Clio’s Psyche Understanding the "Why" of Culture, Current Events, History, and Society
Volume 7, Number 2 September, 2000 The Nazi Genocidal and Election 2000 Apocalyptic Mind George Victor Presidential Historian and Psychohistory Forum Research Associate Research Psychologist: After World War II, social scientists, some Herbert Barry, III of whom had fled the Third Reich, sought to ex- plain the genocidal mind. They identified an Paul H. Elovitz and Bob Lentz "Authoritarian Personality" -- a type of person like- Clio's Psyche ly to obey authority generally and follow orders to harm innocent people particularly. This work, and Clio's Psyche (CP): Let's begin with experiments by Solomon Asch on how perception some questions on Presidential candidates and can be manipulated, undercut the complacent belief Presidents. What are your impressions of Al Gore in the United States that genocidal obedience was a and George W. Bush? German aberration -- that a holocaust "can't happen Herbert Barry, III (HB): Al Gore has here." (In fact it had already happened here, when many attributes in common with Jimmy Carter. President Ulysses Grant sent an army to extermi- Gore will be an energetic, effective campaigner for nate Native Americans. United States soldiers car- President. If elected, he will probably continue the ried out their mission obediently, and their command- centrist Democratic policies of the Clinton admini- Continued on page 91 stration. George W. Bush is similar to Reagan.
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE Gamwell's Dream Book...... 73 Book Review by J. Donald Hughes Atypical People Pursue the Presidency ...... 53 Richard Booth Applying Ullman's Dream Methodology...... 74 Robert Rousselle Portrait of George W. Bush as a "Late Bloomer" 55 Aubrey Immelman Psychoanalysis Needs Group Analysis to Survive...... 81 Lauren E. Storck George W. Bush's Anger and Impulsivity ...... 57 Eileen Reda Psychoanalysis Around the World...... 83 Andrew Brook Notes on Al Gore and President Clinton ...... 59 Book Review by Herbert Barry, III Psychoanalysis and Education ...... 83 Vitor Franco Patrick Buchanan and the Politics of Denial ...... 61 Michael A. Milburn and Sheree D. Conrad A Literary Psychohistorian: Dan Dervin ...... 85 Paul H. Elovitz The Eagleton-for-Vice President Affair ...... 63 Scott W. Webster Grief That Dares Not Speak Its Name ...... 88 Irene Javors The Character of Hillary Clinton...... 65 Aubrey Immelman Teaching Death and Dying ...... 89 Kenneth Adams Gender Stereotypes and Elizabeth Dole ...... 67 In Memoriam: George Kren...... 95 Karen Callaghan and Frauke Schnell Paul H. Elovitz, et al America's Second Woman President...... 69 Ad Hominem Criticism and Editorial Policy...... 99 Paul H. Elovitz Letter to the Editor by George Victor Political Dreaming...... 70 Bulletin Board...... 99 Kelly Bulkeley Page 50 Clio’s Psyche September, 2000
George W. will inspire affection and trust from CP: Again, writing a year ago in Clio's many voters as the Republican nominee. If Psyche, you speculated on an impending drastic elected, he will probably reproduce Reagan’s poli- change in American national life, based on an ob- cies of tax cuts, federal government deficits, and served approximate 72-year cycle connecting the cautious assertiveness in foreign policy. government's inception, the Civil War, Roosevelt's CP: Of their running mates? New Deal, and the year 2005. What should we HB: The Vice Presidential nominee needs look for in our future Presidents? to differ conspicuously from the Presidential nomi- HB: Major changes are impending in the nee in a way that will attract additional votes. The United States political scene, in the world, and in “observant” rather than “Orthodox” Jewish faith of the environment. Examples include political re- Democratic Vice Presidential candidate Joseph I. alignments in the United States, global warming, Lieberman will attract populists, members of mi- the threatened use of nuclear bombs, and the nority groups, and politically correct liberals. The spread of AIDS and other infectious diseases. An- main benefit might be to take votes away from other problem is a severe, chronic, and worldwide Ralph Nader, Presidential nominee of the Green defect in taxation policy. Governments obtain most party. Because of Lieberman’s centrist ideology, revenue from taxing products of human enterprise Gore’s campaign will probably concentrate on the and labor. These taxes detract from productive ac- core Democratic constituency of liberals, labor un- tivity. Governments should obtain more revenue ion members, and poor people. from user fees and taxation on unimproved land. In Dick Cheney, Republican Vice Presidential 1861-1865, Lincoln successfully combated the candidate, will help to maintain the allegiance of threat to the Union. In 1933-1945, Franklin D. conservatives because of his ideology and links Roosevelt led national responses to an economic with former Presidents Ford, Reagan, and Bush. crisis and foreign military invasion. The next Presi- George W. Bush will probably continue to empha- dent is likely to face major new crises. I believe size that he is a “compassionate” conservative who that Gore is more likely than George W. Bush to desires to “leave no child behind.” provide the needed leadership. It is possible that the necessary economic and political changes can CP: Writing a year ago in Clio's Psyche only be advocated and accomplished by a subse- you predicted that Gore will be elected. Do you quent President. stand by that forecast? CP: Why and when did you first get inter- HB: I continue to predict a victory by ested in the psychobiography of Presidents? Gore. George W. Bush has great social skills and will be a strong opponent. Gore has strong com- HB: In 1976 I bought a paperback book, petitive drive and a habit of winning. I believe the Facts About the Presidents (1976) by Joseph Na- polls underestimate Gore’s support and will over- than Kane. I felt thrilled because the facts on each estimate the support for the Green party nominee, President included the name and dates of birth and Nader, who would draw most of his votes from death of each of his siblings. I was preparing a brief article, “Birth Positions of Alcoholics,” for a Gore. special issue of an Adlerian journal, Journal of In- CP: Earlier in Bill Clinton's Presidency dividual Psychology. I was able to tabulate rapidly you wrote very positively of his promise, of his the birth orders of the Presidents and also submit- style of consensus, conciliation, and compromise. ted a report on that study. The paper was rejected How do you evaluate him and his Presidency now? because the editor had previously received and ac- HB: I expect that in the future Clinton will cepted a paper on the same topic. increasingly be evaluated on the basis of his per- I then found evidence that Presidents who formance as President. He has broadened the sup- were the father's namesake and the first son were port of the Democratic Party and helped to more likely to be politically allied with than op- strengthen the United States as a global economic posed to the preceding President. Among eight leader and peacemaker. His personal sexual mis- Presidents who had the same first name as their conduct was greatly exceeded by some predeces- father and were the first son, all except Carter were sors, notably Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. members of the same political party as the preced- The principal difference is that the sexual miscon- ing President. In contrast, eight out of nine Presi- duct of the prior Presidents was not publicized. dents who were later sons with a brother named September, 2000 Clio’s Psyche Page 51 after the father replaced a President of the oppos- chobiographies of some Presidents, notably Jeffer- ing party. The exception was William Howard son, Wilson, and Nixon. For example, Fawn M. Taft. I presented a paper, “Birth Order and Pater- Brodie, Thomas Jefferson: An Intimate History nal Namesake As Predictors of Affiliation With (1974). The author documented and argued per- Predecessor By Presidents of The United States,” suasively that Jefferson was the father of the chil- at the initial meeting of the International Society of dren of his slave, Sally Hemmings. Most histori- Political Psychology in 1978. The finding was ans have respected Alexander L. and Juliette L. published in an article in the second issue of the George, Woodrow Wilson and Colonel House: A ISPP's journal, Political Psychology, 1979, vol. 1, Personality Study (1956). There are several good pp. 61-67. psychobiographies of Nixon. I recommend espe- CP: What is the impact of psychohistory cially David Abrahamsen, Nixon vs. Nixon: An on Presidential studies? Emotional Tragedy (1976). Insightful comments on the relationship of Reagan with his older HB: I have repeatedly noticed that most of brother are in a book by historian Garry Wills, the Presidents have highly complex characters. Reagan’s America: Innocents at Home (1987). I The Presidents therefore are suitable subjects for believe that psychobiographies have induced recent psychobiographies, which study origins of seem- conventional biographers to pay more attention to ingly contradictory traits. There are excellent psy- the complex, contradictory characteristics of the Presidents.
CP: Which Presidents do you find most Clio’s Psyche interesting?
Vol. 7, No. 2 September, 2000 HB: Lincoln, Jefferson, and FDR. Abra- ham Lincoln succeeded in preserving the Union ISSN 1080-2622 under circumstances that would have defeated al- Published Quarterly by The Psychohistory Forum most anyone else. His intellect and social skills are 627 Dakota Trail, Franklin Lakes, NJ 07417 generally underestimated. Jefferson is interesting Telephone: (201) 891-7486 e-mail: [email protected] because of his contradictory role as an eloquent spokesman for individual freedom, while still be- Editor: Paul H. Elovitz, PhD ing a slave owner. Franklin D. Roosevelt com- Associate Editor: Bob Lentz Internet Co-ordinator: Stan Pope bined lofty idealism with political deceptiveness. Roosevelt: The Lion and the Fox was an accurate Editorial Board metaphor as the title of a book by James MacGre- David Beisel, PhD RCC-SUNY • Rudolph Binion, gor Burns (1956). PhD Brandeis University • Andrew Brink, PhD Formerly of McMaster University and The University CP: Historians frequently rate or rank the of Toronto • Ralph Colp, MD Columbia University • Presidents. Often the bases are issues of leadership Joseph Dowling, PhD Lehigh University • Glen during a crisis period, war or peace, economic ex- Jeansonne, PhD University of Wisconsin • Peter pansion or contraction, territorial expansion, etc. Loewenberg, PhD UCLA • Peter Petschauer, PhD How do you rate and rank a top five and a bottom Appalachian State University • Leon Rappoport, three Presidents psychologically? PhD Kansas State University HB: In a newspaper column (Pittsburgh Advisory Council of the Psychohistory Forum Post-Gazette, September 13, 1987, p. 19) I listed John Caulfield, MDiv, Apopka, FL • Melvin Kalfus, PhD Boca Raton, FL • Mena Potts, PhD Wintersville, my opinion of the 10 psychologically most mature OH • Jerome Wolf, Larchmont, NY Presidents. Following is my present opinion of the
Subscription Rate: top five, starting with the psychologically most Free to members of the Psychohistory Forum mature. $25 yearly to non-members William McKinley. He was stable, rational, $40 yearly to institutions kind, and a more active and intelligent Presi- (Both add $4 outside USA & Canada) dent than is recognized. Single Issue Price: $10 Gerald Ford. He was highly genial and con- We welcome articles of psychohistorical interest scientious. He effectively helped to heal the that are 300 - 1500 words. nation after Nixon.
