"Psychology of the Seriously Screwed Up"

When reading history books I tend to find myself dozing off into the world of my own creative imagination. While history books are designed to be factual, specific, and generally a timeline of events, they are usually everything BUT creative in terms of intrigue and excitement. At least in my experience. King Leopold's Ghost does not follow this generalization. This may be the first historically accurate book I have read that has held my interest from day one. This may be because the book is focused on analyzing the psychological effects of conquest and colonization on rulers and explorers, or maybe because the book seems more like a fictional adventure novel than a historical account.
This book accurately and uniquely allows the reader to step into that time period and understand why the people who invaded the Congo did what they did, and shows us how screwed up they were from a mental standpoint. This book illustrated to me that with exploration not only comes financial wealth, but wealth in mental insanity and instability as well. King Leopold would be considered in modern terms an Egotistic, narcissistic, tyrannical ignorant ruler. His exploration and conquest within this book is not highlighted by the rewards he reaped, but by the mental toll and corruption placed within him and his "regime". The atrocities committed by him were great, and their attempted "justification" is in a way established within this book through the assessment of King Leopold's psyche.
It is made clear in the book that rulers of that time were often forced to fulfill a moral or physical obligation to their family and kingdom. Readers of this book are well aware that Leopold's upbringing played a significant part in his "downfall" as a ruler. Every ruler has the potential to be successful and powerful, but Leopold instead succumbed to his greed and desire to prove himself to his family. Throughout the entire book his moral corruption and blindness is illuminated and the different personalities and moral conflicts of other characters such as Stanley or Sheppard are highlighted as well. This book not only accounts for a large part of history in the sense of "what was accomplished and written down for generations to learn about" but also the "forgotten things". The things that people should remember about history but aren't given the chance to. Rarely does a book allow the reader to enter the minds of its subjects and in a way give the subjects a chance to "rationalize or justify" their actions.
Through this book it is made clear that rulers often have ulterior motives than just doing "what is right by the people". In our own country as well as foreign countries, currently and in past history, greed, hunger for power, and desire for conquest and famous recognition runs rampant within a leadership role. Leaders often bear a psychological toll and decay as a result of their exploits. Whether their legacy is remembered in history, their conquests or their achievements, rarely is their state of psychological stability noted. This book opened my eyes to the knowledge that there is a whole other side to history that often goes un-acknowledged. While  understanding the psychology and reasoning behind the decisions of Leopold and the other subjects of the book has helped me to understand their real motives, it does not justify their actions in any way shape or form. The account of this book allows the reader to understand exactly HOW some of these men were able to commit or witness the atrocities produced in the Congo and WHY the men did what they did. It takes important characters in history and changes them from "characters" to relatable (or at least understandable and analyzable) people.