Jerrold Post

Jerrold Morton Post (February 8, 1934 – November 22, 2020) was an American psychiatrist and author. He was an analyst for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the founder of the Center for the Analysis of Personality and Political Behavior. Post created a number of "psychobiographies" on notable individuals during his tenure at the CIA and is credited in some sources as inventing the field of political psychology. when, through an acquaintance, he was recruited by the CIA, where he began developing psychological profiles of world leaders. After a career of 21 years at the CIA, Post left to found a program of political psychology at George Washington University, In his time as a professor, he recruited John Kiriakou into the CIA. Kiriakou would later become a top counterterrorism officer in the CIA, and a whistleblower on the CIA's torture program.

He was the founder and director of the Center for the Analysis of Personality and Political Behavior.

Post had kidney failure in his later years and went to a dialysis center weekly. He suffered a stroke in July 2020, and could no longer drive to dialysis, so he took a medical taxi where it is believed he contracted COVID-19. On November 15, he tested positive for COVID-19. Post died from the virus one week later, on November 22, 2020.