court into remarrying. Her sister Shams found Soraya Bakhtiar in Germany. Soraya recounts
in her memories how she was brought to the Queen Mother as soon as she arrived
in Tehran.
After a while, the Shah entered the room wearing "his favorite uniform of the Iranian Air Force" (even
though the air force was quasi inexistent at the time). Later, he
divorced Soraya to marry Farah Diba.
After his first divorce, the Shah started entertaining young women in
private apartments in Tehran as
witnessed by Alam [4] and, at one
point in 1972, the so-called "Gilda" affair came close
to causing a major embarrassment [6]. His conspicuous attraction
to young women is said to have endured even in exile, despite
his advanced cancer at the time [17]. The Shah preferred the
European type with blond hair and blue eyes. It seems that
the sexual act in itself did not interest him (he was a rather "timid
lover" [21]) as much as the company. One of Madame Claude's
girls, named "Ange", pleased
him to such a degree that he kept her in Iran for 6 months. He struck her
as an "extraordinarily sad man". Most girls found him
to be a sad man. During their first encounter, Empress Farah herself
was impressed by the Shah's "sad eyes" [18].
The Shah seems never
to have established a loving relationship with any of the women in his life:
He's entitled to his privacy, though he soon gets bored
of being on his own. Likewise, even when he finds a companion,
however attractive she may be, he sooner or later tires of
her; work alone commands his absolute devotion
... (Alam [4], Entry of 9 September 1973)
Alam [4] also states that
although he was very fond of receiving "billets doux" [sweet
notes] from his lovers, he never replied to any of them.
Lack of Emotions
People where usually
struck by the Shah's formal, even rigid, attitude. It is argued
here that he was generally void of emotions, empathy and love
(in line with the hypothesized narcissistic personality):
Princess Shams described how, as a small girl,
she had gone to her father, full
of rage, declaring that she wished she were dead. The old
man had tears in his eyes. 'Why should you want to
die?' he asked her. 'I would much rather die myself than see you so upset.' HIM, who
has inherited none of his father's emotionalism, was clearly
put out by this story, but I came to his
rescue by declaring that no modern leader can afford to be
so easily moved. (Alam [4], Entry of 23 June 1973)
In April 7th 1976, Alam [4]
worries about the Shah's lack of contact with his son [19], the Crown
Prince:
In Kish,
for example, they spent less than half an hour alone together during the entire twelve days... they
might occasionally lunch or dine alone, so that the boy can benefit from his father's wisdom and experience. [20]
Even toward Alam, who was completely and blindly devoted to him, he rarely shows a sincere
sign of affection:
Passed on several personal letters to
HIM. He likes such things
to be preserved as souvenirs... I told him that I entrust
them all to Mr. X who looks after them at
his home and who has my absolute confidence. He knows that if I die suddenly
or am killed, he should destroy all the letters. 'No need for that', said HIM. 'He can simply return
them to me.' I took note
of his indifference to the thought of my death, but said
nothing. (Alam [4], Entry of 16 June 1969)
Only with his mother
and twin sister Ashraf, does he seem
to have entertained emotionally charged love/hate relationships.
HIM complained to me how irrational his mother's
requests have become, but I reminded him it's the duty of
all of us to do what we can do for her. 'A mother', I said,
'is the most absolute ruler of all. She must be obeyed however
illogical her orders.' 'Quite so', HIM replied, 'I wouldn't
dream of disagreeing.' (Alam [4], Entry of 26 July 1975)
That
twin sister of mine has been a lifelong thorn in the flesh.
She is vain and she is greedy. (Alam [4], Entry of 28 December 1976)
Ashraf, Perron and Alam
In adulthood, the Shah
developed and maintained strong bonds with three people: Perron, Ashraf,
and Alam.
Perron, the son of the handyman
of Le Rosey school in Switzerland, was
the Shah's most mysterious intimate friend. According to de Villiers [21], he ...
