Poli-Sci or Poli-Psycho?

Analyzing the Brains With The White House In Mind by Nora Zelevansky


These days, you’re no one without a diagnosis.  Just ask Britney Spears, Owen Wilson or Brooke Shields.  Even Oprah Winfrey has a rumored anxiety disorder.  Public life is terribly stressful, especially when combined with great responsibility.  According to Benedict Carey’s article in The New York Times, Duke University Medical Center’s psychiatrists believe that almost half of American presidents from 1789 to 1974 suffered from some mental illness, including depressive Abraham Lincoln and paranoid—possibly psychotic—Richard Nixon.

But instead of being insightfully analyzed under the watchful (and dreamy) eyes of Gabriel Byrne (star of “In Treatment,” TV’s new shrink drama), prominent politicians are scrutinized by pundits, who could probably use a little therapy themselves.  “Once you become president, you belong to the country in a way,” asserts L.A.-based Marriage and Family Therapist Ali Goldstein.  “When you let go of your privacy, you give up some of your personal identity.  You need to appear stoic, so it’s important to have strong emotional support.”  From identity issues to middle child syndrome, the remaining presidential hopefuls each approach the White House with emotional baggage.  Pull out the tissues and hold onto your inner child.  This may be a bumpy ride.

Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John McCain share at least one trait: The desire to be President of the United States.  For average folks, making a living and choosing the night’s DVR line-up is ample responsibility.  “Most likely [the candidates have] been taught—or adopted the idea—that success in public service is the only option,” explains Goldstein, who stresses that she can only speculate from afar.  Still, stories abound about all three candidates musing as children with friends and families about presidential futures.

As usual, parents are largely to blame (or applaud). Barack Obama’s Kenyan father left when he was two-years-old and rarely reappeared, leaving his multiracial son in Hawaii with little information about half of his heritage. “When a child is abandoned by his father, he strives to find him,” Goldstein acknowledges.  “If he can’t do it physically, he may choose to prove himself to the missing parent.”  By all accounts, Obama was always ambitious.

When his unconventional, supportive and passionate mother remarried, she moved her son to Indonesia from ages six to ten.  In his book, Dreams From My Father, the presidential hopeful openly discusses struggles with identity.  “Kids with identity issues tend to search for commonality and can find strength or get lost,” explains Goldstein.  “In Hawaii and Indonesia there might be less obvious commonality anyway, so that would likely be healthy.  His imperative might be to find his own identity in success and eventually change the world for the better.”

Meanwhile, Hillary Rodham Clinton is an oldest child and likely adopted an overachieving leadership role from the beginning. She was both a Brownie and a Girl Scout, a National Honor Society member and a National Merit Finalist.  “The first child often sets the pace and takes care of the others,” explains Rebecca Roy, L.A.-based MFT Intern therapist in private practice, who often treats spotlight-seeking entertainment industry members.  “She often feels extra expectations.”  Emerging from a conservative Republican family, Clinton’s allegiances shifted in college, so she probably had to reconstruct her identity too.  “It’s classic rebelliousness against the values imposed on you,” Goldstein muses.

Clinton seemingly prefers to call her own plays, as her resume is a list of firsts: First female partner at Rose Law Firm, first First Lady to enter the White House with her own career and run for public office, New York’s first female US Senator and the first female primary winner.  She rebuffed Bill Clinton’s first few marriage proposals.  “She has courage and a need to control,” Goldstein illuminates. “Even with her first healthcare initiative, she insisted on doing it her way.  Bill’s presidency was really a stopover on a full steam ahead approach to her career.”
 

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