Copyright © 2000 The Psychohistory Forum James Monroe. He combined extraordinary Page 52 Clio’s Psyche September, 2000
achievements with a very sociable, concilia- second of 11; Grant, first of six; Benjamin Harri- tory personality. son, second of 10; Harding, first of eight; Eisen- Martin Van Buren. He was serene and gen- hower, third of seven boys; and Kennedy, second erally contented in spite of a highly political of nine children. Only five Presidents from fami- career. lies of six or more children were not in the first Harry Truman. He was devoted to his fam- half. They are William H. Harrison, last of seven; ily and a diligent, wise leader in spite of Pierce, sixth of seven; Arthur, fifth of nine; Cleve- great difficulties and his own limitations. land, fifth of nine; and McKinley, seventh of nine. Following are the bottom three, starting CP: What psychodynamics are there to with the psychologically least mature. Presidential candidates' selections of running Theodore Roosevelt. He displayed the tem- mates? perament and often the actions of an egotisti- HB: Most Vice Presidents have been cho- cal, impulsive young boy in spite of his bril- sen to broaden public support by representing a liant intellect. faction of the party that differs from the Presiden- Lyndon B. Johnson. He was a domineering, tial nominee. The election of Kennedy was proba- conniving bully in spite of his great political bly made possible by the Southern electoral votes accomplishments. won because of Vice Presidential nominee Lyndon Richard Nixon. He suffered from intense, B. Johnson. This policy sometimes produced disabling anger and feelings of insecurity in problems. William Henry Harrison, a Northern spite of his extraordinary self-control and Whig, died and was replaced by Tyler, a Southern achievements. Democrat. Taylor, a Southern Whig slave owner, CP: Are there any childhoods of Presidents died and was replaced by Fillmore, a Northern that you find illustrative/exemplary of the impor- Whig opponent of slavery. Lincoln, a Northern tance of childhood to psychohistory/psychobiogra- Republican, was replaced by Andrew Johnson, a phy? Southern Democrat. A contrast to this policy was Clinton’s choice of Gore. Both were young cen- HB: Presidential leadership may have been trist Democrats from adjacent Southern states. developed as a result of unusual relationships with the father. When Franklin D. Roosevelt was born, CP: What is your assessment of third par- his father was 53 years old. The father was an ties? amiable companion rather than authoritarian fig- HB: Third parties have succeeded by re- ure. The son developed responsible, protective placing one of the prior two major parties, rather behavior as a teenager due to his father’s failing than by differing from both major parties. The health. Washington and Jefferson were both less Whig Party replaced the Federalist Party in 1832. than 15 years old when their fathers died. Each of The Republican Party replaced the Whig Party in these Presidents were the oldest son of their wid- 1856. The Democratic Party has survived because owed mother. Their responses to this status con- it adopted some proposals of its minor party rivals, tributed to their subsequent leadership skills. such as the Greenback and Socialist parties. The Three Presidents were born after the death of their Progressive “Bull Moose” Party in 1912 and the father: Jackson, Hayes, and Clinton. I believe they Reform Party in 1992 and 1996 were mainly the have in common an often successful effort to emu- agents for an individual who sought to compete late an idealized father combined with difficulty of against both major parties instead of replace one of self control because they lacked a satisfactory pa- them. In the future, the Green or Libertarian or ternal figure. Reform party might replace the Democratic Party. CP: Are there any birth orders of Presi- An America First or Constitutional or Christian dents that you find illustrative/exemplary of the party might replace the Republican Party. importance of birth order to psychohistory/ CP: Are there any psychological studies of psychobiography? the Presidency? HB: Twelve Presidents were in the first HB: Good information on each President half of large families of six or more children. They prior to Clinton is by William A. DeGregorio, The are Washington, the first of six; Jefferson, third of Complete Book of U. S. Presidents (1991). It is 10; Madison, first of 12; Polk, first of 10; Taylor, primarily a reference book but contains good, brief third of nine; Fillmore, second of nine; Buchanan, information on personality and early experiences. September, 2000 Clio’s Psyche Page 53
I do not know of psychohistorical studies of the they achieve their goal, as if only power can vital- Presidency as a unique role or status. I speculate ize them or make them feel important and differ- that the extraordinarily high degree of achieved ent. Notice that the language employs an oral status has a psychologically beneficial effect on metaphor relative to those pursuing extraordinary most Presidents. Some Presidents have been char- power, implying that achieving it will "fill them acterized as growing into the job, such as Polk and up" in some incorporative, survival-related way. Truman. Sometimes the status inspires them to Numerous psychologists suggest that ex- outstanding performance after their Presidencies, cessive power pursuits demonstrate a lack of cen- such as John Quincy Adams and Carter. teredness, that is, an imbalance of needs and drives Continued on page 76 within the ego system. This would, of course, be true if primary incorporation needs were unful- filled or if oedipal conflicts were being acted out Atypical People Pursue the through power pursuits. These issues and conflicts Power of the Presidency can be acted out on the world stage or in personal relationships. In The Art of Loving, Erich Fromm Richard Booth says that overpowering another (i.e., pathological Black Hawk College power) is the opposite of love, and this comports with theologian Paul Tillich's view that controlling We will soon elect this century's first Presi- organisms in a manner inconsistent with their na- dent and, whenever I think of Presidential politics, ture renders them objects of coercion. If manipula- I think of power. Since the President's decisions tion is used to buttress this goal, a false sense of affect millions of people, it is useful to consider the strength results. In general, then, we should be candidates' relationship to power because the effect wary of those who need excessive power over oth- of that power devolves from the President's own ers. The Taoist sage Lao-tzu many centuries ago core values and personal history, including unre- said, "He who loves his body more than dominion solved issues. My central question is, What kind over the empire can be given the custody of the of person will exercise power over the nation? empire." In other words, he should rule who does This year's two major candidates, Albert not need to rule. Perhaps Mahatma Gandhi and Gore and George W. Bush, are dissimilar person- Martin Luther King, Jr., are models of Lao-tzu's alities in many ways, but both share at least three wise counsel. features: (1) both are men, (2) both are sons of po- Balancing one's internal reality is difficult litically successful fathers, and (3) both possess a but vital for psychological health. When certain clear desire for executive power. As Presidential drives or forces overwhelm the personality, other candidates they are atypical people, since only a dimensions suffer underdevelopment. True strength few seriously pursue this office. What differenti- derives from seeing clearly and honestly, some- ates those who want extraordinary power from the thing one cannot do when being pulled and pushed majority who do not? What motivates them to by intractable, unresolved and, perhaps uncon- want to be set apart from, and perhaps above, the scious needs. The internally strong person is a re- rest? Is it a sense of entitlement? Is it the grandi- flective self-knower, whose fears and issues have ose notion that no one else can do what they can been largely worked through. An illustrative case do? Is it, in this particular election, a need to su- may be Socrates, who, refusing to compromise his percede paternal accomplishments? Or, might it be personal, internal truth, moved beyond his fear a sincere desire to serve people, emanating from a and, on principle, drank the hemlock. Real psychologically healthy personality? strength eschews a facsimile of power, since real The depth psychologies provide various strength comes from within the personality struc- frameworks for examining such questions. For ture. Substituting power for internal strength is example, Alfred Adler maintains that when indi- false strength. viduals experience certain inferiorities, a patho- Compensating for insufficient internal logical superiority complex may result through strength does not, per se, disallow a powerful per- overcompensation. Karen Horney, agreeing, dis- son's doing good things, nor am I implying that cusses the neurotic need for power as one manifes- healthy people never attain extraordinary positions tation of neurosis. Personal experience tells us that of power. Perhaps Richard Nixon, lacking self- people who are "power-hungry" may connive until confidence, being deceptive, and manifesting pos- Page 54 Clio’s Psyche September, 2000 sible paranoia at times, exemplifies the former, Second, is winning everything? The health- while Jimmy Carter, to the best of my knowledge, y candidate's life will be broader than winning an exemplifies the latter. Abraham Lincoln, now a office. Resorting to pathological manipulation, mythical hero, is not as clear a case. Nonetheless, distorting the other's record, and creating false im- plagued with unbalancing, depressive episodes and pressions through half-truths indicate the candi- suicidal ideas, he appears to have transcended date's lack of internal power. In this case, the loss those challenges to keep the Union intact. But, of the office suggests an overidentification with the although good behaviors often suggest a "goodness office that may be tantamount to a loss of the self. of person," we know that what appears to be true Third, what is and has been the candidate's may not be. We must certainly apprehend the pat- typical lifestyle? Assuming that lifestyles of tern of a leader's acts, but we must also explore power-seeking engender self-sustaining strategies what fuels that pattern. Is the apparent goodness of (e.g., ambition, pandering), we may conclude that behavior the natural outgrowth of a fundamentally what gives meaning to the power seeker's life is, in healthy personality or is it actually an approval- fact, not merely the pursuit of power itself, but the seeking dependency or oedipal process unraveling systematic maintenance of those qualities that sus- in a socially beneficial form? To understand this, tain it. Healthy people use few defenses and those one must understand the person. are typically adaptive rather than destructive. I consider many pursuers of any type of Moreover, the research shows a strong positive excessive power as people working through oedi- correlation between the number of defenses em- pal and pre-oedipal issues. I think that, for them, ployed and a person's degree of psychological dys- there is still someone to please, someone to feel function. above, someone to defeat. Life is a battle in which Fourth, I find it helpful to distinguish be- there are winners and losers, as in children's tween authority and power. To possess authority games. Appearing vulnerable or dependent is for- means to author, to invent, to create, so I conceptu- bidden, although these are shared dimensions of alize directive authority as a type of creative the human condition. Having once attained power, "authoring" of policies, programs, and ethical com- retention is vital since its loss constitutes a return promises. Power means unidirectional force. Will to peerage, where dependency and narcissistic the candidate likely rule creatively and coopera- threats are no longer shrouded by the visage of tively or through intimidation? Can he command power. Losing means not being "good enough" to respect for who he is rather than fear for punish- win (to be loved?). But, win for whom? Win for ments he might bestow? what? One can only hope that, if oedipal or pre- oedipal issues are unconscious motivators for the Finally, is the political aspirant oriented two major candidates, the future President can re- toward using power for unifying rather than divi- sist unnecessary conflicts with father-images and sive ends, even though this may be unpopular? avoid succumbing to the need for excessive ap- Without this ability, Tillich argues, power will proval by maternal symbols. likely become coercive. Given our brief discussion, are there any In conclusion, let us not become unduly guidelines for selecting the best integrated person cynical when selecting our President, even though for the Presidency? This is an exacting question, we may have a sense that chicanery is required for but the indicators below may provide some general achieving political goals. Our task is to elect the direction. candidate who will use political power well. He will be fundamentally balanced, internally strong, First, in everyday life we evaluate others humbled by serving, and self-reflective. His deci- by observing them -- their facial and verbal reac- sions will reveal his considered values and others' tions, and their behavioral patterns. Watching can- reasoned input rather than popular opinion or didates' areas of blockage, tension, and impulsive whim. To better ensure this kind of leader, we reactions is important. How is the head held? Is should carefully attend to the candidates' styles, there an appearance of arrogance or entitlement? watch for indicators of centeredness and integrity, How does the candidate diminish an opponent? as well as his ability to govern cooperatively and Does the candidate manifest an easy flow or a pres- well. We should also note defensive patterns, arro- sured force? When under pressure, is the candidate gant and impatient styles, and the intensity of the straightforward without defensiveness or overly desire for power itself. Then, after careful obser- intense and abrasively reactive? vation and information-gathering, we can assess September, 2000 Clio’s Psyche Page 55 who might enter the White House with more effi- form. Most personalities represent a blend of two cacy than transference issues, and who has the or more prevailing orientations, and Bush is no stronger core of values -- one that, in our best judg- exception. Beyond his trademark gregariousness, ment, has been tested against the exigencies of life. Bush’s college cronies remember him as “mis- Richard Booth, PhD, is Professor of Psy- chievous” and a “prankster.” These words evoke chology at Black Hawk College, Quad-Cities Cam- images of Millon’s “dissenting pattern” -- a daunt- pus, Moline, Illinois, and a licensed psy- less, adventurous, unruly personality type. chotherapist. He has published numerous articles Bush’s colorful life story bears witness to in professional journals. He can be reached at an indelible outgoing streak, tinged with an unruly,
Behaviors in Bush's early years portray Shortly after the wreath incident, young anger and a lack of self-control, leading to impul- George returned home to Texas where he impul- sivity. In his third-grade class taught by Miss sively bought a “monster ring” at Neiman Marcus Austine Crosby, "Georgie" "threw a football for Cathryn Wolfman, his first fiancé. The family through a window at Sam Houston Elementary was none too happy with the match and it did not School one rainy afternoon when all the students result in marriage (First Son, p.100). had been ordered to stay indoors at lunchtime." In 1968 Bush had enlisted in the Texas Air The following year a teacher sent him to the princi- National Guard, which protected him from being pal’s office for creating a disturbance by using a sent to Vietnam. With his obligation scheduled to ballpoint pen to painstakingly mark his face with a end on May 26, 1974, he wrote a letter expressing goatee, mustache, and sideburns in imitation of his desire for early discharge: “I respectfully re- Elvis Presley. quest my discharge from the Texas Air National George W. had his mother’s outspoken Guard.… I am moving to Boston, Massachusetts, manner. Always the family lightning rod, as a 12- to attend Harvard Business School as a full-time year-old he would get into fights with his five- student” (First Son, p. 153). Once again, George year-old brother Jeb. This prompted their mother W. decided to not complete an obligation. One Barbara, according to a paternal uncle, “to get in could conclude that because of the “Bush” name he the middle of those fights … bust them up and slap was able to receive an honorable discharge easily, them [the kids] around” (Bill Minutaglio, First which the average citizen would have to fight for. Son: George W. Bush and the Bush Family Dy- After graduating from Yale, Bush was in nasty, 1999, p. 49). the "nomadic period of his life" with intervals of Childhood friend Randall Roden described unemployment interspersed with stints as a man- Bush while at Andover as being somewhat impul- agement trainee and a political campaigner. In sive: "Being stickball commissioner revealed 1972, George and his 15-year-old brother Marvin Bush's personality. He was a figurehead, well drank too much at a friend’s house and then noisily suited to deal with a diverse group," bringing peo- crashed into a neighbor's metal garbage can on ple together. But "Bush was slightly impulsive, it their way home. Facing his father (then ambassa- was hard for him to bite his tongue and keep from dor to the U. N.), George W. challenged him to a saying something that would get him in trouble…. fistfight, offering to go “mano a mano right here.” GWB was a prankster, mischievous" (First Son, p. Their brother Jeb stepped in to defuse the situation. 