... was small
and skinny... many of the students razzed him, his small
size encouraging their bullying instincts. One day, Mohammad
saw a student kick over
the wheelbarrow full of compost Perron was
pushing. He gave the culprit a beating and within a few days, the
handyman's son and the son of the Shah of Persia had become intimate friends.
Perron was probably the Shah's
closest adviser during his stay at the court. There have been many rumors, powerfully relayed
after the revolution, speculating on the nature of their relation. The friendship lasted
for more than twenty years. Eventually, the Americans managed
to convince the Shah that he was a source of rumors and should
return to Switzerland.
He left Iran in
1953. The Shah himself never mentions Perron in
his books.
It appears unambiguously
from the study of his life that the Shah was strongly bonded to
his twin sister Ashraf. In Ashraf's words:
It was this twinship and this
relationship with my brother that would nourish
and sustain me throughout my childhood ... No matter how
I would reach out in the years to come - sometimes even desperately
- to find an identity and a purpose of my own, I would remain inextricably
tied to my brother. [22]
In 1978, Ashraf had become a highly unpopular figure [23] and the
Shah had to send her to the USA.
He is very discreet in his memories about his feelings toward Ashraf.
Alam was a childhood friend
of the Shah. He was emotionally attached to the Shah:
HMQ [Her Majesty the Queen] considers me, with reason,
to be very close to HIM, which annoys
her. (Alam [4], Entry of 6 October 1969)
These diaries come to an end. There is nothing left for
me to write now that
I'm cut from my meetings with HIM ... (Alam [4], Entry of 6 August 1977)
He was a stable and
devoted source of strength for the Shah:
Of
the same age and almost identical build, the Shah and Alam had
much in common... Both
possessed physical courage, but it was Alam's ability to assume responsibility at critical moments, added
to his loyalty, that most
impressed the Shah. (Alikhani, in his introduction
to Alam [4])
Shortly after the
1963 riots, he became minister of court and remained close
to the Shah until his departure (due to sickness) in 1977.
He died of Leukemia on April 13, 1978.
The Shah's "psychic
twins" were essential to his balance. Zonis [2]
suggests that, consistent with the hypothesized borderline
condition, he experienced "narcissistic transferences" [24]
with them. As a matter of fact, it does not seem far-fetched
to assume the existence of "idealizing transferences" [25]
between the Shah and his psychic twins: He could maintain an
internal sense of cohesion by drawing strength from them. In
1979 however, when he most needed them, he was alone.
To be continued: Part
Three ‚ The People
Part
One
References
[1] Manfred Kets de Vries (1989), "Prisoners of Leadership", John Wiley & Sons.
[2] Marvin Zonis (1991), "Majestic
Failure", The University of Chicago Press.
[3] Oriana Fallaci (1973), "The
Mystically Divine Shah of Iran" (interview), Chicago Tribune,
December 30, 1973. It is remarkable that despite many potentially
embarrassing statements, the Shah did not try to oppose the
publication of this interview. Indeed, the journalists who
have interviewed him concur on the fact that, unlike most dictators
and even many democratic public figures (Kissinger would be
a good example), the Shah, as a rule, did not require interviewers
to submit their questions beforehand; nor did he demand after-the-fact
modifications.
[4] Assadollah Alam (1991), "The Shah and I", St. Martin's
Press.
[5] General Schwarzkopf
who met the Shah in Rome found
him in a state of "deep depression". He told the General: "Everything
is finished. Your coming is a welcome expression of friendship
but I have no illusions. I'm a beaten man."
[6] William Shawcross (1988): "The
Shah's Last Ride", Simon & Schuster Inc., New York.
[7] Fereydoun Hoveyda (1979): "The
Fall of the Shah", Wyndham Books.
[8] Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (1961), "Mission for My Country",
McGraw-Hill.
