Presidential Personality and Performance

by George, Alexander L.; George, Juliette L.

• ISBN13: 9780813325910
• ISBN10: 0813325919
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1998-02-26
• Publisher: Westview Pr

Summary

Alexander and Juliette George have long been noted for their pathbreaking research concerning the impact of personality on political behavior and how U.S. presidents manage their political office. The Georges' earlier book,Woodrow Wilson and Colonel House: A Personality Study,was widely acclaimed as a successful demonstration that careful biography of historical figures in the light of depth psychology can yield new insight into their political behavior.Drawing heavily on Wilson materials, early chapters of this book examine the relevance of psychoanalytic theory and the use of other psychodynamic approaches to case materials. Chapter 4 is the Georges' replypublished here in full for the first timeto a critical review of their work by historian Arthur S. Link and two of his colleagues. A condensed version that appeared over a decade ago generated a continuing scholarly controversy in which historians, political scientists, psychiatrists, neurologists, and ophthalmologists have participated.Chapter 5 discusses methods of writing psychobiography and assessing presidential character, including the psychological suitability of candidates for the office. The concluding chapter analyzes the presidential management styles of FDR, Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, JFK, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, George Bush, and Bill Clinton.

Author Biography

Alexander L. George is professor emeritus of international relations at Stanford University. His extensive writings have won many awards, including the Bancroft Prize for Deterrence in American Foreign Policy: Theory and Practice (1974), coauthored with Richard Smoke; a five-year MacArthur Prize Fellowship; the 1997 National Academy of Sciences Award for Behavioral Research Relevant to the Prevention of Nuclear War; and the 1998 Johan Skytte Prize in Political Science. From 1984 until her retirement in 1990, Juliette L. George was a senior scholar at the Institute for International Studies at Stanford University. She is a leading scholar on Woodrow Wilson.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. ix
Acknowledgments	p. xiii
Introduction an Overview	p. 1
Notes	p. 10
The Psychoanalyst and the Biographer	p. 13
Notes	p. 22
Some Uses of Dynamic Psychology in Political Biography: Case Materials on Woodrow Wilson	p. 23
Notes	p. 47
Writing Psychobiography: Some Theoretical and Methodological Issues	p. 55
Notes	p. 73
Woodrow Wilson and Colonel House: a Reply to Weinstein, Anderson, and Link	p. 77
Notes	p. 132
Notes	p. 142
Assessing Presidential Character	p. 145
Notes	p. 188
Presidential Management Styles and Models	p. 199
Conclusion	p. 261
Index	p. 281
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