73). This incident seemed prompted by a defiant pride Nor did the eldest Bush child outgrow this over being accepted into the Harvard School of rashness while an Ivy Leaguer at Yale. Seven days Business MBA program as well as anxiety over his before completing a well-paid summer job decision to attend (First Son, pp. 147-148). (obtained by his father) on an inland oil barge in An important turning point in Bush’s life Louisiana, Bush, nicknamed the “Bombastic One,” was his meeting, courting, and marrying Laura simply walked off the barge and never came back. Welch. He became obsessed with her, called her This was an incident that George W. Bush always constantly to the point where her mother declared regretted because his father expressed disappoint- that she "was afraid George was going to ruin the ment in him because of it (First Son, p. 90). Such whole thing because he was rushing it" (First Son, dropping out often reflects anger. p. 184). Fortunately, his impulsivity did not drive Another impulsive incident portraying re- Laura away. Marriage and parenthood eventually belliousness occurred while George W. was in uni- helped lessen his erratic conduct. His considerable versity. As a 20-year-old, along with some of his alcohol consumption ended when he gave up beer equally loud Yale fraternity brothers, he at age 40, after Laura threatened to take their twin “descended on the Christmas-bedecked streets of daughters and leave him if he did not moderate his New Haven. Patrolling downtown, Bush spied a behavior. wreath on a storefront and reached out to take it.” A politician must carefully select each and The police happened to see him and he was every word, since any utterances can come back to “questioned, arrested and charged with disorderly haunt him or her. The Republican governor knows conduct” (First Son, p. 99). Eventually, the the names of the media people and readily talks charges were dismissed. about his personal passions or whatever is on his mind. The press is generally very comfortable September, 2000 Clio’s Psyche Page 59 with him. Yet, George W. has also expressed his Bob Zelnick, Gore: A Political Life. Washington, anger, impulsivity, and lack of self-control to the DC: Regnery Publishing Inc., 1999. ISBN media when he dislikes their questions or their 0895263262, pp. xiii + 384, $29.95. tone. At a scheduled stop in Salt Lake City, Bush Democratic Presidential nominee Al Gore abruptly ripped the microphone from his coat, de- has significantly influenced the policies of the claring, "That's it buddy!" and storming away from United States during his past eight years as Vice the cameras at the beginning of the interview. He President. If elected President, he will wield even declared, "Listen -- you know, if you want to try to more influence for the next four or eight years. do this to me then I'm not going to talk to you." Future psychohistorians will attempt to identify his With that he stabbed his finger at the reporter socially acquired motivations and attitudes that (First Son, p. 262-264). result from early experiences. Bush is prone to rationalizing his angry and Useful information for inferring Al Gore’s impulsive behavior. In the fourth grade when he distinctive motivations and attitudes is contained in was sent to the principal's office for drawing on his two recent biographies. Bob Zelnick expresses a face, he stated that he "was imitating Elvis predominantly hostile evaluation of his public ac- Presley," who had done concerts nearby. Bush tions and policies. Bill Turque evaluates him more justified the wreath-stealing incident as a college favorably but includes embarrassing revelations. prank. By 1976, well aware that his peers were The books are not psychohistories, but they con- accomplishing much more than he, George W. ac- tribute useful information for the psychological knowledged that he was "drinking and carousing interpretation of Al Gore’s early experiences and and fumbling around" (First Son, pp. 49, 99, and behavior. They also include valid inferences about 173). his motivations. The psychological perspective of In conclusion, from infancy to adulthood this essay may provide useful background for more George W. Bush’s behaviors demonstrate impul- thorough psychohistorical analyses in the future. sive and angry personality traits. Throughout his Zelnick and Turque both characterize Al life he has rationalized poor self-control. Although Gore as a generally ethical and diligent Congress- I began my study of the Texas Governor inclined man, Senator, and Vice President. He is a consci- to support and vote for him on November 7, I entious, loyal subordinate of President Clinton; a eventually felt that he was too impulsive and angry loving, faithful husband; and an attentive father. to be President. His social motivations and attitudes include a de- Eileen Reda is a senior psychology major sire to serve his country; the determination to warn at Ramapo College of New Jersey. After the public about the dangers of global warming and graduation in December, she will prepare to teach cigarette smoking; and sympathy for poor and ex- in public education and then attend graduate ploited people. Both authors also describe contra- school in psychology on a part-time basis. She dictory behavior by Al Gore. Although he is may be reached at
The Eagleton-for-Vice President After some foot-dragging, Eagleton came clean. On July 25, 1972, he disclosed that over the past Affair dozen years he was hospitalized on three separate Scott W. Webster occasions (1960, 1964, and 1966) for bouts of Harvard University nervous exhaustion and depression. The story, predicted R.W. Apple, Jr. of The Love may make the world go 'round, but New York Times ("The Question Raised by Eagle- politics makes it interesting. In no other arena of ton") on July 27, 1972, "may be a political event of human activity is the confluence of altruism, ava- the first magnitude or it may not." Such journalis- rice, facts, figures, good intentions, ideology, inso- tic self-restraint did not linger for long. The Eagle- lence, personality, and revenge so evident -- and so ton drama dominated the headlines and airwaves downright combustible -- as in electoral politics. for an entire week until its fateful denouement. Bringing his powers of perception to bear First the New York Post, then the Washington Post on politics, Ralph Waldo Emerson scribbled in the and the Baltimore Sun, and finally The New York mid-19th century that "A party is perpetually cor- Times called for Eagleton to step down. Navigat- rupted by personality." If pressed, political junkies ing a course between sensitivity and cold political of Emerson's era and our own might concede that calculus, the Times editorialized that the Missou- the reverse also holds: a personality is, from time rian should "unquestionably" continue his work in to time, corrupted by a party -- or at least by the the U.S. Senate, but the Vice Presidency, with its duties and pressures of public office. peculiar demands, was a different kettle of fish: "The regrettable fact is that the state of scientific No politician in recent American history knowledge in the field of mental illness is not such has paid a higher professional price than Thomas that anyone can speak with certainty on [whether], F. Eagleton for falling victim to this twist on Emer- as Senator McGovern has said, 'there is no one son's aphorism. When it was revealed in the sum- sounder in body, mind, and spirit' than his running mer of 1972 that Eagleton had been hospitalized -- mate." Eagleton suffered a few bruises to his char- and undergone electroshock therapy -- for depres- acter, too. Many sided with the Times' position sion, the embattled U.S. Senator from Missouri that "Senator Eagleton was himself grievously at abandoned his post as the Democratic Party's Vice fault in not revealing his medical history to Mr. Presidential nominee. A brief review of the Eagle- McGovern when the nomination was first of- ton affair reminds us of the singular and salutary fered" ("Candidate Eagleton," July 28). contributions that psychology makes to the study of politics and political leaders. Privately, George McGovern was incensed and bewildered. Incensed, because Eagleton had Tom Eagleton won election to the U.S. put him in a nasty predicament. Bewildered, be- Senate in 1968. He was a rising star in his first cause the issue of his running mate's suitability for term, but hardly a heavyweight. George Mc- office emerged like a bolt from the blue. Democ- Govern, the 1972 Democratic Presidential nomi- rats expected to be battling Richard Nixon and nee, plucked Eagleton as his running mate for sev- Spiro Agnew in the fall of 1972 -- not dueling with eral reasons -- not the least of which was that party the skeletons in Tom Eagleton's closet. stalwarts like Ted Kennedy and Walter Mondale had declined McGovern's offer. For his part, Eagleton defended his non-disclosure on Eagleton was young, bright, Catholic, chummy the grounds that he viewed it as part of the past -- with organized labor, and perceived as tough on as no more relevant to his qualifications for the law-and-order. And he said "Yes." Vice Presidency than a broken arm. This may be true. But it revealed, at a minimum, a gross politi- Compared to the violent protests that con- cal miscalculation by someone who had been vulsed the 1968 Democratic National Convention around politics long enough to know how damag- in Chicago, the summer 1972 quadrennial affair in ing such information could be if suddenly discov- Miami was as calm as, well, summer in Miami. ered, as opposed to willingly disclosed. The real fireworks shot off after the convention. Within days of the Democrats' formal endorsement Even more harmful was how -- and how of the McGovern-Eagleton ticket, newspaper re- quickly -- the episode eroded McGovern's Presi- ports surfaced that Eagleton had undergone psychi- dential credibility. Critics lambasted him and his atric treatment, including electroshock therapy. staff for failing to sniff out the Eagleton baggage in the first place. McGovern initially declared his Page 64 Clio’s Psyche September, 2000 support for Eagleton "1,000 percent" (Theodore asking voters to place him close enough to the po- White, The Making of the President, 1972, p. 203) sition that his psychological health mattered enor- and then backpedaled when pressure mounted to mously. 1972 might have been an election year replace the Missourian. Complicating matters fur- when policy issues would have dominated: the ther was Eagleton's insistence on plodding ahead, economy, civil rights, Vietnam, China, and the So- and the not-so-incidental fact that, legally, only viet Union. Indeed, Eagleton hoped his resignation Eagleton could remove himself from the ticket. would bring such matters to the fore. But, even Fairly or not, it all had become a litmus test as to after his departure, news of the Missourian's men- how McGovern might respond to a crisis as Presi- tal health history lingered and irreversibly altered dent. the political landscape. "It was," McGovern wrote in his 1977 Of course, questions as to the mental health autobiography, "the worst political week of the and suitability of Presidential candidates was not campaign or, indeed, of my political life" (Grassroots: new in 1972; indeed, Richard Nixon had faced The Autobiography of George McGovern, p. 205). such charges in 1968 and Barry Goldwater had en- Eagleton had surely arrived at the same conclusion. dured them in 1964. What was new was that they On July 31, 1972, he quit the ticket on the grounds stuck this time, forcing Americans to consider that the brouhaha over his mental health imperiled whether and at what cost persons with a history of the Democrats' chances for victory against Nixon- mental health disorders should serve as President. Agnew in November. But the genie could not be George McGovern took pains in his July 31, 1972, put back in the bottle. When, in the midst of the news conference to convey that Eagleton's removal fray, McGovern phoned Dr. Karl Menninger for from the Democratic ticket was no indication "that advice, the psychiatrist spelled out the awful di- anyone who has ever seen a psychiatrist is a sec- lemma. "Millions of Americans," he said, "are so ond-class citizen" ("McGovern, Eagleton State- frightened by mental illness that they will not sup- ments and News Parley," The New York Times, port you for the Presidency in the knowledge that August 1, 1972). But even at a time when most your Vice President has had a history of mental Americans conceded they would seek professional problems. On the other hand, if you now ask Sena- help for a mentally ill relative ("The Question") tor Eagleton to resign from the ticket, millions of and when, by some estimates, 25 percent of Ameri- other Americans will turn against you for persecut- cans "suffered gusts of mental depression, instabil- ing a man who has suffered mental instabil- ity, or incapability," retaining Eagleton as the Vice ity" (Grassroots, p. 210). It was not only the most Presidential nominee was too much of a wager unforgivable, but the most unforeseeable, of politi- (Making, p. 198). cal hiccups. Presidential power has waxed and waned McGovern and his new running mate, Sar- over the course of American history. Seldom had gent Shriver, went through the motions of cam- it reached greater heights than in the post-1945 paigning in the fall of 1972, but history's mold had decades. Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, been cast. The Democrats suffered a drubbing at and Nixon all bestrode the world stage with enor- the polls, as Nixon-Agnew coasted to a second mous resources at their disposal. They could dip term. "Either through a failure on my part to han- their ladle into what is sometimes called the Impe- dle these developments with sufficient skill or rial Presidency -- a reservoir of immense Presiden- through a failure of the press to discern the issue tial power that eroded in the wake of the Vietnam fairly," wrote McGovern years later, "the Eagleton and Watergate experiences. The Eagleton affair is affair destroyed any chance I had of being elected often eclipsed in our collective memory by these President in 1972" (Grassroots, p. 191). larger tragedies, but it is no less instructive. To Franklin Delano Roosevelt once famously scholars toiling to understand the contours of noted that the Presidency was pre-eminently a American politics, the Eagleton affair is a powerful place of moral leadership. The emergence of the reminder of the limits of structural, systemic expla- Eagleton matter served as a necessary corrective: nations and of the importance of psychological the Presidency was, first and foremost, pre-emi- considerations. Any portrait of the past or predic- nently a place of human leadership. A human be- tion as to our future that ignores the centrality of ing, subject to the frailties and ineptitudes of all individuals -- their uniqueness, their Weltanschau- human beings, sits in the Oval Office. And though ung, and even their psychoses -- does so at its peril. Eagleton was not being elected President, he was Scott W. Webster, MA, Assistant Director September, 2000 Clio’s Psyche Page 65 of the Center for Public Leadership at the John F. fective leaders, characterized by unsentimental, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard tough competitiveness. This amalgam of adaptive University, is completing his doctoral dissertation narcissism and dominance in Hillary Clinton’s per- on Spiro Agnew's Vice Presidency. He is a former sonality profile parallels the recollection of high James A. Finnegan Foundation Fellow, Pew school classmate Art Curtis, as quoted in Gail Charitable Trusts Teaching Fellow, and Fellow of Sheehy, Hillary’s Choice (1999): “Hillary was the Society for Values in Higher Education. Most very competitive at everything. Even pugnacious. recently, he is a co-author with James MacGregor She was very ambitious.” Burns, Georgia J. Sorensen, and Robin Gerber, of After interviewing many of Clinton’s asso- Dead Center: Clinton-Gore Leadership and the ciates for a New Yorker article (“Hillary the pol,” Perils of Moderation (1999). He may be contacted May 30, 1994), Connie Bruck concluded, “In the at
