How Does The Mind Of A Corrupt Person Work?

Oddly enough, the mind of a corrupt person is not a dark, impenetrable swamp. Facts indicate that many people we consider to be “successful” in various fields are in fact corrupt on the inside. They even belong to the type of people who like to be appointed to leading positions in companies and political parties, because they have “that little extra” that allows them to stretch the rules in a way that the rest of us can not.

Psychologist Jean Twenge, author of the book  Generation Me , believes that the mind of a corrupt person is characterized by a fascination for his own person. This kind of people “love to get to know themselves”. They are very adaptable precisely because of their lack of ethics. In addition, they are in demand in positions of power, and have been especially so for the past forty years.

The insecurity that fills so many of us ordinary mortals simply does not exist in the mind of a corrupt person . Nor do they feel any pessimism. That they achieve such success is mainly due to the fact that a kind of self-cult has been consolidated in recent decades. It has made us to some extent learn to tolerate their selfishness and lack of scruples.

The mind of a corrupt person: natural selfishness and ethics

The psychologist Luis Fernández is a professor of psychology at the University of Santiago de Compostela and author of the book Psicología de Corrupción y los Corruptos  (English title: Psychology of Corruption and the Corrupt). According to him , all people are born with a seed of evil. He believes that if we are given the opportunity, we have no major difficulties in thumbs down on the rules. And if we reach positions of power, we use them for our own gain.

However, it is also true that it is a big step towards this kind of psychological housekeeping. In other words, it is this that makes us choose the easiest path and the lack of scruples that characterize the mind of a corrupt person.

It is obvious that we are born without ethics. The only “ethics” we use as newborns is to have our needs and desires satisfied. And there is no reason not to use people as instruments for this purpose.

Ethics is something we design and cultivate in accordance with intelligence and culture. Through training, we come to the realization that we achieve more when we stop behaving in a selfish way and start working as part of a team. This is something we learn early in life through games and family interactions.

From that moment on, it is not that we do not see that certain actions actually benefit us individually. Rather, we learn to see other people as part of the human landscape we live in. We understand that we need each other. Why? Because without the help of other people, we would not even have survived as newborns. And without other people, we will not survive the various shifts of life, such as illness and old age and other vulnerable phases.

The mind of a corrupt person: power over love

We would not learn to take a constructive attitude towards others if it were not for the love and devotion offered to us by imperfect adults, who are generous and understanding enough to convey this message of civilization to the environment. Ethics is something we learn in our minds, but it also has a strong root in love and affection.

In the minds of corrupt people, there are no such references. Their lives are instead based on fighting for what they consider important for themselves. It is as if they are waging a struggle for survival against the world. For them, breaking the rules is a test to prove their skills and they feel the need to do it over and over again. In fact, they make it a game, because being able to take advantage of others becomes a way for them to feel validated.

Corrupt people see no benefit in respecting others. On the contrary, they see them as an obstacle. In fact, they have no idea about other people in their minds or hearts.

They feel a desire for power and money, because it gives them the illusion of exercising some kind of control over the world. They do not care at all that they have eye servants instead of friends or possessions instead of a meaningful life. Their goal is dominance, even if it is only superficial.

A short-lived triumph

The minds of corrupt people are very adaptable and it works great as long as the situation is such that they can disregard the present norms. They constantly create crises for their families, the companies in which they work and the society they live in. They ignore that. But sooner or later they will make a mistake and this will be their downfall.

Corrupt people carry within them the seed of their own destruction; the belief that they are invulnerable. Their self-preoccupation prevents them from making an objective assessment of reality. This will sooner or later result in a strategic mistake. Then they become the object of general contempt and it becomes obvious how lonely they are.

The question that remains is why people find themselves surrounding themselves with corrupt people. The truth is that society often perceives that nothing can be done about them. But even in these cases, this feeling of helplessness can eventually turn into an active indignation that can make people do something together to set limits to the progress of these individuals.