2: What Causes Humans to Be or to Become Toxic?

In this chapter, we will start to explore what causes humans to be or to become toxic, and how this toxicity or toxic behaviour manifests itself – the characteristics of human toxicity. We will try to assess how prevalent toxic humans are in our organisations today. We will also consider the idea that toxicity itself is a part of continuum which includes psychopathic, sociopathic or narcissistic behaviour. Do ‘corporate psychopaths’ really exist – or are they part of our urban mythology?

Let's find out.

Our experience of toxic humans from literature and film has helped to shape our notions of what bad, evil and toxic people look like. When you think about it, what villains from books or movies do you recall from your childhood? Who do you remember most? As a child, I was a little late to the party when it came to bad people from animation or film because I spent a number of years in Africa where we did not have TV or cinemas. Of course, it was pre-DVD and pre-internet as well! Returning to attend boarding school in Britain in the early 1970s presented some opportunity to catch up – usually during school holidays or short breaks when I went to stay with relatives in Wales because like everything in British boarding schools in the 1970s, television (‘telly’) was strictly rationed. In common with many youngsters, I was a voracious reader, and at school, I particularly enjoyed our English literature classes. It was through reading classics like Oliver Twist that I came across people like Bill Sykes, the killer of the angelic Nancy. Later, we were introduced to other novels like Lord of the Flies – which was truly shocking in its intensity, especially for me and my friends since we were roughly the same age group as the boys in William Golding's seminal work.