Gender Stereotypes and gentle, warm, compassionate, and emotional. They are not seen as decisive leaders who are strong, Elizabeth Dole’s 1999 Candidacy competent, analytical, or determined -- all criteria Karen Callaghan the electorate seek in a Presidential candidate. It is University of Massachusetts the latter characteristics which are associated with and handling fiscal responsibilities and matters of na- Frauke Schnell tional security and defense -- foreign policy, trade, defense, taxes, the budget, and farm and high-tech West Chester University issues. Instead, female candidates are seen as bet- Although women are playing a much more ter at dealing with “women’s issues”: health care, significant role in politics than in the past, no day care, poverty, civil rights, and education. woman has yet become President, or even Vice Thus, voters appear to have been predis- President, of the United States. Geraldine Ferraro’s posed to view Elizabeth Dole’s candidacy through nomination for Vice President in 1984 was the the lens of gender. Stereotypes are readily acti- closest a woman has ever come to the Presidency. vated under "low information" conditions notori- We find this surprising because women have been ously true of elections. Knowing relatively little elected to lead in much more conservative and tra- about Dole, the public could not counteract stereo- ditional societies. Those who come to mind are: typical information. Further, she was unable to India's Indira Ghandi, Israel's Golda Meir, the Phil- maintain a public perception independently of her ippines' Corazon Aquino, and Sri Lanka's Sirimavo husband, former Presidential candidate Bob Dole. Bandaranaike. As Texas Republican U.S. Senator (This point was made about Hillary Rodham Clin- Kay Bailey Hutchison remarked, “If Pakistan’s ton in Paul Elovitz’s comparison of the family his- Benazir Bhutto can get elected to prime minister tories of Bill Clinton and Bob Dole, "Work, [of], Good Heavens, a Muslim country!, I really Laughter, and Tears," Journal of Psychohistory, think we are big enough to handle [a woman Presi- September, 1996.) dent]." Poll data from the Pew Research Center for The U.S. Presidency remains a "bastion of the People and the Press (March and July, 1999) maleness," in which female candidates are inter- supports our contention that voters simply derived preted through the lens of gender. Barriers arising Dole's policy positions from gender stereotypes from gender stereotypes -- the unique way female rather than paying attention to her actual state- candidates are viewed and evaluated by the elector- ments about policy positions. When Americans ate -- are probably the most important obstacles to were asked to describe their impressions of Eliza- electing a woman as President. In this essay we beth Dole, few respondents mentioned the most will discuss the way in which gender stereotypes of crucial Presidential qualities: leadership and com- women contributed to the failure of Elizabeth petence. Instead, the top five characteristics Dole's candidacy for President, prevented her from Americans used to describe Dole were breaking the political glass ceiling of the American “intelligent,” “strong,” “good,” “smart,” and “all Presidency. right.” This is not a very good profile for a woman Long-standing public perceptions of positioning herself to compete for the American women as best in domestic roles restrains female Presidency. Even the “intelligence” descriptors motivation to run and intensifies society’s reluc- were more of the “good-head-on-her-shoulders” tance to see female politicians as suitable for high- variety. Dole was seen as “unique,” because she est national office. Estimates of how a woman graduated from Harvard Law School -- although all candidate will perform in office are based on our her male competitors were also Ivy Leaguers. De- attitudes and feelings about women as a group, spite the equivalency of all her qualifications to rather than on individuating information, such as those of her male rivals, it was her educational the candidate’s actual policy positions and personal background that stood out in people’s minds. characteristics. In the 1950s and 1960s, popular Public perceptions of Dole’s policy state- belief was that a woman’s place was in the home, ments centered on “compassion issues,” such as: not in the Oval Office. Today, women are still education, social welfare, family values, and more likely than men to be perceived in terms of women’s rights. Few respondents referred to their domestic roles such as caring for family. Dole’s foreign policy positions. Some made refer- Women are seen as cooperative, kind, passive, ence to “Viagra” which her husband was associ- Page 68 Clio’s Psyche September, 2000 ated with taking and being a spokesman for. (As cial issues don’t count. Even incumbent women Paul Elovitz notes, “Negatives are often split off are portrayed as less viable political contenders and projected onto the spouse.”) Others high- than their male counterparts. They are often asked lighted the fact that Dole was President of the fewer substantive and more gender-based ques- American Red Cross, a "sharp dresser" and “better tions. looking than any other candidate,” as well as Bob Media portrayal of Elizabeth Dole’s candi- Dole’s wife. Gender even played an overt role as dacy also reinforced gender typecasting. For ex- some asserted that America was “not ready for a ample, reporters repeatedly asked what her hus- female President” while others made even more band thought about her running -- a question they derogatory comments like “it’s tea time.” Her sig- did not often ask male candidates about their nificant political experience as the executive direc- spouses. A Buffalo News headline read, “A Ques- tor of the President's Commission for Consumer tion of Leadership is on the Table.” Political car- Interests (1968-1971), member of the Federal toons depicted her as “pretty.” An article in The Trade Commission (1973-1980), Secretary of New York Times, "In Straw Poll, Dole Got Help Transportation (1983-1987), and Secretary of La- from Her Sisters," neglected her policy positions, bor (1989-1991) was ignored. Despite her actual focusing on her affiliation with a women’s soror- qualifications and impressive résumé, she was seen ity, Delta Delta Delta. Meanwhile, a U.S. News as a political neophyte. and World Report article, "Psst, Bob Dole Beats Dole waged a combative election campaign his Wife,” highlighted the problems the “rookie with a clear policy agenda. She supported tough campaigner” was having with husband Bob. Fi- gun control policies, told conservative Republicans nally, a Daily News editorial read, “Libby Without that abortion should not dominate the Presidential Tears -- Money was part of it, but the real reason campaign, and while in Kosovo argued that NATO her campaign tanked was that Dole was a candi- should use strong military force to win the war in date without substance.” Yugoslavia. Her campaign literature was decisive. Like most women candidates in the U.S., On China, she proposed a “two-track policy” to Elizabeth Hanford Dole was perceived through the “push for open markets” and develop “innovative lens of gender, by both the electorate and the news political reforms.” She favored a strong “post- media. Even though pervasive gender stereotypes Cold War buildup of military weapons” and “quick result in biased perceptions of all the Presidential deployment of an SDI missile defense system.” In candidates, these perceptions often work to men’s short, while Dole took stands on salient national advantage. Although Elizabeth Dole stressed policy issues with broad electoral appeal, a woman toughness and aggressiveness -- a strategy that who expresses such issue positions usually invites should have helped overcome negative voter disbelief. stereotypes -- her opponents clamored to make her Her husband, Bob Dole, did little to dispel appear warm, gentle, sympathetic, passive, and traditional gender-biased myths about her candi- flighty: “typically female.” She could not mini- dacy, taking an almost paternal approach to her mize her “female” qualities and convince voters campaign. In an interview with The New York and the media that she could handle traditionally Times he noted that she might need help sorting “male” issues, such as defense, the economy, and out the issues, and he would be willing to “direct Big Business. Partly because society needs to her” if asked. Though he may have said this in a stereotype by thinking in rigid, oversimplified cate- joking manner, it still undercut his wife. gories, or unambiguous terms where everything is Negative bias in press coverage of female black and white, Dole was judged ill-suited as an candidates for the U.S. Senate is well documented. equal player in the political arena so long domi- In Women as Candidates in American Politics nated by men. She was seen as deviating most (1994), Susan J. Carroll notes that press coverage from an "ideal" politician, particularly one wishing of women in Congress is “lacking any sense that to hold the highest national office. women are important players on legislation other Electoral trends in the U.S. seem to be than women’s health, abortion, and a handful of moving in a favorable direction for women. But other social issue concerns.” Female candidates even if institutional barriers to education, employ- are not given the opportunity to demonstrate their ment, and income are eliminated, female candi- expertise on issues where the public needs to see it. dates seeking office, especially at the national To the public’s mind, leadership positions on so- level, must still contend with voter stereotypes. September, 2000 Clio’s Psyche Page 69
We are confident, however, that women will even- fit their stereotypes, which included a belief that tually break the ultimate glass ceiling, that of the bright, hard-driving, powerful, and ambitious American Presidency. women should hide these traits behind a feminine Karen Callaghan, PhD, is Assistant Pro- veneer. Thus, what helped strengthen her résumé fessor of Political Science at the University of also weakened her in the eyes of voters looking for Massachusetts, Boston, specializing in political the first woman President. Heading the American psychology/behavior, methodology, and media Red Cross and being married to a partially disabled politics. She has published in various venues man also put her in a "caring role" associated with including the Journal of Politics and Public women. Integrity. She may be reached at Pioneering women who have achieved
All recent American Presidents from that some of these individuals may be ready to suc- Franklin Roosevelt through George Bush have ceed in the Presidential sweepstakes in my life- listed military experience on their resume as a way time. Some like Christine Whitman and Dianne of establishing that they were tough enough to do Feinstein are developing strong résumés, but it re- the job. Much of the abuse that Bill Clinton en- mains to be seen if they have the fire in the belly dured in the early years of his Presidency stems for the job. from distrust of a man who did not prove his In fact, I most enthusiastically await the toughness by serving in the military. After a string second American woman President, while worry- of Presidents with military experience, his draft ing about the pressures put upon the first woman evasion and anti-war activities added insult to in- President. While the first woman President will be jury in the eyes of many, especially male, voters. pressured to prove that she is tougher than the men, Elizabeth Dole has no such military experience, subsequent women Presidents will be able to bring which greatly weakened her candidacy. the special attributes of their gender to the job and, Norway, Ireland, and other smaller Euro- if we are fortunate, disinclined to play the tradi- pean countries not likely to engage in war, do not tional male war games. I wish them all well in the have to worry about having a military leader as complex and difficult business of leadership. president. This makes the decision to elect female Paul H. Elovitz, PhD, is Co-Director of the presidents much easier for voters. However, the Psychohistory Forum's Research Group on the U.S. President-as-war-leader is still part of the job Childhood, Personality, and Psychology of Pres- description in the country that remains the world's idents and Presidential Candidates. q only superpower. No one should underestimate the need for American Presidential candidates to ap- pear tough to be elected. This makes it likely that Political Dreaming: the first woman President will be someone who does not appear to be a sweet-talking Southern Correlations Between woman, but rather a politician tougher than her Dream Content and male counterparts, modeled on Thatcher or Meir. Political Beliefs Though Elizabeth Dole did not have the right public persona to come close to victory in the Kelly Bulkeley Presidential sweepstakes, other women may not be Santa Clara University far from achieving the Presidency. Recent Ameri- can Presidents have often overcome traditional po- The correlations between dream content litical wisdom to gain the highest office in the land. and political beliefs has fascinated me to the point In the last 40 years, conventional political wisdom where I began researching the subject in 1992. My said that a Catholic, a Southerner, a divorced man, approach to political psychology has been strongly or someone who had not served in the military influenced by D. W. Winnicott’s notion of “transi- could not be elected to the highest office. In 1960 tional phenomena” and his suggestion in an in- John Kennedy overcame the barrier against a triguing essay, “Some Thoughts on the Meaning of Catholic as President, in 1976 Jimmy Carter dem- the Word Democracy,” that politics is a type of onstrated that a Southerner could be elected, in transitional space in which people literally “play 1980 Ronald Reagan proved that divorce was no out” their deepest hopes, fears, desires, and con- barrier, and in 1992 Bill Clinton showed that one cerns. Winnicott suggests in other writings that need not have served in the military to occupy the dreaming is also a kind of transitional space (see White House. Chapter 6 of my work, Visions of the Night: Dreams, Religion, and Psychology, 1999), so my A pool of women is forming who are de- effort to correlate dreaming and politics has the veloping the drive and résumés for one of them to Winnicottian justification that because they are become the highest leader in the land. I am en- both realms of transitional experience, findings couraged by watching some high school girls look from one realm can cast light on features of the at their leaders with the same look of awe that 15- other. year-old Billy Clinton gave President Kennedy when they met in a public ceremony in 1963. My study of people’s dreams during the Viewing women governors and senators at the po- 1992 U.S. Presidential election (see Chapter 10 of litical conventions this summer leads me to think Among All These Dreamers: Essays on Dreams September, 2000 Clio’s Psyche Page 71 and Modern Society) found that people from many New York stated: “I’m on a camping trip with the different backgrounds and political orientations President and his party in a heavily wooded area. had dreams directly relating to that year’s election Suddenly, Clinton darts up a hill into the woods. campaign. I asked a group of 12 people to keep a He sees a bear approaching the camping area. dream journal from October 25 to November 8, None of us moves, as the President confronts the which happened to be the two weeks straddling the bear; Clinton is very expert and competent as he 1992 election. Six of the 12 people had dreams does this, not wild or frightened. He manages to relating to the election; of the 113 total reported drive the huge bear, the size of a grizzly, into a dreams, nine made some reference to the election. snare set for him. The FBI in the entourage are In addition to these 12 journal keepers, I gathered angry at the close call, but the President seems un- politically-related dreams from a number of others perturbed.” This dreamer said that he had always during the 1992 and 1996 election campaigns. been skeptical of Bill Clinton’s leadership quali- These were sorted by theme and content into three ties, but he awoke from this dream surprised by broad groups: political cartoons of the mind, per- Clinton’s swift, assertive, and fearless response to sonal symbols, and new political perspectives. the threat of the huge bear. As a result of his Political cartoons of the mind are dreams dream, this man reconsidered his generally dim expressing in succinct and sometimes very humor- view of Clinton’s executive abilities, wondering if ous ways the dreamer’s waking life political per- he had been overlooking the President’s skills as a spective. Here’s an example from a 36-year-old fighter. man from Florida: “I’m playing golf with Bill Using content analysis of 1996-1997 Clinton. I’ve heard people say he cheats and I un- dreams, in my present research I am trying to build derstand what they mean because he frequently on those earlier findings by taking a different ap- improves the lie of his ball. But he encourages the proach to the general question of dreaming and people he’s playing with to do the same. He says, politics. Beginning in the fall of 1996 (immediately ‘It’s just a game, and just for fun!’” This dreamer after the Presidential campaign between Bill Clin- enthusiastically voted for Clinton in 1992, but in ton, Bob Dole, and Ross Perot), I began gathering 1996, when he had this dream, he wasn’t sure if he the most recent dream reports from college under- would vote for Clinton in the upcoming election. graduates of varying political persuasions. In addi- The dreamer saw the golf imagery as an expression tion to writing down their most recent dreams, I of his concern that President Clinton is a “cheater” asked the students a series of questions about their who frequently “improves his lies” and then tries political beliefs and activities: Were they registered to smooth talk other people into letting him get to vote? If so, in which party? Did they vote in away with it. the election? If so, for whom? How would they The next category is of dreams using politi- describe their political views: as conservative, lib- cal figures of politicians as personal symbols to eral, moderate, or other? How did they feel toward express strong emotions that the dreamer is feeling each of the three main candidates? toward some matter in his or her waking life. For I then analyzed the content of those dreams example, a 55-year-old woman from New Mexico using the Calvin Hall and Robert Van de Castle dreamt: “I’m back in college, in one of the class- scales for characters, social interactions, emotions, rooms, and Bill Clinton is one of the students. and misfortunes, along with a revised good for- Then he’s the teacher, and he asks me how alcohol tunes scale. ["Good fortunes" is when something manufacturers get us to drink so much. I say I good, beneficial, or miraculous happens through no haven’t given the question much thought.” This deliberate action of the dreamer or another charac- dreamer had long struggled with alcoholism, and in ter.] I separately analyzed the answers to the po- her dream she sees the President as voice of litical questions, and divided the students into four “executive authority” within her, a voice that is ideological groups: Right (generally conservative, prompting her to think more carefully about why Republican, voted for Dole), Left (generally liberal, she drinks. Democrat, voted for Clinton), disenchanted New political perspectives dreams directly (belonging