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What mental disorder did Jim Jones have?
Nobody really knows and post-humous diagnosis will always be shaky. However, in listening to his pronouncements while in Guyana and reading about his behaviour psychologists h…ave posited that he may have had several mental disorders. Prominent among them schizophrenia, or more likely very severe manic depression (bipolar) with psychotic features. Possibly schizoaffective disorder (a disorder characterised by both mood swings and psychosis). Additionally he may have been a psychopath, his controlling and manipulative behaviour as well as his avarice seem to indicate this. It's likely that he ordered the Peope's Temple members to committ suicide because he was in a deep depression as the result of the Congressional investigation into the People's Temple. Depression itself and the accompanying suicide probably indicated manic-depression (10-15% of manic depressives committ suicide), but the decision to kill hundreds of other people indicate either delusion (that he really was saving them from the wrath of the US government) or narcissism (he considered them mere possessions and since he was dying he saw no need for them to continue living). An additional factor to be considered is his chronic abuse of a multitude of drugs- benzodiazapenes in particular (Valium namely). He self-medicated and took the drugs as he saw fit, and without a prescription, could have caused his psychosis or made worse an existing mental disorder. (MORE)
