Jerrold Post, a psychological profiler for the CIA, whose expertise about the mental illness of foreign leaders made him much in demand in the White House, has died. Latterly he published “Dangerous Charisma” on Trump defying the APA’s ‘Goldwater Rule’ about publishing analytical critiques of individuals without their consent.
Born 8 February 1934 in Connecticut, he put himself through Yale and Harvard and went onto an action-packed life marrying his triple passions of psychiatry, history and politics. In his spare time he was an accomplished improvisational jazz pianist and a competitive backgammon player. After his stint at the CIA, he founded a consulting firm that specialized in industrial espionage and counterterrorism, lectured as a professor at George Washington University, wrote 14 books and saw patients in a private practice. His daughter said he “was kind of a whirling dervish. . . . He was the kind of person who would think, ‘There are 24 hours in a day. Can we fill 23 of them?”
In his last book he described Trump as a destructive charismatic leader with the traits of a classic narcissist — such as grandiosity, lack of empathy, hypersensitivity to criticism and no constraints of conscience. And he probed Trump’s symbiotic relationship with his followers, and theirs with him. “The dangerous, destructive charismatic leader polarizes and identifies an outside enemy and pulls his followers together by manipulating their common feelings of victimization,” he said in a recent interview.
He had his Sun and Saturn conjunct in Aquarius, descriptive of his scientific prowess and interest; both were trine/sextile Jupiter and Uranus for a confident and risk-taking temperament. He also had a powerfully aspected Pluto on the focal point of a Cardinal T Square to Jupiter opposition Uranus. Such a Pluto can give penetrating insight, a researcher who plumbs the depths with a knack of turning up knowledge that is before its time and thus runs into resistance. Good in crises situations and drawn to power figures.
His North Node was in Aquarius exactly conjunct his Sun which finds its metier in pursuing a humanitarian cause with vigour.
An interesting man though like many Plutonic personalities did not get the acclaim he should have in his lifetime.
Thanks for this, Marjorie. It is so gratifying to read of someone whose life made a difference, who had passion. What a fabulous job! psychological profiler for CIA. “specialising in mental illness of foreign leaders” ! With unknown birth time you logically use midday….however, the job description would suggest 12th (mental illness) foreign leaders (9th) – not too many can say that’s their specialty! so I rectified the chart for around 9.13 a.m. You said he didn’t gain the recognition he deserved but if he had a packed 12th (for psychology/psychiatry) and a strong Pluto, the last thing he’d be looking for was validation…..he found from experience the only way he could operate freely was by understating his mission (that amazing stellium with Merc/Mars conj Saturn conjunct Neptune, Sun conjunct Node…he was the man of the time but sensibly chose to live privately, Saturn trine Jupiter in Aquarius shows he was futuristic, wondering how people would cope with the problems he was focused on. What a well lived, fulfilling life. I tried to find him on Wiki – there’s nothing! When you think of the *&%#$$ which appears on there, but not him – definitely a strong 12th! Thanks for this, its wonderful to hear about passion and integrity actually achieving despite obstacles they clearly faced.