Management scholars and psychologists have puzzled about how best to define, identify and measure hubris and hubristic tendencies, with only partial success. Such attempts try to help us see what lies behind the analogy between the ancient vice of hybris and its modern re-conceptualisation. In this chapter we explore how the processes of making metaphors work and how storytelling affects the teller and the audience. We examine what purposes storytelling serves, especially when its achieves a mythic character. We explore where aesthetics and literary theorising intersect with evolutionary psychology, and by connecting that to management studies. This leads to observations about the nature and practice of leadership that might signal hubris in the making. That might just help us see when the dark side of modern hubris snuffs out its bright-side potential, and perhaps how to prevent it doing so. This may help leaders learn when not to believe their own storytelling (or press releases).

4 Post-Hellenistic authors present a more compartmentalised idea of diseases in general and of impaired consciousness in particular. Unlike the Hippocratics, who barely discussed mental illness, these authors did distinguish impaired consciousness from mental illness through a classificatory system of dichotomic oppositions, additionally they discussed new conditions which are not mentioned in the HC. In most theorisations, perceptions play an increasingly relevant role to understand these conditions.

In the Introduction I set out to explore accounts of impaired consciousness in ancient medical texts through two axes. In the longitudinal thematic one, I aimed to contrast the different approaches to the topic against their respective medical contexts, and to establish relationships between texts, authors and periods. The transversal axis, on the other hand, focused on how the development of ideas and debates around impaired consciousness illuminates our understanding of other concepts about ancient medicine in general, and about the alluded to authors in particular. In summarising the main findings of this research I will first focus on the transversal axis, and then I shall add my final remarks about impaired consciousness itself.

Hippocratic doctors discussed two forms of total loss of consciousness. The most common one, where they equated fainting with a separation of the soul, and another form - independent from the psuchê - where they saw the concurrence of numerous independent bodily symptoms that ended up in a swoon. The momentary disruption of cognitive functions that occurred during fainting, and their definite cessation with death made them conceive the soul as both a broad notion that subsumed numerous mental capacities (which transiently separated from the body during swoons) and as a life force that abandoned the body for good with death.

The prototypical form of hybris in the Greek sources involved the self-assertion of the rich and powerful, which resulted in their disrespecting their subordinates in arrogating to themselves claims to respect they were not entitled to. This contribution looks at the flipside of this scenario, because hybris can also work in the opposite direction: from the bottom up. Hybris, that is, can also involve subordinates overstepping their position in the social hierarchy and arrogating to themselves prerogatives reserved for those higher up the social ladder. While denouncing the hybris of the powerful has egalitarian implications – it defends the right to equal respect (or at least to some respect) of those who are disrespected – denouncing the hybris of the downtrodden towards their superiors is a tool for maintaining and reproducing a social hierarchy by grounding it on an allegedly shared (yet heavily asymmetrical) recognition order.

As a cognitive bias, hubris leads entrepreneurs to overestimate both the likelihood of success and the contribution of firms’ resources to their success. Accordingly, in this chapter, we investigate how entrepreneurs’ hubris influences strategy formulation, performance attribution and responses to performance outcomes. We posit that heightened levels of  hubris in entrepreneurs diminish the significance of external performance in shaping strategy while amplifying the importance of relative performance. When evaluating performance, hubris plays a pivotal role: elevated levels of hubris lead entrepreneurs to attribute positive outcomes to themselves while shifting blame for negative outcomes onto external factors and others. In addition, we recognise that heightened hubris intensifies the commitment to chosen strategies, potentially escalating their pursuit despite adverse circumstances. In disentangling the effect of hubris bias in defining and interpreting firm performance, this chapter assists entrepreneurs in making more conscious and informed decisions.

Some Hippocratic doctors regarded sleep as a healthy process, and some as a pathological one; some of them struggled to distinguish between hallucinations and nightmares, and some between deep dreamless sleep and total loss of consciousness. This chapter explores how different treatises from the Hippocratic corpus navigated these ambiguities, how they explained different depth of sleep (i.e. different levels of consciousness), and how such understanding relates to their views on mental capacities (which they subsumed in concepts such as phronesis, sunesis, gnômê, and nous).

A diachronic look at the contrast between mental illness and impaired consciousness among these ancient doctors shows a trend towards a more compartmentalised idea of these conditions, a stronger notion of disease, and a progressive abstract framing of clinical findings into theoretical classificatory models and comprehensive pathophysiological systems.

The possible neural and neurochemical bases of the hubris syndrome are reviewed by considering relevant evidence from behavioural and cognitive neuroscience in relation to biological psychiatry. This multidisciplinary evidence includes studies of brain-damaged patients and functional neuroimaging and identifies the prefrontal cortex as a crucial region of a brain network undertaking decision-making. The prefrontal cortex is also identified as important for the subjective and behavioural expression of relevant personality traits such as narcissism and impulsivity. Factors that adversely affect so-called executive functions of the prefrontal cortex, such as stress, drug abuse and illness, are also taken into account to highlight possible neurochemical and endocrine influences. A novel hypothesis is presented which postulates a key role for the chronic stress of leadership status depleting monoamine neurotransmitters such as serotonin, dopamine and noradrenaline, which interact with pre-existing temperamental traits, to produce dysfunctional modulation of decision-making circuits controlled by the ventromedial prefrontal cortex

This chapter focuses on Alcibiades’ love–hate relationship with the people of Athens to explore the notion of hybris in the context of leadership. Drawing on the social identity theory of leadership, I argue that the Athenians’ ambivalent attitude towards Alcibiades was a result of his complex interaction with two central aspects of Athenian social identity. Insofar as the Athenians perceived themselves as an imperialist and aristocratic city, Alcibiades was a ‘prototypical’ Athenian in that he embodied and articulated the most extreme form of Athenian imperialism. Insofar as the Athenians perceived themselves as ‘middling’ citizens, however, Alcibiades’ private and public conduct (couched by Thucydides in the language of transgression and hybris) was an affront to the dominant egalitarian political ethos. The analysis of Alcibiades’ mutable relationship with the Athenian people highlights the ways in which a leader’s hybris can manifest itself and how it can impact negatively on the leadership process.

Aristotle defines hybris as a way of mistreating (dishonouring) others. But he also emphasises its psychology, in ways that chime very well with the understanding of the concept in earlier literary sources. As well as indicating a failure to show other people the respect they deserve, hybris is a way of thinking too much of oneself. This affects one’s estimation of the role that luck plays in all human endeavour: the classic Aristotelian case is that of the rich, ‘lucky fools’ who think that their material good fortune is a sign that they excel in all respects; but ancient hybristai in general tend to develop the belief that they are invulnerable to the vagaries of fortune. In this way, hybris regularly entails a failure to deal adequately with risk. At the same time, it bears a relation to the myth of meritocracy, by which the fortunate convince themselves that their success is deserved.

Does power trigger hubris? We consider the effects of having power and the role of dispositions of power-holders on hubris and self-serving behaviour. Drawing on field and experimental research, we demonstrate that having power biases people’s self-concept in a hubristic manner. Power elevates confidence in oneself, one’s perceived competence and heightens self-esteem. Consequently, people in power communicate in a decisive and assertive manner, and so they are influential and have advantages in negotiations. Many feel entitled, take less advice from others, and neglect others’ perspectives. Crucially, the ways power affects people depends on power-holders’ dispositions and goals. People with dominant and hubristic inclinations are more likely to strive for, and reach positions of power. Such self-selection processes enable bad apples to emerge at the top, exuberating the dark side of hubristic behaviour often seen in the high echelons.