The World’s First Identifiable Psychopath: A Brutal Story
Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia — A team of researchers from the UK has identified a figure they believe may be the earliest recognisable corporate psychopath in history. He was Jeronimus Cornelisz, a merchant who took power after a VOC ship was wrecked in 1629 and is suspected of masterminding the murder of around 100 people.
Citing ScienceAlert, organisational behaviour researcher Clive Roland Boddy of Anglia Ruskin University in the UK said Cornelisz’s actions resembled those of toxic leaders in modern workplaces. He eliminated rivals, rewarded loyal followers, fostered fear, manipulated his followers and pursued power by any means.
Cornelisz’s story began when the VOC ship Batavia was wrecked in the Houtman Abrolhos Islands, near Western Australia. Around 250 people survived, but were stranded on nearby islands with limited food and water.
When the ship’s commander and captain sailed to Indonesia to seek help, they took several senior crew members with them. Cornelisz then took charge of the survivors left behind.
He consolidated his power and ordered groups of survivors to move to another island, supposedly to look for water. This was a pretext to eliminate people one by one until only a handful of his followers remained.
“After that, Cornelisz’s group gradually revealed itself as a band of mutineers and ruthless murderers, gathering valuables, water and the remaining supplies from the wreck in Cornelisz’s tent, with the intention of keeping them for themselves and becoming pirates,” Boddy wrote.
Cornelisz then arranged the systematic murder of around 100 survivors, both to reduce the number of people who needed food and water and to strengthen his control over those still alive. Several women were also raped and sexually enslaved.
Cornelisz’s rule eventually ended after a series of battles between the mutineers and the survivors who resisted them. He was captured and tried alongside several other leaders of the rebellion. They admitted involvement in murder, rape and mutiny, and were sentenced to have their hands cut off and to be hanged.
These actions formed the basis of Boddy’s analysis of Cornelisz’s corporate-psychopathy traits. Boddy explained why the case was considered similar to patterns of behaviour among toxic leaders in modern companies.
“What makes this case extraordinary is that when we analysed Cornelisz using a modern management-psychopathy framework, he displayed every major characteristic associated with a corporate psychopath,” Boddy said.
According to Boddy, Cornelisz’s behaviour reflected a leadership pattern also associated with corporate psychopathy today, particularly the use of intimidation and fear to establish control.
“Corporate psychopaths are known to follow a common modus operandi involving the establishment of control, an intimidated workforce and the creation of a climate of fear marked by abuse, intimidation and shouting,” Boddy wrote.
He said Cornelisz displayed these characteristics in an extreme form. However, this assessment is a retrospective analysis based on a modern corporate-psychopathy framework, not a clinical diagnosis of Cornelisz.