Abstract
Objective: To consider the life of psychiatrist, Dr Radovan Karadzic, and the following questions: (i) whether there was anything in Karadzic's personal life to predict his subsequent career as genocidal leader; (ii) what kind of psychiatrist was Karadzic; and (iii) what comparisons can be made with other genocidal leaders?
Conclusions: Karadzic, who, in addition to practising psychiatry, was variously poet, troubadour, soccer coach, chicken farmer, businessman, ecologist and petty criminal, had an astonishing rise to power, becoming president of the Bosnian Serb Republic. As a result of atrocities committed during the Bosnian Civil War 1992-1995, Karadzic stands indicted as a suspected war criminal for crimes against humanity and genocide, the first doctor so indicted since the Nuremberg Doctors' Trial in 1946. Many aspects of Karadzic's personality remain deeply enigmatic. Nevertheless, his grandiose self-image, reckless and profligate nature, boundless opportunism and grotesque capacity for self-deception are his most enduring characteristics.