The Psychological Assessment of Political Leaders With Profiles of Saddam Hussein and Bill Clinton

Jerrold M. Post0472098381, 9780472098385

For policy planners, diplomats, and political and military strategists, accurate personality profiling of leaders is a vital tool, and this fascinating book explores the latest techniques for gauging the psychological traits and behavioral tendencies of individuals and groups, with a surprising degree of predictive insight. Whether the goal is to understand a politician’s motives, to assess an enemy’s true threat, or to identify productive ways to approach negotiating partners, the methods presented here offer a comprehensive approach to the often thorny problem of gathering and analyzing psychological data, even with a minimum of direct evidence. Thirty years ago, editor Jerrold M. Post was asked to create a pilot program for at-a-distance evaluation of foreign leaders for senior government officials. Over time, he assembled an advisory group drawing on a variety of disciplines from political psychology to psycholinguistics, each adding a new dimension to this challenging task. Now, for the first time in a single volume, these experts explain the strengths and weaknesses of each methodology and show how they can be integrated into a useful, systematic response to the ever-changing, highly time-sensitive circumstances of world affairs. Filled with charts and carefully documented examples and explanations, the book demonstrates, for example, how a leader’s speeches–even when ghostwritten–reveal unconscious attitudes that may be at odds with their overt message and how changes in this subliminal content can telegraph future actions. Elsewhere, a range of leadership styles are identified and discussed, along with specific criteria for rating such critical characteristics as aggressiveness, collegiality, flexibility, and trustworthiness. Finally, these varied measurements are shown at work in two remarkable case studies, the first of Bill Clinton, the second–singularly timely indeed–of Saddam Hussein. This engrossing work is at once a meticulously detailed blueprint of state-of-the-art psycho-political analysis and a concise history of its application, from such early examples as Freud’s retrospective assessment of Woodrow Wilson, to the unsystematic but intriguing OSS studies of Hitler during World War II, to more recent applications during the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Camp David Accords, the Gulf War, and more. A rich resource for psychologists, policy-makers, and informed observers of politics in the fast-moving, globalized world of today, this is a book whose time has truly come. Jerrold M. Post is Professor of Psychiatry, Political Psychology, and International Affairs, the Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University Medical Center.