Bakan Calls Corporations ‘Psychopathic Creatures’. Is This Too Harsh a Judgment?
The Corporation by Joel Bakan
With the first corporation being found in the fourteenth century, the rise of one of the world’s most dominant institutions began. Today fifty-one of the hundred largest economies in the world are corporations while only 49 are countries, when comparing the corporate sales revenue and country GDPs (Shah, 2002). Due to their size and power, corporations increasingly exert influence on society and the environment in a negative way.
But instead of blaming the system of corporations as a whole by attributing traits of psychopathy to it, greedy and ruthless individuals should be held liable for these characteristics.
In the first place, it is necessary to analyse what types of symptoms and indicators of psychopathy inhabit the performance of corporations. Having found correlations with the behavior of psychopaths, the role of owners and employees for the forming of these traits has to be assessed. Finally, an example will show that corporations do not necessarily have to act psychopathically and antisocially.
Corporations are public limited companies with the legally defined duty to follow the self-interest of its owners, regardless of the consequences it might cause to others. The limited liability they imply makes them separate legal entities, so that Bakan (2004) refers to them as ‘creatures’ (Bakan, 2004: 60). He argues that these creatures and their restless pursuit of profit show traits of psychopathy, a mental disorder that involves the constant violation of rights of others and social norms in general (Livesley, 1995: 69-80).
In fact, there are strong correlations between the behavior of corporations and 6 out of 17 factors of the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised by Robert D. Hare, a researcher in the field of criminal psychopathy. Firstly, corporations show a superficial charm and glibness that is used to create a corporate image that serves as a competitive advantage, but might in fact not be representative. Branding creates
With the first corporation being found in the fourteenth century, the rise of one of the world’s most dominant institutions began. Today fifty-one of the hundred largest economies in the world are corporations while only 49 are countries, when comparing the corporate sales revenue and country GDPs (Shah, 2002). Due to their size and power, corporations increasingly exert influence on society and the environment in a negative way.
But instead of blaming the system of corporations as a whole by attributing traits of psychopathy to it, greedy and ruthless individuals should be held liable for these characteristics.
In the first place, it is necessary to analyse what types of symptoms and indicators of psychopathy inhabit the performance of corporations. Having found correlations with the behavior of psychopaths, the role of owners and employees for the forming of these traits has to be assessed. Finally, an example will show that corporations do not necessarily have to act psychopathically and antisocially.
Corporations are public limited companies with the legally defined duty to follow the self-interest of its owners, regardless of the consequences it might cause to others. The limited liability they imply makes them separate legal entities, so that Bakan (2004) refers to them as ‘creatures’ (Bakan, 2004: 60). He argues that these creatures and their restless pursuit of profit show traits of psychopathy, a mental disorder that involves the constant violation of rights of others and social norms in general (Livesley, 1995: 69-80).
In fact, there are strong correlations between the behavior of corporations and 6 out of 17 factors of the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised by Robert D. Hare, a researcher in the field of criminal psychopathy. Firstly, corporations show a superficial charm and glibness that is used to create a corporate image that serves as a competitive advantage, but might in fact not be representative. Branding creates
References: Bakan, J. (2004). The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power. London, Constable. Hart, P.K. (2003). Hitting the Organic Jackpot. The Boston Globe. 16(3) 10-45. Livesley, W.J. (1995) The Phenotypic Structure and Genotypics of Psychopathic Traits. In Cooke, D.J, Forth, A.E. and Hare, R.D. eds. Psychology: Theory, Research and Implications for Society. London, Kluwer Academic Publishers. 69-80. Shah, A. (2002). The Rise of Corporations. Global Issues. 5 December. Available at: http:// www.globalissues.org/article/234/the-rise-of-corporations (Accessed 2 December 2011). Whole Foods Market (n.d.). Available at: http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/company/ declaration.php (Accessed 2 December 2011).