There's a fascinating book by Joel Bakan called The Corporation, which applies the DSM criteria for diagnosis of mental illness to the modern corporation. It concludes that the modern corporation is functionally equivalent to a psychopath (even created that way by law) - an entity whose destructive behavior, if unchecked, leads to scandal and ruin.

Based on the stories I've heard about Oracle and Elison, I've often thought that Bakan might have had an inside informant at the company.

https://www.amazon.com/Corporation-Pathological-Pursuit-Prof...

> Do remember the function of a corporation. It's to make money for its stakeholders. If it's a publically traded entity, its job is to increase shareholder returns at all costs. This goes to the point above. It's not personal, it's business. Humanity is, sadly, often just collateral damage.

Important reading on this:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Corporation-Pathological-Pursuit-P...

http://www.amazon.com/Who-Really-Matters-Privilege-Success-e...

Incidentally the article references a Book and Documentary both called "The Corporation" by Joel Bakan. The book[1] is an excellent read and the documentary[2] is also worth a watch, free on archive.org.

[1] - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Corporation-Pathological-Pursuit-Pro...

[2] - http://archive.org/details/The_Corporation_