What was Blagojevich thinking?

When a spokesman for House Speaker Michael Madigan suggested the governor was a "sociopath" this summer, the dig was chalked up to a bitter rivalry between the two Democratic powers.

Now, with sweeping federal charges that Gov. Rod Blagojevich was operating a "political corruption crime spree" despite knowing he was under investigation, many are wondering if there is something more to that accusation.

"Not having his phones checked, given what he was doing, absolutely blows my mind more than anything else," said Paul Green, director of Roosevelt University's School of Policy Studies.

"What was he thinking?" added Green, reprising an infamous line from campaign ads between Blagojevich and Republican challenger Judy Baar Topinka.

U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk said Wednesday it was clear from the governor's actions that the Chicago Democrat suffers from a "disconnect with reality."

The armchair study of Blagojevich's mindset is now becoming the talk of some psychology classes.

Dr. Paul Larson, a professor at the Chicago School of Professional Psychology, says he has been discussing it with students as a study in "self-delusion."

"He certainly shows a tendency toward self-inflation and cockiness ... that suggests just a real blindness to what everybody else sees as pretty obvious," Larson said, stressing that he couldn't provide a full diagnosis of the governor.

Larson says the governor's actions reflect a person with an inflated arrogance brought on by delusions of self-grandeur, which cause him to be oblivious to feedback and the reality of his situation.

Take Blagojevich's alleged actions after six years of federal investigations.

Even after knowing U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald was probing his administration, Blagojevich talked brazenly with multiple staffers and on the phone about numerous illegal activities, including strong-arming campaign contributions and selling a U.S. Senate seat, Fitzgerald said Tuesday.

"If he is a sociopath, he is not very good at it," Larson said.

Instead, Larson says it seems to him the governor's distorted sense of grandeur comes from an internal sense of "inferiority."

Regardless, the same sense of self-importance that landed Blagojevich in front of a federal judge Tuesday may have kept him from stepping down from office Wednesday, he says.

"Everybody is just amazed at how completely out of touch and bold this guy has been," Larson said. "What on Earth leads him to be so blind?"

Flash content