Jules Masserman is a well known modem psychoanalyst of the United States and after critical study of the most influential leaders of the world; he has laid down a criterion for assessment of greatness of leadership.
Criteria for Assessment of Greatness of Leadership
According to his analytical view:
“Leaders must fulfill three functions:
- Provide for the well-being of the led.
- Provide a social organization in which people feel relatively secure.
- Provide them with one set of beliefs.
People like Pasteur and Salk are leaders in the first sense.
People like Gandhi and Confucius, on one hand, and Alexander, Caesar and Hitler on the other, are leaders in the second and perhaps the third sense.
Jesus and Buddha belong in the third category alone.
Perhaps the greatest leader of all times was Mohammed. To a lesser degree Moses did the same.” 1
One is profoundly astonished to see that two hundred years ago in the 18th century, it was Thomas Carlyle who placed Muhammad, as the Hero of all the great Prophets.
Then again in the 20th century, which is the age of reason and science, an American psychoanalyst acknowledged him as the greatest leader of all times, after comparing him with Alexander, Caesar, Gandhi and Confucius, even with Buddha, Jesus and Moses.
- “Who Were History’s Greatest leaders.” Time Magazine. July 15. 1974