to third party and/or disgusted with all call into question the dreamer’s waking life politi- mainstream politicians), and center (generally cal attitudes, leading the dreamer to think anew moderates, Independents, didn’t vote). Because about his or her accustomed beliefs about a politi- “center” was a kind of definitional grab bag, I did cian or a political issue. A 44-year-old man from not further analyze these dreams. The findings Page 72 Clio’s Psyche September, 2000 thus far are sufficient to suggest that certain corre- These findings raise several questions. lations between dream content and political beliefs First and foremost, what do such correlations do exist and are worth further investigation. mean? What exactly is the link between dream Men with political views on the Right content and political beliefs? A measure of under- (generally Republican, conservative, voted for standing is achieved by bringing Winnicott’s no- Dole) had dreams with a high percentage of nega- tion of “transitional phenomena” back into the dis- tive emotions (fear, sadness, and anger), an unusu- cussion. Both dream content and political beliefs ally low percentage of friendly social interactions, are types of transitional phenomena involving the and no family members as characters. creative interaction of a person’s inner psychic re- ality with his or her outer public reality. Dreaming Men with political views on the Left and politics lie at opposite ends of the spectrum: (generally Democratic, liberal, voted for Clinton) dreaming is a developmentally early transitional had dreams with a high percentage of happy fanta- phenomenon that is more oriented toward inner sies and wish-fulfilling scenarios (evidenced by reality while politics is a developmentally later emotions in the low negative, low aggressor, high transitional phenomenon that is more oriented to- befriender range), often involving female charac- ward outer reality. The fundamental link between ters in romantic and sexual situations. Many of the them is their giving symbolic expression to a per- dreams portrayed the dreamer in an explicitly son’s deepest hopes, fears, concerns, and conflicts. moral struggle, as a “good guy” fighting against They are both realms in which people are able to “bad guys.” freely voice their strongest feelings, greatest wor- Men who are disenchanted with conven- ries, and most cherished ideals. tional politics (either belonging to a third party, Seen in this light, the findings I have just indifferent to politics generally, or scornful of all outlined can be interpreted as follows: politicians) had dreams characterized by remark- able power, ability, and self-confidence (partly in- People on the political Right have dreams dicated by their high good fortunes and aggressor expressing a much darker, more danger-filled por- percentages), involving a relatively high percent- trait of human nature and society. This reflects age of female characters. Even in potentially their inclination to right-of-center political views, frightening dream scenarios (a fistfight, a police which emphasize a “traditional” approach to mo- interrogation) these men maintained strong control rality and a “realistic” attitude toward law, eco- over their experiences. nomics, and international relations. Women on the political Right had many People on the political Left tend to have dreams in which they were trying to help a friend dreams that portray remarkably hopeful and opti- or family member deal with some kind of threat. mistic views of themselves and the world. This There were no positive romantic themes in their reflects the attraction they feel to left-of-center dreams (the one sexual interaction involved kissing politics, which offer “progressive” visions of possi- an ex-boyfriend, which left the dreamer feeling bility, progress, and social harmony. disgusted upon awakening), and many of the People who are disenchanted with conven- dreams involved something that was disturbing or tional politics tend to have dreams involving re- upsetting. markable power, strength, and independence. This Women on the political Left also had many reflects their forceful rejection of ordinary political dreams with themes of helping and caring and of ideas and their interest in alternative ideologies and fair treatment generally. They had a high male different ways of looking at society. characters percentage, and a high percentage of In each case the dream content and the po- good fortunes involving unusual intuitions and ex- litical beliefs share the same basic emotional and trasensory perceptions. cognitive patterns. In Winnicott’s terms, they Women who are disenchanted with con- share the same distinctive dynamics of the individ- ventional politics had dreams with unusually bi- ual’s experiences in transitional space. zarre content (distorted settings, magical happen- To end on a provocative note, let me sug- ings, or animal characters). They were often alone gest what these research findings on the dreams of or socially distinct in some way, and their dreams people on the Left and Right imply in my mind for commonly involved the ability to see or know the two major Presidential candidates, Al Gore and things other characters could not perceive. George W. Bush, as they try to connect more September, 2000 Clio’s Psyche Page 73 deeply with the concerns, ideals, desires, and second is the sumptuous "Gallery" of more than “dreams” of American voters. 150 works of art in color and black and white relat- Al Gore needs to arouse and inspire the ing to dreams and dreaming. The third is an alpha- idealistic optimism of people on the Left while ac- betical "Dream Archive" containing some 500 knowledging and responding to the anxieties of small black and white photographs, with references people on the Right. to those included elsewhere in the text. George W. Bush needs to demonstrate the The foreword, by August Ruhs, M.D., of moral strength and forcefulness that people on the the Universitätsklinik für Tiefenpsychologie und Right wish for in their leaders at the same time as Psychotherapie, Vienna, defines the vast impor- he shows respect for the deeply progressive yearn- tance of the insights contained in Freud's book. "It ings of people on the Left. was precisely on the basis of dream interpretation that Freud was able to develop, for the first time, We will see on November 7 who has been an aesthetic and rhetoric of the unconscious" (p. 9). the more effective “dream campaigner.” Several of the following essays also remark upon Kelly Bulkeley, PhD, teaches at Santa the "language of dreams." Clara University and the Graduate Theological Lucy Daniels, of the Lucy Daniels Founda- Union. He is author most recently of Trans- tion, Raleigh, NC, provides a preface, "Dreams in forming Dreams (2000) and Visions of the Night: Pursuit of Art," which includes a personal memoir Dreams, Religion, and Psychology (1999). Bulke- of the way in which a dream freed her of writer's ley is actively pursuing his ongoing research block and provided energy for a period of creative project to expand his collection of dreams in which activity. political figures appear as characters and his data base of recent dream reports and political beliefs The keystone essay is "The Muse Is questionnaires. Any suggestions or contributions Within: The Psyche in the Century of Science," by from other scholars would be greatly appreciated. Lynn Gamwell, director of the Art Museum at the He can be contacted at State University of New York, Binghamton, who
Scientist Award from the Society for the Stimulus end that I may also have American Indian ancestry. Properties of Drugs in 1986. Professor Barry has My religious affiliation was originally Episcopa- published quite extensively in many areas. Since lian. In 2000 I joined the Unitarian Universalist 1979 he has been active in psychohistory research. church. In 1990-1992 he served as vice president and I was the first child, born nine months and president of the International Psychohistorical two days after the wedding of my parents. My sib- Association (IPA). His publications on the lings include two sisters and a brother. For several Presidents of the United States since 1979 include days each year I am the same age in years as my their birth order, longevity, first names that induce “Irish twin” sister, born May 27, 1931. My other special affiliation with their father or mother, and sister was born when I was three-and-a-half years slogans associated with their Presidencies. Since old. My brother, born when I was 13 years old, is 1986, he has contributed a psychobiographical severely autistic. He has never talked, and since essay on each President of the United States for the the age of 10 years has lived with a foster family. monthly newsletter of Western Pennsylvania Mensa. Barry serves as Co-Director of the My father died in 1986 at the age of 87 Psychohistory Forum's Research Group on the years. He was an important influence beginning Childhood, Personality, and Psychology of Pres- early in my childhood. I had many discussions idents and Presidential Candidates. with him on a wide variety of topics. My mother died early this year at the age of 94 years. A sig- Paul Elovitz and Bob Lentz interviewed our nificant experience for my sisters and me was featured scholar over the Internet in July and when I was 21 and a senior at college. My father August. Dr. Barry may be contacted at told my mother on Christmas Eve that he was in
CP: What is the importance of childhood CP: Please tell us about your education at to psychohistory? Yale and Harvard. HB: Childhood experiences are sources of HB: I believe that my most educational irrational group and individual behavior. Infer- experience at Harvard was my senior honors thesis. ences from childhood experiences distinguish a My advisor, John W. M. Whiting, was an anthro- psychobiography from a conventional biography. pologist. I made ratings on styles of pictorial art in CP: How are psychohistory and political 30 diverse, mostly preliterate societies. I found psychology similar and different? that art styles were more complex in societies where independent ratings indicated more severe HB: Psychohistory focuses on the irra- child training. I had a difficult decision between tional emotions that influence overt behavior of the PhD program in social relations at Harvard and individuals or groups. Political psychology is in psychology at Yale. I chose Yale because it em- more interested in the governmental structures and phasized scientific experiments on laboratory ani- processes than in the psychological motivations. mals and it was a psychology rather than a social For example, popular topics in political psychol- relations department. Although my major was ex- ogy are techniques for negotiating peace agree- perimental psychology, soon after my arrival Pro- ments and analysis of political communication. fessor Irvin L. Child hired me, 25 percent of the CP: What brought you to psychohistory? time as a research assistant for a study of a world HB: In my first two years as an under- sample of more than 100 societies. Child was co- graduate, I majored in history. At that time, I be- author with John W. M. Whiting of a book pub- came aware of the book A Study of History by Ar- lished in 1953, Child Training and Personality, nold J. Toynbee. I liked his identification and in- which reported a cross-cultural study. Dr. Marga- terpretation of general trends in the development ret K. Bacon and I made quantitative ratings on and decline of civilizations. I changed my major to child training in dependence and related behaviors social relations in my junior year because it as well as on a wide variety of measures of adult seemed consistent with my search for general prin- culture. Our purpose was to explain variations in ciples of behavior. Many years later, I read an an- adult culture on the basis of differences in child nouncement of and attended the first meeting of training. the International Psychohistorical Association CP: During your attendance at them, how (IPA) in 1978. I felt especially interested in the receptive were these Ivy League institutions to psy- paper by Jacques Szaluta, “Apotheosis to Igno- choanalysis and psychohistory? miny: The Martyrdom of Marshal Pétain,” pub- HB: I do not remember any interest in psy- lished in the Journal of Psychohistory, 1980, vol. chohistory at Harvard or Yale, but at that time I 7, pp. 415-453. Several years later, in response to had very little knowledge about the topic. The a letter from Paul Elovitz, I began attending the leading professors in the Social Relations Depart- IPA meetings regularly. ment at Harvard, such as Gordon W. Allport and CP: What special training was most help- Henry A. Murray, were ambivalent toward Freu- ful in your doing psychohistorical work? dian psychoanalysis. At Yale, the Psychology and HB: I believe that the most useful experi- Psychiatry Departments were receptive to Freudian ences were my psychoanalysis and readings about psychoanalysis. Many graduate students were psy- psychoanalytic theory. Experiments in which I choanalyzed. My psychoanalyst was affiliated controlled the independent variables contributed to with the Psychiatry Department. an appreciation of the limitations of observational CP: Do you think Yale and Harvard left studies, and thereby cautious inferences from the their mark on Bill Clinton, Albert Gore, and observations. The use of laboratory animals in George W. Bush? How? most of my experiments encouraged an objective HB: I believe that the social contacts and view of behavior and its antecedents. My extensive prestige were more important than the academic training and experience in statistical analysis re- advantages of Harvard Business School for Bush, vealed that the credibility of psychohistorical infer- Yale Law School for Clinton, and Harvard College ences depends on the number of independent indi- for Gore. Yale was George W. Bush's father's col- viduals or events, and on the consistency of the lege, and the son was elected to his father's elite findings. Skull & Bones. September, 2000 Clio’s Psyche Page 79
CP: Are there any mentors who come to Psychohistory Forum, and has founded and edits mind? the periodical Clio's Psyche. HB: In my last two years at boarding CP: What impact did Erik Erikson have on school, I took a course on Public Affairs. The you? highly intellectual and articulate teacher, Mr. HB: I read his book, Childhood and Soci- Charles C. Buell, contributed to my interest in na- ety, while an undergraduate. It contained some tional and world events. It was during an interest- anthropological information relevant to my cross- ing time, from shortly before the Republicans won cultural interests. I especially admired the chapter the majority in Congress in 1946, until shortly be- on Adolf Hitler. Erikson vividly explained that the fore President Truman was nominated for his gen- beginning of Mein Kampf was a fairy tale rather erally predicted unsuccessful candidacy in 1948. than an accurate autobiographical account. In my last two years as an undergraduate, I had many thoughtful discussions with a graduate stu- CP: What books were important to your dent teaching fellow, Norman Birnbaum. He be- development? came a Sociology Professor at Amherst College. HB: While an undergraduate, I read In graduate school, Professor Irvin L. Child was Freud’s New Introductory Lectures in Psycho- my principal mentor on psychosocial topics. He analysis. In my senior year, there was The Psycho- taught a course on personality. He encouraged and pathology of Everyday Life by Sigmund Freud. helped me to prepare my undergraduate senior This book described many examples of how re- honors thesis for publication, in 1957, in the Jour- pression and denial affect normal behavior by emo- nal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, vol. 54, tionally healthy people, in addition to psychiatric pp. 380-383. patients. CP: Please list the five people who you My cross-cultural research was influenced think have made the greatest contribution to psy- by Ruth Benedict’s book, Patterns of Culture, clas- chohistory, in order of their contribution. sifying societies as Apollonian or Dionysian, and HB: Sigmund Freud. He originated the by Margaret Mead’s vivid accounts of different framework for most psychohistory and contributed cultural customs. Books and articles by George P. psychobiographies of Moses, Leonardo da Vinci, Murdock, whom I met when we were both at Yale, and Woodrow Wilson. reported many interesting variations in social cus- toms in several hundred societies. His work was Erik Erikson. He wrote insightful psycho- an important basis for my cross-cultural research biographies of Martin Luther and Mahatma Gan- with Irvin L. Child and Margaret K. Bacon. When dhi. He was a mentor and inspiration for several Murdock and I were both at the University of Pitts- psychohistorians. burgh, I directed the production of new ratings on Lloyd deMause. He has published prolifi- infancy and childhood, published in Ethnology, a cally; he founded and guides the International Psy- journal founded and edited by Murdock. The re- chohistorical Association; and he founded and ed- search was supported by a grant to Murdock from its the Journal of Psychohistory. the National Science Foundation. A subsequent Frank J. Sulloway. He does not regard consequence was a project with Alice Schlegel on himself as a psychohistorian but one of the most adolescence, resulting in a book Adolescence: An important contributions to the field is his book Anthropological Inquiry (1991). Born to Rebel: Birth Order, Family Dynamics, and An important influence on my study of Creative Lives (1996). He reported convincing birth order was a book The Promised Seed (1964) evidence from a large number of people that birth by Irving D. Harris. In a study of famous men in order is an effective predictor of opinions on vari- various occupations, first sons were predominantly ous scientific and political controversies. The conformists and theorists, later