[9] Since his entourage always instructed the doctors not to pronounce
the word "cancer" in front of the Shah, historians still
debate on when exactly he became aware of the extent and the
gravity of his illness. The Queen Farah herself
[18] seems unable to shed definite light on the issue.
[10] Heinz Kohut (1989), "The
Analysis of the Self", International Universities Press.
[11] The "persona" can be understood as the role that
one assumes or displays in public or society; one's public
image or personality, as distinguished from the inner self.
[12] William H. Sullivan (1981), "Mission to Iran",
Norton.
[13] Soraya's diaries published in Persian.
[14] Grandiosity consists in an inflated appraisal
of one's worth, power, knowledge, importance, or identity.
When extreme (as in a "borderline" narcissistic disorder),
grandiosity may be of delusional proportions.
[15] None of these predictions was based on sound analysis and
planning. In fact, already in 1975, the whole infrastructure
of the country was clogged; in the ports, food was rotting
and equipment was rusting. On the roads, trucks were abandoned
because of a lack of drivers.
[16] Kohut [10] believes that
flying fantasies are an indication of the aspirations of the
narcissist's grandiose self, the carrier and instigator of
his ambitions. The attachment of the Shah to flying and the
air force was extreme according to all accounts. For instance, for
his return to Iran from Rome in 1953, he put on his air Marshall's
uniform (he had it sent expressly from Tehran),
and took the controls of his Beechcraft [21].
[17] According to Shawcross [6], during
the Shah's residence in Panama,
one night, General Noriega picked him up at his villa and they
disappeared -- making his entourage
sick worrying that he had been kidnapped to be sent back to Iran. Finally, in desperation, the
American ambassador was contacted, who, in turn, called the
president of Panama who assured
him that the Shah was simply "having some fun". The General
later said that the Shah had spent the night with "a girl
of a good family" whom he had recommended.
[18] Farah Pahlavi (1998), "An
Enduring Love", Anchor.
[19] The Crown Prince later declared that, according to his calculations,
the father and son had not spent more than two months together in his entire
life.
[20] Kish was Shah's private island in the Persian Gulf. Millions of dollars were spent to transform
the island into a winter station for the jet set, an oriental Monte Carlo. Even Madame Claude was commissioned
to send her call-girls via Concorde [6].
[21] Gerard de Villiers (1976), "The Imperial Shah: An
Informal Biography", Little & Brown.
[22] Ashraf Pahlavi (1980), "Faces in a mirror: Memoirs
from Exile", Prentice-Hall.
[23] According to Shawcross [6], a CIA report dated 1976
mentions her "legendary reputation of corruption and seductress
of young men." The same report mentions instances of "illegal" activities.
In particular, a 1976 armed attack of her car in Juan-Les-Pins
(from which she escaped unharmed) helped fuel rumors of her
connections to the Mafia and the traffic of drugs.
[24] In psycho-analysis, "transference" is
the process in which the patient comes to treat another person
(the "self-object") as a symbolic representative of someone
important in the past.
[25] Among narcissistic patients, two specific types
of transference [24] are most commonly observed. The "mirroring
transference" will occur when the self-object provides a strong
sense of validation to the narcissist. This compensates for the fact that
the narcissistically injured child failed to receive validation
for what he or she was. The child thus concluded that there
is something wrong with his or her feelings, resulting in a
severe damage to the child's self-esteem. By reflecting back
to the narcissist his or her accomplishments and grandeur the
narcissist's self esteem and internal cohesion are maintained.
The "idealizing transference" on the other hand involves
the borrowing of strength from the self-object to maintain an internal
sense of cohesion. By idealizing the self-object to whom the
narcissist feels connected, the narcissist by association also
uplifts himself or herself. It is helpful to conceptualize
the idealizing narcissist as an infant who draws strength from
the omnipotence of the caregiver. Thus, in the idealizing transference
the self-object symbolizes omnipotence and this in turn makes
the narcissist feel secure.