According to the psychologists, narcissism is the basis of many adversities including totalitarianism and despotism. The atmosphere and conditions make no difference for the narcissist one yet the satisfaction of his desires is of utmost significance. Evaluating Rajavi from this point of view and based on the visage he depicts of himself through his messages may clarify the hidden aspects of his personality. Of course, his narcissism is the result of a long process starting from his adolescence up to his recent so-called educational serial messages for the present Iranian generation. Years ago, Lotfollah Meisami presented an analysis of Rajavi’s personal behaviors in team-houses in an article titled “Moral decadence of a Mojahed” when hardly anyone cared this aspect of Rajavi’s personality. There, he has investigated Rajavi from various dimensions based on the quoted evidences of the eye witnesses.
The picture depicted by Meisami of Rajavi is an amalgam of narcissism, despotism, absolutism, vaingloriousness, jealousy, totalitarianism, welfare-seeker and other negative features proving the incompetence of an individual for assuming the leadership of an organization like MKO. Yet, Rajavi had no care for this matter. According to Meisami, Hanifnejad and Bakeri, of the early founders of the organization, reacted severely to his egotism and affluence and warned about these potential threats in Rajavi. The same traits and inclinations can be traced in Rajavi in higher echelons particularly when he initiated the ideological revolution of Mojahedin to make the ground for the appeasement of his egoistic lusts one of which was to appoint himself an omniscient sacred leader free from any error and mistake. All those criticizing him in this phase, including his foreign critics like Abrahamian and Gessler, are unanimous that he is a real narcissist and totalitarian psychopath. The statements made by Batool Soltani, a separated MKO member of the Leadership Council, may clarify this aspect of his personality more clearly.
Moreover, his narcissism is evident in his lectures and written messages just by paying attention to his tone and style in making a relationship with his audience. He looks at others from a top position legitimizing no one but himself and bearing the existence of no dissident. He is in the centre of all memoirs stated in his messages. All events depend upon him. He sets up every thing and finally puts and end to them through a determining and historical conclusion. In this regard, Saeed Shahsavandi refers to a key point illustrating this aspect of Rajavi’s personality more clearly. As he puts into words, Rajavi considered all his actions as a step forward and a victory disregarding their real negative political and organizational consequences in the world outside.
There are interesting points focusing on Rajavi’s narcissism by his own words. In his message, he attempts to promote himself to the highest possible point where he makes a relation of any kind between himself and the contemporary historical events of Iran. Surprisingly enough, he makes an astonishing claim in the 14th part of the massage by raving about his education and understanding of Islam beyond those much older than him at a time in 1973 when they were in Pahlavi’s prison:
In 1972, we had a ceremony of commemorating the event of Ashura in Qasr prison in which all prisoners attended. I was one of the lecturers and re-examined the history of Islam from the departure of the Prophet up to the uprising of Ashura. Later, Mr. Anvari asserted that his viewpoint on Islam and Mojahedin had been altered totally and he had never had such an understanding from Islam…
Or he refers to his acquaintance with Qur’an and Arabic language, saying:
Another instance was Ayatollah Rabbani Shirazi. Once in Qasr prison I told him that the Holy Qur’an is to be translated into Persian again to be understood by all. He pursued it repeatedly and asked me to start the translation of the Qur’an along with him yet I fudged.
Moreover, he expounds on his mastery of Islamic economy:
In 1973, he asked me insistently to hold a class of economy from the Islamic viewpoint and finally I consented to discuss economy with him in ten sessions while walking in the section 6 of Qasr prison. Rabbani had no doubt or ambiguity at the end of the sessions.
Of course, Rajavi makes other claims of these kinds while he passed the days in prison and how some distinguished political figures came to become interested in him. These statements can be judged upon by those who were in the same prison at that time like Meisami. He writes that Rajavi failed in inter-prison election held by the imprisoned members to choose a leader for the organization inside prison and he embarrassed and disappointed to the point that he began to cry. In this regard, the memoirs of Mohammad Ali Mamouei, of leftist prisoners, can be reviewed too. Taking a brief look at the baseless claims of a frail and narcissist individual on his mastery of Arabic language and history, economy and the more to be appreciated by elites, many of whom were considered ayatollahs, three times older than him as well as his adamant persistence to identify himself with historical figures like Weber, Marx, Feuerbach, Smith, Oparin, and Hegel may help us to unearth the truth about an egotist and narcissist man enforcing his will and power on an organization that has been turned into a personal cult. Also, the reason why he tries as well as other sacred and holy personalities can be identifies. He is highly suffering from narcissism and is under such delusions of grandeur that he claims to be the most talented in all fields of philosophy, sociology, history, economy, biology, ecology, anthropology, psychology, and the more. Not only that but he is the genius to solve all questions and ambiguities concerning the aforementioned fields. What can really one expect of an organization run under the leadership of such a self-conceit psychopath or comic character as some may call.