sons were predomi- analysis includes other childhood conditions, such nantly revolutionaries and empiricists. The sample as conflict with a parent and the father’s ideology. of men included several Presidents of the United Paul H. Elovitz. He has done psycho- States. biographies of several Presidents of the United CP: What brought you to the study of birth States and psychohistorical studies of group re- order? sponses, such as of refugees from the World War II HB: I was very conscious of my status as Holocaust. He has also founded and directs the Page 80 Clio’s Psyche September, 2000 the oldest and only male child when growing up the complexity of human nature, including reac- with my two sisters. It was not an entirely privi- tions to irrational and unrecognized emotions and leged status because I felt that my mother favored the effects of conflicting desires. It is less impor- my sisters, especially my younger sister, Lucy, tant to know history, which is a chronicle rather who was her namesake. I believe that my interest than a set of general principles. People who are in birth order as a psychological variable began capable of contributing to psychohistory are also after my PhD degree, when my father and I began capable of obtaining the needed historical informa- to tabulate data on birth position of several hun- tion. dred psychiatric patients at Greystone Hospital, in CP: What do we as psychohistorians need New Jersey. He had obtained this information in a to do to strengthen our work? study of the effects of early childhood bereave- ment. HB: We need to obtain more detailed in- formation to support our inferences. Future studies CP: Of which of your psychohistorical should be applied to a larger number of individuals ideas and works are you most proud? and should obtain more psychobiographical infor- HB: I became aware that beginning with mation on each individual. Thomas Woodrow Wilson, most Presidents of the CP: How can psychohistory have more United States who were not given their father’s influence in academia and on society in general? first name had a middle name that reproduced their mother’s maiden name. I found biographical evi- HB: Psychohistory should become a recog- dence that they displayed strong early childhood nized specialty both in psychology and in history. identification with the mother, resulting in femi- An urgent need is a book that will be widely ac- nine characteristics combined with exaggerated cepted as a text for a general course on psychohis- adult assertiveness. I reported this finding in a pa- tory. Courses on psychohistory will lead to books per presented at an IPA meeting. The paper was written for the general public. The field may di- included as pages 26-40 in Paul H. Elovitz, ed., vide into two main branches, psychobiography (the Historical and Psychological Inquiry (1990). study of individuals) and psychohistory (the study of shared sentiments, such as group fantasy or pub- CP: More than that of most professors, lic consensus). Academic courses and academic your life is organized around scholarship and at- respectability are the most important inducements tending scholarly conventions. Do you have any for psychohistory as a career choice. thoughts on this you would like to share with our readers? CP: As a frequent presenter at the IPA and the International Society for Political Psychology HB: From 1963 until 1977, my salary was (ISPP), how are these organizations similar and entirely paid first by a research grant and then by a dissimilar? Research Scientist Development Award. My teaching duties since then have continued to be HB: Both are small, specialized, multidis- slight. I have been able to devote most of my time ciplinary societies in the social sciences. I believe to data analysis and writing. I have thereby been that both were founded in 1978. The IPA is more able to divide my research among the topics of focused, with a dominant leader and an emphasis psychopharmacology, cross-cultural studies, and on severely pathological experiences in early child- names, in addition to psychohistory. hood as causes of maladaptive adult behavior. The ISPP includes a broader range of leaders and par- CP: What are you working on now? ticipants. The annual meeting is in a different city HB: I have prepared a proposal for a book, each year, often outside the United States. More Personal Perspectives of the Presidents. The sub- people are members and attend the meetings of the title will be Washington to Gore or George W. ISPP. Bush, whichever is elected.” I plan to complete the CP: As a member of Mensa perhaps you book in time for it to be published in 2003, during could tell us something about that organization. the next President’s four-year term. HB: The criterion for membership is the CP: What training should a person entering top 2 percent on standard intellectual tests. This is the field of psychohistory pursue? not a highly restrictive requirement for academic HB: The most important training is in psy- achievers. I believe that the majority of IPA mem- chology. Psychohistory requires appreciation of bers are eligible for Mensa membership. The September, 2000 Clio’s Psyche Page 81
50,000 Mensa members in the United States are strengthened love but also weakened social con- less than 2 percent of the eligible population. Sev- trols. Love and tolerance prevail over hate and eral social gatherings each month constitute the bigotry for most people who have experienced per- principal activities of the local Mensa groups. The missive child training. I believe that violent behav- conversations at Mensa gatherings are primarily ior in recent years might appear to be more fre- social and situational, rather than introspective or quent and extreme only because more of the inci- theoretical. The members who attend are ex- dents are reported. tremely diverse. Some are highly achieving aca- Paul H. Elovitz is Editor of this pub- demically or vocationally, but a larger number are lication and, with Barry, Co-Director of the underachievers. Some people join Mensa briefly Psychohistory Forum's Research Group on the to prove that they are highly intelligent. Childhood, Personality, and Psychology of CP: How do you explain the growth and Presidents and Presidential Candidates. Bob Lentz psychology of fundamentalism? is Associate Editor of this publication. q HB: I regard psychohistory and fundamen- talism as opposite responses to the uncertainties of existence and the complexity of human motives. Psychoanalysis Needs Psychohistory recognizes these stressful conditions Group Analysis to Survive and tries to understand them. Fundamentalism de- nies these stressful conditions and claims certainty Lauren E. Storck based on religious faith. In the movie, Inherit the Harvard Medical School and Private Practice Wind, on the Scopes trial in Tennessee in 1925, the As a group analyst, I suggest that for our fundamentalist prosecuting attorney declares “I am new millennium psychoanalysis as a discipline, art, more interested in the rock of ages than in the age perspective, philosophy, and original theory must of rocks.” I doubt that anyone could be both a psy- develop to include group analysis, group dynamics, chohistorian and a fundamentalist. and authentic interpersonal perspectives. No man I question the premise that fundamentalism is an island, no woman a separate sea. is growing. The increasing publicity about funda- Psychoanalysis is often slow to be inclu- mentalists reminds me of the increasing publicity sive as a consequence of having been excluded several decades ago about youths who got stoned from various groups from its early beginnings. I on psychedelic drugs and rejected academic aspira- interpret this as due, in part, to its need to protect tions. They were a noisy minority. Some com- vulnerable inner, personal spaces while yearning to mentators incorrectly perceived them as manifest- connect with the vast outer reaches of the Other. ing the prevalent behavior of the new generation of youths. Psychoanalysis has used what some see as its counterproductive (counter-projective) defense I regard terrorism as an extreme expression of its “truths” to prove its value and validity. Ac- of fundamentalism. Denial of the stressful uncer- cused of being beyond its heyday as a respectable tainties of life can induce a psychopathological individualistic and intra-psychic model for under- compulsion to destroy one’s enemies as brutally standing human behaviors and relations, it strug- and indiscriminately as possible. Another incen- gles to find its relevance for a world that encom- tive for terrorism is based on paranoid grandiosity, passes more than the legitimate yet lonely individ- to be the agent for a notoriously infamous event. ual who suffers, stagnates, survives, but does not CP: What are your thoughts on the psycho- live to the fullest. dynamics of violence in our world? Group analysis recognizes the essential HB: Violence is an expression of anger, interpersonal, social, cultural, and political nature which is a prominent component of human nature. of human life. Provocatively, both the individual Lynchings and “ethnic cleansing” express anger and the internal world of any individual are under- displaced onto an outgroup. Violence is controlled stood as a matrix of interrelations or a ring of cir- by a combination of love for other humans and so- cles that necessarily include the totality of one’s cial prohibitions against expression of anger. Puni- connections to others throughout life. Little sense tive child training expresses strong social prohibi- of self exists without other people, not only paren- tion but weakens love and tolerance. More permis- tal and fraternal figures, not only family and sive child training in recent years has generally friends, but very influential societies, cultures, na- Page 82 Clio’s Psyche September, 2000 tion states and global structures that are real and group (Tavistock or “group as a whole” theories). intimately influence our development, for better or Group analysis focuses, much like interpersonal worse. Some of these important group psychody- psychology, on the substantial and varied social namics are cohesive, some coherent, some compas- realities we form and are formed by as humans to- sionate, and others are not. gether. Therapy, experience, or learning groups No one system of thought can survive that we participate in as “conductors,” patients, without integration with other systems of thought clients, and students are also related and interactive and other cultural patterns. Permeable and inclu- with other groups, other social and cultural reali- sive systems of human understanding are proces- ties, be they small groups, median groups, or large sural, i.e., continuously growing, open to change, groups. Each individual contributes to the social flexible and thoughtful, seeking unified threads, matrix and is affected by the same social group, while at the same time welcoming differences. and that group itself is influenced by many other This is not to argue that all things are relative, but groups. Group analysis is therefore concerned to recognize that we are global citizens and there with the individual, the group, and all groups. Be- are multiple ways of understanding. haviors among many local groups is constrained by resources, but liberated by numerous possibilities Group analysis more easily allows the for exchange. communication of similarities and differences, as there are always three or more people in the room Group analysis recognizes the downside of together. The goals are communication and rela- relationships, the anger, hate, envy and destructive- tionship, expanding the necessary dyad to signifi- ness of relations gone awry, people under pressure, cant social and cultural connections. Empowering private and individual or public and group confu- each individual, via the group experience, is a sions. Group analysis may have been inattentive to process that is non-hierarchical, relational, and col- the power of these difficult emotions during its for- laborative. The process, managed by the group mative years. It focuses on the healing and posi- conductor with special expertise, but mostly lead- tive dynamics of groups properly studied and or- ing “from behind” as S.H. Foulkes said, involves ganized. In more recent years, senior group ana- exploring ways to share different needs and truths lysts and their mature students have brought these [see Group Analytic Psychotherapy: Methods and darker dynamics into prominent light, suggesting Principles, 1990]. Striving in significant conscious new theory and direction for all to think about. and unconscious ways to learn and to change if This brief article is a statement about the required, each individual and the group together need for group analysis rather than an explanation need each other, at least temporarily, to carry on of it. I refer all readers to S.H. Foulkes’ own writ- and then to carry out. Each is able, hopefully, to ings and a significant literature to which I have apply the process to one’s personal life and social contributed. (See also the journal Group-Analysis experiences, even if it includes seeking social jus- published by Sage.) I recommend learning more tice through controversial and difficult means. We about group analysis in order to include it more are one human race, striving in significant con- often within psychoanalytic training and practice. scious and unconscious ways to communicate and It is not secondary, superficial, or diluted analysis. grow. It is primary, significant, and social in the most Group analysis, defined by Foulkes, is a humanly necessary way, in order to learn, love, treatment or philosophy, “of the group, by the work, and create, not alone. group, including the conductor.” His genius was to Lauren E. Storck, PhD, CGP, is a clinical recognize psychoanalytic values, theories, and psychologist and group therapist/group analyst. methods, and insist that the social, cultural, and Born in the Bronx, she trained in New York and political groups we all belong to are as intrinsically lived internationally for 12 years. Since 1987, she important to our health and growth as any individ- has been on the Clinical Faculty of the Department ual, internal, systems of wellness and illness. of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School where From my perspective, two major psychoanalytic she is currently Clinical Instructor. Her research discoveries most inform group analysis: the uncon- interests include group analysis and group scious or less aware processes and the many forms dynamics, socioeconomic and class issues, of transference and projection. women’s health, and intercultural dialogue. Dr. Group analysis does not ignore the individ- Storck is also in private practice in Belmont, MA. ual. Neither does group analysis attend only to the She may be reached at September, 2000 Clio’s Psyche Page 83
Jacksonville State University such as Hitler. Macabre death is hideous and bloodthirsty, with agonizing pain and suffering as I often begin my classes on death and dy- key components of the image. It is cold, black evil ing -- which are attended by upper-level sociology, that is vulgar, haunting, harsh, merciless, and social work, and nursing majors -- by asking the mocking. In this nightmare incarnation, death is students how they would like to die. There is una- the Grim Reaper, an equal opportunity destroyer, nimity. Like the rest of us, they all want to die in whose scythe cuts down all, whoever they may be. their sleep, a variation on an old Woody Allen Finally, there is the view of death as Janus, joke: “I’m not afraid of dying. I just don’t want to the keeper of the doorway, a being looking in two be there when it happens.” Defensiveness is perva- directions simultaneously. In this ambivalent sive. metaphor, the oxymoronic quality of death, its con- Next I ask the students to imagine what tradictory nature, is dominant. Death is viewed death would look like if death were a person. I tell through bifocal lenses as a wall and/or door, a them to draw a picture of death and then describe devil and/or angel, Heaven and/or Hell, good and/ what they have drawn. Although the images they or evil, comfort and/or torment, a friend and/or foe, draw are varied, five metaphors are discernable. beautiful and/or horrifying, the end and/or begin- The first, and one of the least common im- ning, loss and/or gain. Such ambivalent imagery ages, is death as an Automaton -- a dispassionate pervades virtually every metaphor that my students killing machine. This sort of death seems cold, concoct. heartless. It is an anonymous, asexual, death by In Alabama during a typical day in college, android -- a “terminator” sans the malice. students -- like so many everywhere -- want to The second, and also an infrequent image avoid death. They want to evade the reality cap- of mortality, is death as the Gay Deceiver, a jovial tured in one of my student’s drawings: a grotesque person who attracts through physical and social Uncle Sam-death monster, finger pointing toward magnetism. Urbane, witty, wearing a fedora, car- the viewer, saying, “I want you -- for my very best rying a cane and calling card, a frequenter of ex- friend!” They see death as horrific and comforting, pensive establishments, an intelligent and sophisti- and they hope for Heaven, while seeking to avoid cated gentleman -- this manifestation of death is Hell. They yearn for the good death, a peaceful polite, courteous and deadly. This is Ted Bundy in end to an earthly life and eternal happiness. They real life; James Mason in Heaven Can Wait; are young and, in the words of Fame, “gonna live Robert Redford as Mr. Death on the “Twilight forever!” They try to avoid the bad death -- the Zone;” and Brad Pitt in Meet Joe Black -- each an hell of pain and suffering, and in avoiding their engaging, enticing sophisticate come to claim his own personal awareness of this reality principle, victim. they inevitably avoid knowing about the horrors of the ethnic cleansings and