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b"Few mixtures are as toxic as absolute power and insanity that comes from megalomania or severe mental illness. When nothing stands between a leader's delusional whims and seeing them carried them out, all sorts of bizarre outcomes are possible.\\xa0

Whether it is Ottoman Sultan Ibrahim I practicing archery on palace servants and sending out his advisers to find the heaviest woman in the empire for his wife or Turkmenistan President Turkmenbashi renaming the days of the week after himself and constructing an 80-foot golden statue that revolves to face the sun, crazed leaders have plagued society for millenia.\\xa0

In this episode we look at mentally unbalanced rulers who made the lives of their subjects miserable. Some suffered from genetic disorders that led to schizophrenia, such as French King Charles VI, who thought he was made of glass. Others believed themselves to be God\\u2019s greatest prophet and wrote religious writings that they guaranteed to the reader would get them into heaven, even if these \\u201cprophets\\u201d were barely literate.\\xa0

Whatever their background, these rulers show that dynastic politics made sure that a rightful heir always got on the throne \\u2013 despite that heir's mental condition \\u2013 and that power can destroy a mind worse than any mental illness.

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