An Incomplete Concept and a Distorted Understanding: Max Weber's Concept of Charisma and its Integration into US-American/Political Leadership/Approaches

Max Weber's concept of charismatic authority remains an important point of reference for political leadership studies. However, the integration of the concept into behaviorist and other positivistic approaches in the United States often led to a distortion of the essential meaning. The real quintessence of charisma in Weber's understanding is the fact that this is a non-calculable, non-utilitarian and non-rational phenomenon, which cannot be integrated into a cost-benefit relation. Nevertheless, Weber himself left the psychological aspects of a charismatic relation aside, as he could not benefit from Freud's findings. Based on Freud's modified psychoanalysis important further developments in social-and political psychology were achieved. These largely contributed to the fostering of political leadership perspectives.