Political psychology analysis of Muhammad Reza Pahlavi who ruled Iran for 37 years during a sensitive period of time is of great importance from various aspects because some of the most essential political questions regarding the political individuals, institutions and systems pertain to psychology. Adopting such an approach, many of the researchers have dealt and are dealing with the personality aspects and psychiatric analysis of the political leaders so as to analyze and investigate the past, present and future events. Since Iran’s policy underwent changes at the same time with psychological changes in Muhammad Reza Pahlavi (who rules Iran from 1941 to 1978) and his personal problems have been somehow reflected in Iran’s policy, his personality and psychological characteristics should be investigated so that an insight could be gained over the political and social changes that came about in Iran during 1940s, 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. That is because various incongruent environmental and social factors during his childhood, despotic attitudes and lack of support and affection in life, besides making him neurotic and basically anxious, have also caused him, on the other hand, to have social phobia and be a succorance seeker, narcissist, megalomaniac and domineering. Therefore, the investigation of his political personality can be useful in understanding Pahlavi Era’s sociopolitical evolutions. The present study makes use of transactional analysis theory, proposed by Eric Berne under the title of “child, parent and adult”, to analyze his psychological personality in a descriptive-analytical manner based on a pathological approach followed by examining its effect on his social and political decisions; the study also tries finding an answer to the question as to why he, as the country’s political leader, did not succeed in saving Pahlavi Government and imperial system from overthrow under the then critical conditions.
