A valentine for The Lady`s leadership

" I do not think there is a word for evil in Buddhism . . . There is no evil, just stupidity."

-Aung San Suu Kyi, in conversation with Ivan Suranjieff, Rangoon, Burma, August, 1995

"Aung San Suu Kyi is a remarkable and courageous human being. Listen to her voice and be inspired. . . Burma's the next South Africa."

-Archbishop Desmond Tutu

I had never thought of stupidity as an alternative explanation to what could be called evil. Religious beliefs? Yes. Some kinds of mental illness? Yes. Destructive gang behavior? Yes. After working in prison part-time, I even concluded that some rare prisoners could only be defined as evil. But I didn't think of them being stupid, even though they were caught and sentenced. Aung San Suu Kyi, the opposition leader of Burma (aka Myanmar), recently released from over two decades of intermittent house arrest, did make this conclusion.

While recently visiting Southeast Asia, I learned much about her, well-known as "The Lady." I also found fascinating similarities, as well as gender differences, to the male leadership of Mandela and Tutu, who I studied for a South Africa trip and presentation, and wrote about in the November 14th blog, "Leadership lessons from Mandela and Tutu."

When one thinks of some of the world's most harmful leaders, like Hitler and Pol Pot of Cambodia's "killing fields," one has to conclude that stupidity, if not an alternative explanation of evil, at least contributed to the failure of evil. Hitler stupidly invaded Russia prematurely, only to be repulsed and defeated. Pol Pot stupidly invaded neighboring Vietnam, fresh from a victory over the USA, and not surprisingly, was repulsed and defeated.

In mental healthcare, the only place I have heard the word evil being used was in reference to for-profit managed care. It was the rallying cry of a former President of the American Psychiatric Association, Harold Eist,  M.D., who railed against profits being put ahead of patients.

However, so far, for-profit managed care has not done anything stupid, and has not been defeated. To the contrary. Under President Obama's healthcare reform, the private insurance companies have received increasing responsibility, although with some new minimal controls and requirements. So, maybe Dr. Eist, in retrospect, had the wrong focus and terminology. Maybe the task is to defeat stupidity, not evil, with something smarter that could not only keep patients as the first priority, but be cost-effective in a smart, ethical way (as I tried to point out in my book, The Ethical Way: Challenges and Solutions for Managed Behavioral Healthcare).

Besides addressing stupidity, The Lady may have other leadership lessons for us. She always tried to be as inclusive as practically possible, as did Mandela, including even the repressive army dictatorship in her future democratic and spiritual vision. 

Similarly, probably the smartest aspects of managed care must be incorporated in future healthcare improvement, say in a not-for-profit managed single payor system.

The Lady also made sure to include all ethnic minorities in Burma. 

Goodness knows, we still have much to do in mental healthcare to improve the care of minorities.

The personality traits she valued the most were stubbornness and courage. She worked to control her temper. She tried to use charm to disarm.

The Lady certainly sacrificed her own well-being in many ways. We in mental healthcare, especially clinicians, take that risk. At our best, we have to always be empathetic, compassionate, and caring. 

That takes much out of us emotionally.

We also have to keep much private patient information private. Our family has to be able to accept this principle of confidentiality and also give time and space for us to regroup emotionally at home. I'm so grateful that my wife was able to do so. Like Mandela's, The Lady's family certainly suffered, as her husband and two teenage sons remained in England after she returned for her mother's funeral in Burma. Her husband died there without her being able to return to England before his predictable death.

Like Nelson Mandela, The Lady seemed to become stronger and more resilient under arrest and confinement. Like Mandela, Tutu, and others, she knew when non-violent resistance could work. Certainly, we don't wish that for ourselves, but we all will encounter ethical challenges in situations that will be confining, at least for a time. 

What we do under such conditions may determine the ultimate legacy of our leadership. We need to be smart, not stupid.

Perhaps it is The Lady's own translation of the British Rudyard Kipling's poem "If," which she did for her followers, that we should also follow to sustain us:

"If you can dream - and not make dreams your master; If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim, If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster And treat those two imposters just the same. If you can hear the truth you've spoken Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken, And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools . . ."

Happy Valentine's Day to The Lady, wherever you are, to those who read this, and, of course, my wife. And an apology to my grandchildren and their parents for using that word they try to avoid using, "stupid."