genocides that are in the The third, easily the most benevolent con- newspapers and the history books. The Nanking ception, is that of the Gentle Comforter. Gener- Massacre in China, the Holocaust, Cambodia, and ally, this image is manifest as the Angel of Death -- Rwanda -- the bad death is the horrific reality so a beautiful blonde with wings and halo who will common in history, so easy to push out of con- usher the deceased out of this life and into an un- sciousness in our uneasiness with our own mortal- earthly existence. She is feminine, kind, and gen- ity. tle; or, alternatively, the meek and mild Jesus waits with a loving heart and open arms to receive and My students want to function in terms of succor the dying. Death is beautiful, peaceful, the pleasure principle. They want what they want pure, soft, loving, warm, caring, saintly, wise, when they want it -- an “A” without effort, a death compassionate, and welcome. without loss. They want to continue to row their boats “gently down the stream,” blissfully un- At the other end of the emotional spectrum aware, believing that “life is but a dream.” They is the fourth image. The Macabre is a horrific im- do not want to embrace all the negatives that death age of macho death as fiendishly cruel, merciless, entails. grotesque, and diabolical. In this personification, death is fantasized as evil incarnate, a ferocious However, as one of my teachers, Philip E. death monster, such as the Devil, a hideous skele- Slater, wrote, “Teaching is an erotic irritant” whose ton or bloodsucking vampire, or even a real person, function it is to break through the basic defensive postures of group life, and further rationality and September, 2000 Clio’s Psyche Page 91 consciousness. In important ways that is at least tales for my students. “Take care of unfinished part of what a class in death and dying is about. It business,” I tell them, “while there is time. Get is also what I try to accomplish in my class. your priorities in order.” Bertrand Russell once observed, “Many Studying death and dying is a Janus-like people would rather die than think. In fact, they endeavor. On the one hand, death is natural, the do.” Part of my job in class is to get students to boundary of life. To appreciate how miraculous reverse that scenario, and to feel, and feeling in- our existence is, we must focus on what it is not. volves pain where death is involved. Stalin may Mozart’s advice is exemplary: “Death is the key have put things brutally, but his message was simi- that unlocks the door to our true happiness.” On lar: “A single death is a tragedy, a million deaths is the other hand, such a perspective may lead to Pol- a statistic.” lyannaism and the derogation of human suffering To fathom the emotional reality of contem- as merely the prerequisite to beatitude. Death can porary life, my students and I must face our own be unspeakably brutal, as evidenced by the grue- mortality. We must grapple with its pain and sig- some pictures from the Nanking Massacre and the nificance to have even a hope of unraveling the Holocaust. An emotional appreciation of the ag- realities of Nanking, Dachau, or nuclear war, and ony endured while dying is a prerequisite for hu- insure that those who have passed away are more manity. Finding a means of helping students in than just statistics. Alabama become less anxious about their own deaths, while developing an awareness and sympa- Toward that end, we talk, share, and try to thy for the anguish of anonymous others, is no defuse anxiety. I utilize my own experiences with more, nor less, than the goal of thanatology. It is death. I tell the students about my fears at night why I teach my classes the way that I do. when my ego defenses are permeable. I talk about my friends who have died and my feelings of loss. Ken Adams, PhD, is Professor of Sociology I describe putting my dog to sleep. Mostly, how- at Jacksonville State University, where he teaches ever, I discuss the deaths of my parents. courses on ethnic and minority relations, contemporary sociological theory, the sociology of My mother died while I was a grad student religion, and death and dying. Presently an at Brandeis. In 1972, 10 years after a bout with Associate Editor of the Journal of Psychohistory lung cancer, she was stricken with pancreatic can- and a Member of the Advisory Board of H- cer. I made it home to see her before her death, but Psychohistory [electronic discussion network], he was not there when she died. She had seemed sta- previously served as the Editor of Psychohistory ble on my first night home, and so, since my wife News and an Assistant Editor for the Journal, and and I had a six-week-old son, I chose to stay with has published a variety of articles on Japan and them during the night instead of being with my America. He can be reached online at mother. She died that night, and I have always felt
The Pathology of Evil (1998), which addresses University of Wisconsin where he earned his mas- many of Gonen's topics, is at work on The Myth of ter's and doctoral degrees working under the tute- Pearl Harbor. q lage of George Mosse. Prior to joining the faculty at Kansas State University in the "other Manhat- tan" (as George liked to call it), Kren taught at In Memoriam: Oberlin, Elmira, and Lake Forest colleges as well George M. Kren as Roosevelt University. After 35 years he retired (1926-2000) from Kansas State University in June of this year. Knowledge and scholarship were central to Paul H. Elovitz the life of George Kren. To undergraduate stu- Ramapo College and the Psychohistory Forum dents he taught a variety of courses, including The Rise and Fall of Nazi Germany; Holocaust: The George Michael Kren, historian, psychohis- Destruction of the European Jews; and European torian, Holocaust researcher, photographer, and Thought in the Twentieth Century. All KSU his- Professor of History (Retired) at Kansas State Uni- tory graduate students took his Historiography versity (KSU) in Manhattan, died July 24, 2000, at class. He lectured at the Menninger Foundation in the age of 74 of heart failure after many years of Topeka, Kansas, throughout North America, and at suffering from emphysema. He had a fascinating Oxford University in England. Kren’s 12-page life, leaving a rich legacy of scholarship, art, and résumé contains numerous articles and a variety of personal friendships in its wake. books. He enjoyed collaborating with others. Birth and scholarship linked Kren’s life to With Leon Rappoport he edited Varieties of Psy- central Europe. Linz, Austria, is well known as the chohistory (1976), The Holocaust and the Crisis of town where Hitler was raised and from which Human Behavior (1980 and 1994), and chapters on some other prominent Nazis came. It was also the Holocaust included in the recently published where George was born to a professional family on Encyclopedia of Genocide. With his former stu- June 3, 1926. When Hitler’s mother developed dent, George Christakes, he wrote Scholars and breast cancer, it was Kren’s maternal grandfather, Personal Computers (1988). Edmund Blcoh, who cared for her, prompting Hit- Death will not cease the dissemination of ler to declare that he would be ever grateful to the Professor Kren’s scholarship. His completed doctor. Rudolph Binion, in his brilliant and con- manuscript on a comprehensive history of the troversial book, Hitler Among the Germans (1976), Holocaust is under consideration for the European argued that Hitler’s hatred for Jews stemmed History Series of Harlan, Davidson, Inc., with Pro- mainly from the blame he unconsciously placed on fessors George Christakes and Don Mrozek com- the doctor for his mother’s failed medical treat- mitted to seeing the book through to publication. ment. Though some of Kren's relatives were out- In retirement, George planned to translate and raged by the association of the family with Hitler’s write an introduction to his grandfather’s diaries, a anti-Semitism in any way, George did not speak task now in the hands of his colleague, Helmut publicly to the issue. Schmeller of KSU. The lives of the Krens and the other Jews Photography was a passion with George in Austria were disrupted by Hitler’s annexation of and his wife, the artist and KSU professor Margo Austria. Fearful for the lives of their children, the Kren. In 1994 he published Touching the Sky, con- parents of 12-year-old George and his nine-year- taining essays and photography. When he retired, old sister sent them to England where they became a collection of his photographs was donated to the separated. After a year, they discovered that their Beach Museum of Art at Kansas State University. parents were alive and had made it to the United States, where the children joined them in New The etiology of George’s emphysema was York City his habit of smoking three packs of Camel unfil- tered cigarettes a day. He started smoking heavily In 1944 Kren was drafted into the United in the Army and continued until about 15 years States Army and served in Europe. Though he ago. At several points in the last six or seven joked about being a poor soldier, he landed just years, he was so close to death that friends and col- days after D-Day, fighting until the end of the war. leagues gathered at his bedside. The last three After his discharge in 1946, he attended Colby weeks of his life were extremely difficult and pain- College on the GI Bill before moving on to the ful for George and his loved ones. His wife and Page 96 Clio’s Psyche September, 2000 about ten friends were present at his death. Among tory, and it would be fair to say that George was a his survivors are a son from a prior marriage, a psychohistorian before there was psychohistory. granddaughter, and his sister. On October 1 there At any rate, our class went well; students seemed will be a memorial service at KSU. to enjoy it almost as much as we did. More signifi- *** cantly, two ideas that were to shape both of our George Kren Remembered futures grew out of that class: the “easy” one fol- lowed from the collection of papers we had assem- Leon Rappoport is Professor of Psy- bled to serve as text, which became the basis for chology at Kansas State University and the author our anthology called Varieties of Psychohistory. of numerous research articles in the field of The more difficult one was the Holocaust. personality development including a textbook on It was hard not only because available development across the life span. He may be source materials in psychology and history were reached at
World War II. Written before release of most of Letter to the Editor the evidence on Roosevelt's far-sighted determina- ponement and now cancellation, but I will send a tion to get his reluctant nation into the war against copy to anyone who cares to make an e-mail re- Hitler and before release of most of the intelligence quest to me at
This issue is published in commemoration Rosenberg is spending part of September in Hol- of George M. Kren, a member of our Editorial land, researching empathy. TRAVEL: This sum- Board, who died on July 24, 2000. The next mer, Flora Hogman presented a paper at a confer- WORK-IN-PROGRESS SATURDAY SEMI- ence at Oxford, England, and than traveled in NAR is scheduled for September 23, 2000, when France while David Beisel with his wife Sheila Michael Britton will present "Counter- Jardine traveled in Greece and Turkey. Dan transference: Royal Road Into the Psychology of Dervin vacationed in the Colorado Rockies, Avner the Cold War" based upon his feelings in conduct- Falk in Slovenia, Peter Loewenberg in the Sier- ing interviews of American nuclear warriors. On ras, and Rudy Binion on the West Coast and in October 28, Herbert Barry (University of Pitts- Alaska. NOTICES: Charles B. Strozier an- burgh) and Paul Elovitz will present on the nounced the opening of his new Park Slope Brook- "Psychobiographies of George W. Bush and Albert lyn psychotherapy office at One Plaza Street. He Gore." On January 27, 2001, Jay Gonen, Mary continues to practice in his Manhattan office in Coleman, et al, will present on the use of law in Greenwich Village. GET WELL WISHES: To society starting with the ancient Sumerians. CON- Mel Kalfus. CONGRATULATIONS: To Peter FERENCES: The International Psychohistori- Jüngst on the publication of Territorialität und cal Association (IPA) will meet on June 13-15, Psychodynamik -- Eine Einführung in die Psycho- 2001, at Fordham University Law School in New geographie. (Territoriality and Psychodynamics -- York City while the International Society of Po- An Introduction to Psychogeography). CORREC- litical Psychology (ISPP) annual meeting, TION: In Hanna Turken, “Future Psychological "Cultures of Violence, Cultures of Peace," will be Issues Elián González May Face” (Vol. 7 No.1: in Cuernavaca, Mexico, July 15-18, 2001. A psy- 30-31), the Marquez article cited was from the As- chohistory conference is scheduled in Nuremberg, sociated Press rather than The New York Times as Germany, on July 5-7, 2001. An Ullman experi- stated. NEW MEMBERS (Research Associ- ential Leadership Training Program in group ates): Welcome to Patrick Kavanaugh and Sarton dream work will be given in Ardsley, New York, Weinraub. OUR THANKS: To our members and on October 27-29, 2000. For details call (914) subscribers for the support that makes Clio's Psy- 693-0156. RESEARCH: Ralph Colp recently che possible. To Benefactors Herbert Barry, III, spent an extended period in Down, England, tran- and Ralph Colp; Patrons Andrew Brink, Peter Pet- scribing Darwin’s diary of health. Vivian schauer, H. John Rogers, and Jacques Szaluta; Sus- taining Members Mel Kalfus and Mary Lambert; Call for Papers Supporting Members Anonymous, Rudolph Bin- ion, and David Felix; and Members Sue Adrion, The Psychohistory of Michael Britton, David Lotto, Margaret McLaugh- Conspiracy Theories lin, Geraldine Pauling, and Lee Shneidman. Our appreciation for thought-provoking materials to Special Theme Issue Ken Adams, Herb Barry, Rudolph Binion, Richard December, 2000 Booth, Andrew Brook, Kelly Bulkeley, Karen Cal- laghan, George Christakes, Sheree Conrad, Dan Possible approaches: Dervin, Vitor Franco, Don Hughes, Aubrey Immel- Psychodynamics and childhood roots of conspiracy theories Case studies of conspiracy theo- Next Psychohistory Forum Meeting ries in American history Michael Britton Survey of the psychohistorical and psychological literature on "Countertransference: conspiracy theories Royal Road Into the Psychology of the Cold War" Film and television treatment of conspiracy theories Saturday, September 23, 2000 Contact Bob Lentz, Associate Editor Contact Paul Elovitz, Editor
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The Persistance of Popular horses, in England." Prejudices and Hatreds “Leeks make the Welsh stink.” (Used by Shakespeare.) J. Lee Shneidman “Sicilians can't speak Italian.” Adelphi University “Perfidious Albion [Britain]” In our "politically correct" society, it is The list of phrases and rhymes that belittle easy to forget just how persistent are human preju- people are endless. As a historian, almost where dices, denigration of the other, and hatred. The ever I turn in the past I find additional evidence of pervasiveness and persistence of popular hatreds is the human tendency to denigrate “the other.” For striking and troubling to those who are interested example, in one of my freshman history course in having a world less torn by strife and warfare. reading books, there is a section from a Russian Examples will be presented from popular culture, General Staff meeting in 1916 reporting a discus- history, and my experiences as a professor teaching sion by the generals regarding the pros and cons of a wide variety of students from around the world. I recruiting Jews for the Imperial Army. Lest the will be stressing that change does not come about prejudices of the students keep them from seeing because of codes of conduct and new constitutions, the point of including the selection, the editors but as a result of one human at a time renouncing added a footnote asking the readers to notice the the hatreds that abound in society. My essay will accepted anti-Semitism. not probe how to eliminate the hatreds, but rather focus on their persistence in the U.S. and among In my class, I recently had an American- international students representing future leaders of Serbian freshman who supported the Serbian eth- the world. nic cleansings in Bosnia and Kosovo. I asked from where he obtained his information about the Bal- Hatreds are not inborn, but learned. This is kans. From his father and uncle, he replied. With evident from popular culture. In the musical, indignation, he told of an important monastery that South Pacific, Lt. Cabel, a very proper upper-class was ravaged by the Muslims. I inquired when it white Anglo-Saxon American, has fallen in love happened and why the monastery was so impor- with a young Polynesian woman. He is conflicted. tant. He was not sure when it happened, but In anger and frustration he sings: stressed its holiness, again citing his father and un- You got to be taught cle as sources. Yet, he could not answer my ques- Before it's too late tion as to why it was holy. Because the student Before you are six, or seven or eight was unsure of the facts behind his family’s sense of To hate all the people your relatives outrage at the alleged actions of the Muslims, I hate. suggested that he write a term paper on the monas- You got to be carefully taught. tery's history. He could find no information as to While children are not born as a tabula its significance beyond his relative's assertions. rasa, attitudes and values are not part of their in- A Ghanaian student in my course on na- heritance. The teaching of prejudice is not neces- tionalism demonstrated similar prejudices. His sarily articulated. It comes by example and sub- grandfather was the "king" of one of the local eth- liminally in phrases and games. I have heard the nic groups, but since the student's father was the following in my life as I suspect have most of my son of the king's fourth wife, he would never in- readers: herit the throne. The class was discussing the problem of nation building in West Africa, when "Eenie, meenie, mine, moe -- he suddenly remarked that you could always spot a Catch a nigger by the toe...." Senegalese. This is, he asserted, because the Sene- The little baby-shaped fudge candy in a galese were the blackest people in Africa and be- box are called "nigger babies." cause they lived on the Equator. When I double- "Shiker vei a goy." (Alcoholics are non- checked the map, I found that the most northern Jews.) part of Ghana is closer to the Equator than the most southern part of Senegal. Both are north of the "Don't Jew me down." (Jew as a verb is Equator. His facts represented his group’s preju- still in most dictionaries.) dices rather than the reality. "Oats are eaten by men in Scotland, and The Communist leaders of Russia liked to September, 2000 Clio’s Psyche Page 109
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Clio's Psyche of the Psychohistory Forum Call for Papers
Violence in American Life and Mass Murder as Disguised Suicide The Future of Psychoanalysis in the Third Millennium (June, 2000) Assessing Apocalypticism and Millennialism Around the Year 2000 PsychoGeography Election 2000: Psychobiographies of Bradley, Bush, Gore, McCain, Buchanan, et al The Psychology of Incarceration and Crime Legalizing Life: Our Litigious Society Psychobiography Manias and Depressions in Economics and Society The Role of the Participant Observer in Psychohistory Psychohistorical Perspectives on Loneliness The Truth and Reconciliation Commission as a Model for Healing The Processes of Peacemaking and Peacekeeping The Psychology of America as the World’s Policeman Entertainment News Elian Gonzales Between Two Worlds Television, Radio, and Media as Object Relations in a Lonely World Kevorkian’s Fascination with Assisted Suicide, Death, Dying, and Martyrdom The Psychobiography and Myth of Alan Greenspan: The Atlas Who Has Not Yet Shrugged Many of these subjects will become special issues. Articles should be from 600-1500 words with a biography of the author. Electronic submissions are welcome on these and other topics. For details, contact Paul H. Elvoitz, PhD, at
Call for CORST Grant Applications The Committee on Research and Special Training (CORST) of the American Psychoanalytic Association announces an American Psychoanalytic Foundation research training grant of $10,000 for CORST candidates (academic scholars) who have been accepted or are currently in training in an American Psychoanalytic Association institute. The purpose of the grant is to help defray the costs of psychoanalytic training. The grant is to be administered by the local institute to be paid over three years of training at $3,500, $3,500, and $3,000 per year, or as needed. The application is: a.) A brief statement of 1000 words of the research proposed, b.) A letter from a scholar in the field (e.g., department chair, colleague, or dissertation advisor) attesting to the validity and significance of the research, c.) A letter of endorsement by the Education Director of the institute certifying the candidate is in, or has been accepted for, full clinical psychoanalytic training at an institute of the American Psychoanalytic Association, and d.) An up-to-date Curriculum Vitae. Applications are to be submitted in three copies by May 1, 2000, to Professor Paul Schwa- ber, 258 Bradley Street, New Haven, CT 06511. Page 112 Clio’s Psyche September, 2000
Clio's Psyche of the Psychohistory Forum Call for Papers
Violence in American Life and Mass Murder as Disguised Suicide Assessing Apocalypticism and Millennialism Around the Year 2000 PsychoGeography Election 2000: Psychobiographies of Bradley, Bush, Gore, McCain, Buchanan, et al The Psychology of Incarceration and Crime Legalizing Life: Our Litigious Society Psychobiography Manias and Depressions in Economics and Society The Truth and Reconciliation Commission as a Model for Healing The Processes of Peacemaking and Peacekeeping The Psychology of America as the World’s Policeman Entertainment News Television, Radio, and Media as Object Relations in a Lonely World Kevorkian’s Fascination with Assisted Suicide, Death, Dying, and Martyrdom The Psychobiography and Myth of Alan Greenspan: The Atlas Who Has Not Yet Shrugged Many of these subjects will become special issues. Articles should be from 600-1500 words with a biography of the author. Electronic submissions are welcome on these and other topics. For details, contact Paul H. Elvoitz, PhD, at
Clio's Psyche
Now on the World Wide Web at The Best of Clio's Psyche www.cliospsyche.com This 93-page collection of many of the best and most popular articles from 1994 to the September, 1999, issue is available for $20 a copy. It will be distributed free to Members renewing at the Supporting level and above as well as Subscribers upon their next two-year renewal. Contact the Editor (see page three). September, 2000 Clio’s Psyche Page 113
George Kren’s Retirement better. What is most appreciated by colleagues and students alike, is exposure to George’s “version of Paul H. Elovitz the life of the mind.” This vision includes a Ramapo College of New Jersey “ferocious comprehension of the starkness and the absurdity as well as the dignity and even the glory Colleagues will be interested to know that of the human condition.” This “has always been at a founding member of Clio's Psyche's Editorial the center of what” Kren does, will “continue to Board, one of our very first Featured Psychohis- do, and will always continue to do.” All felt privi- torians (March, 1995, Vol. 1 No. 4:7-12), “and a leged to be one of his friends. distinguished scholar of the Holocaust," is retiring from teaching after 35 years at Kansas State Uni- George Kren’s Comments at His versity in Manhattan, Kansas. We hope George Retirement Ceremony, May 4 Kren will not be retiring from his contributions to I am deeply touched and moved by the Clio and we know he will never retire from the life ceremony and thank you for it individually and of the mind. Below we will quote liberally from collectively. In language of the current generation, comments of colleagues and students of Professor to see so many friends here is “awesome.” The Kren and conclude with his own words at his re- next line should be “I really don’t know what to tirement ceremony. The reader should note that say” but that is a phrase that has never yet been not every thought at this sad and joyful ceremony part of my vocabulary. I am particularly pleased was meant to be literally true. that the traditional gold watch has been replaced One Kansas colleague lovingly said she with the arrangement of my photographs for the “found George Kren to be the most exotic creature Beach Museum. I could not have wished for any- I had ever met.” She thought this “strict Freu- thing more. The glass piece is stunning, and I even dian” (according to her) “looked just like Fritz know the artist. Perls, the guru of gestalt psychology.” (This puz- In reviewing the 35 years that I have been a zled me since when I last saw him, I thought he member of this history department, what stands out was a Trotsky look-alike.) He was the first person most is that I am and have been part of a commu- she met “who had apparently read everything … nity, using that term in Ferdinand Tönnes’s sense. could quote from everything, and … footnote it at What Tönnes means by the term community is a the same time.” She recollected comments consist- group where relations are personal, and where peo- ing of 28 points each introduced by the words, ple care for each other as individuals. When I was “That is to say….” in the hospital at Christmas in 1993, I had the most The professor recollected a Thanksgiving dramatic demonstration of this sense of belonging dinner in 1975 where six or seven colleagues by the concern shown to me by members of the (George and his wife Margo included) “drank four department and other members of the university. or five gallons of wine” and “smoked approxi- On Christmas Eve and afterwards, nearly every mately 3,000 cigarettes” amidst exhilarating intel- member of the department visited me. One col- lectual discussions and George’s “highly individual league stayed in Manhattan over the holidays to sense of humor.” She wondered if that wonderful stay near me rather than go home for the holidays. dinner really happened in Kansas or if it might At that time, expectations of others, which I disap- have been in some other location, such as the pointed, were that I would not be available for fu- “other Manhattan” -- the one on the Hudson River. ture New Years' celebrations. I have had not only Students from Kansas were fascinated by good colleagues in the department, but it has been Kren, as were many of his colleagues. To them, the source for the founding of important friend- knowing George was an altogether unprecedented ships -- some going back to the 1970s, and some of event, and “an experience not to be missed.” more recent vintage. Kren’s “very being,” his “respect for the life of the I have been able to establish friendships mind, make the world large in a way” they “would with a number of individuals outside the depart- not have known without” him. To these students, ment. Leon Rappoport from psychology and I, in a it was a “privilege of knowing an authentic Euro- true collaboration, have been able to produce work pean intellectual.” (George was born in Austria.) together, most notably our book on the Holocaust, That this European intellectual is such a sweet man which neither one of us could have done as well and gifted artist with a motorcycle was all to the alone. Page 114 Clio’s Psyche September, 2000
Book Reviews
Howard F. Stein (Editor's Note: We welcome scanned pictures of past Fea- tured Scholars to be pub- lished in future issues.)
Life: Our Litigious Society Contact the Editor (see page 3) Letters to the Editor
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Call for Papers on The Psychology of Incarceration and Crime Contact the Editor (see page 3) The Best of Clio's Psyche This 93-page collection of many of the best and most popular articles from 1994 to the September, 1999, Psychohistorians probe the "Why" of issue is available for $20 a copy. It will be distributed free to Members culture, current events, history, and renewing at the Supporting level and above as well as society. Subscribers upon their next two-year renewal. September, 2000 Clio’s Psyche Page 115
Letters to the Editor The History of Psychohistory Clio's Psyche's interviews of outstanding psychohistorians (see "An American in Amsterdam: Arthur Mitzman," page 146) have grown into a full-fledged study of the pioneers and history of our field. Psychohistory as an organized field is less than 25 years old, so most of the innovators are available to tell their stories and give their insights. Last March, the Forum formally launched the Makers of the Psychohistorical Paradigm Research Project to systematically gather material to write the history of psychohistory. We welcome memoirs, letters, and manuscripts as well as volunteers to help with the interviewing. People interested in participating should write, call, or e-mail Paul H. Elovitz (see page 119).
Awards and Honors CORST Essay Prize • Professor Janice M. Coco, Art History, University of California-Davis, winner of the First Annual American Psychoanalytic Association Committee on Research and Special Training (CORST) $1,000 essay prize, will present her paper, "Exploring the Frontier from the Inside Out in John Sloan's Nude Studies," at a free public lecture at 12 noon, Saturday, December 20, Jade Room, Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, New York City. Sidney Halpern Award for the Best Psychohistorical Idea • The Psychohistory Forum is granting an award of $200 to Michael Hirohama of San Francisco for starting and maintaining the Psy- chohistory electronic mailing list (see page 98). Psychohistory Forum Student Award • David Barry of Fair Lawn, New Jersey, has been awarded a year's Student Membership in the Forum, including a subscription to Clio's Psyche, for his contribution of a fine paper as part of the Makers of the Psychohistorical Paradigm Research Project last June.
Next Psychohistory Forum Meeting
Saturday, January 30, 1999 THE MAKERS OF PSYCHOHISTORY
Charles Strozier RESEARCH PROJECT
To write the history of psychohistory, the Forum is interviewing the founders of our field to create a record of their challenges and Call for Papers accomplishments. It welcomes participants who P will help identify, interview, and publish s Special Theme Issues accounts of the founding of psychohistory. y 1999 and 2000 Contact Paul H. Elovitz (see information, p. 2). c h The Relationship of Academia, Psycho- Call for Nominations o history, and Psychoanalysis (March, 1999) THE MAKERS OF PSYCHOHISTORY The Psychology of Legalizing Life RESEARCH PROJECT [What is this???] To write the history of psychohistory, Psychogeography the Forum is interviewing the founders of our field to create a record of their challenges and Meeting the Millenium accomplishments. It welcomes participants who will help identify, interview, and publish Free Subscription accounts of the founding of psychohistory. For every paid library subscription ($40), the person donating or arranging it will receive a year’s subscription to Clio’s Psyche free. Help The Psychohistory Forum is pleased to announce Clio’s Psyche Page 116 The Young Psychohistorian 1998/99 Membership Awards September, 2000 John Fanton recently received his medical degree and is doing his five year residency in Providence, Rhode Island. Currently, he is at the Children's Hospital, Women and Infants Hospital, and the Butler Psychiatric Hospital. His goal is to become a child maltreatment expert working in the area of Preventive Psychiatry. At the IPA in 1997 he won the Lorenz AwardTo Join for histhe paper Psychohistory on improving parenting List in Colorado. send e-mail with any subject and message to
Dreamwork Resources The Historical Dreamwork Method is available to help the biographer better under- Call for Nominations stand the dreams of the subject and other as- pects of psychobiography. Clio's Psyche wel- Halpern Award comes papers on historical dreamwork for pub- for the lication and for presentation at Psychohistory Best Psychohistorical Idea Forum meetings. Contact Paul H. Elovitz (see in a page 43). Book, Article, or Computer Site This Award may be granted at the level of Distinguished Scholar, Graduate, or Undergraduate.
Call for Papers Special Theme Issues 1999 and 2000 The Relationship of Academia, Psy- chohistory, and Psychoanalysis (March, 1999) Our Litigious Society PsychoGeography Meeting the Millennium Manias and Depressions in Econom- ics and Society Letters to the Editor Contact the Editor at
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Clio's Psyche of the Psychohistory Book Review Essay Forum Call for Papers Next Psychohistory Forum Meeting Future of Psychohistory and Psychoanalysis in Saturday, January 30, 1999 the Light of the Demise of the Psychohistory Charles Strozier Political Personality and "Putting the Psychoanalyst on the Couch: A Biography of Heinz Kohut" CharacterThe Best of Clio's Psyche The Psychohistory Forum is pleased to announce Additionalthe creation of Articles The Best of Clio's Psyche. Are Requested for the Call for Nominations This 94-page collection of many of the best and mostSeptember popular articles Issue from of 1994 to the for the current issue Clio'sis available Psyche: for $20 a copy and to students using it in a course for $12. Best of Clio's Psyche TheIt will bePsychology distributed free to Membersof at By July 1 please list your favorite arti- the OnlineSupporting levelCommunication and above as well as Two- cles, interviews, and Special Issues (no Year Subscribers upon their next renewal. Call for Nominations Clio's Psyche of the Psychohistory Forum Halpern Award Forthcoming infor the the June Issue Call for Papers To Join Best Psychohistorical Idea Interview with a Distinguished Violence in American Life and Mass Murder as the in a Featured Psychohistorian Disguised Suicide Book, Article, or Computer AssessingAdditional Apocalypticism Articlesand Millennialism "The Insane Author of the Oxford aroundAre the RequestedYear 2000 for the English Dictionary"Site PsychoGeography September Issue of "JewsThis Award in Europe may After be granted World atWar the II" level Election 2000Clio's Psyche: of Distinguished Scholar, Graduate, or PsychobiographyCall for Papers "AUndergraduate. Psychohistorian's Mother and Her ManiasThe and DepressionsPsychology in Economics ofand Legacy" SocietySpecial Theme Issues OnlineThe Psychology 1999Communication of Incarceration and 2000 and Crime Hayman Fellowships Our Litigious Society The University of California Interdisci- PsychoGeographyCall for Nominations plinary Psychoanalytic Consortium announces for the Meeting the Millennium Best of Clio's Psyche The Best of Manias and Depressions in Econom- Clio's Psyche icsBy and July Society 1, please list your favorite arti- cles, interviews, and Special Issues (no The Psychohistory Forum is pleased to The Psychology of America as the announce the creation of The Best of Clio's World'smore thanPoliceman three in each category) and send the information to the Editor (see Psyche. Truthpage and 3) for Reconciliation the August publication. in South This 93-page collection of many of the best and most popular articles from 1994 to the Africa September, 1999, issue is available for $20 a copy 600-1500 words and to students using it in a course for $12. Legalizing Life: Our Litigious Society The Contact It will be distributed free to Members The Truth and Reconciliation Commission as renewing at the Supporting level and above as well a ModelPaul for H. Healing Elvoitz, PhD, Editor as Subscribers upon their next two-year renewal. The Processes of627 Peacemaking Dakota Trail and Peacekeeping The PsychologyFranklin of America Lakes, as NJ the 07417 World’s