Psychoanalytic Assessments of Character and Performancefollowing statement to Lasswell's observation: Analyzing presiden-
tial performance without the tools of modern psychoanalytic theory
is like assessing the performance of a grand prix race car designed
without wheels. It can be done, but it is unlikely to result in much
theoretical or substantive mileage.
Notes
I would like to thank Alonzo Z. Hamby, Alexander L. George, Fred I. Green-
stein, and Jerrold M. Post for their helpful comments on an earlier draft of this
chapter.- Recall Greenstein's (1969) distinctions between three levels of analysis:
phenomonology, dynamics, and development. The first consists of the facts (a)
"as they are," (b) as they are seen, and (c) as they are organized. It is clear that the-
ory plays some role in these processes, especially those (e.g., b and c) that require
some sorting or construction exercise on the part of the analyst. The second, the
dynamic level, consists of theoretically informed hypotheses or tentative expla-
nations that try to account for the facts as they have been seen and constructed.
The third, the developmental level, seeks to account both for the origin and evo-
lution of the characteristics that are put forward to explain the pattern of facts
and for their social and psychological explanations. - News accounts provide at least five kinds of important information for the
analyst. First, they can be used to establish the basic existence of an event, that
is, that the event has taken place. Second, the nature of the event and its place in
a sequence of events can often provide an analyst with important information
with which to help construct an understanding of the meaning of the events.
Third, news accounts can also be used to help establish some of the circumstances
surrounding an event. These details, while most likely incomplete, do help to
deepen appreciation of the context. Related to this is the fourth purpose of news
accounts, which is to convey some sense of an actor's understandings of these
events as reflected in his or her public discussions or actions. Fifth, and very
important, by following such accounts over time one can use later accounts and
outcomes to cross-check the validity of earlier accounts. Differences between pub-
lic portrayals and the emergence into public discourse of what had been private
knowledge can be important data for the analyst. They can reveal elements of
presidential psychology and style that the analysts must take into theoretical
account.
Of course, news accounts, even when cross-checked, have at least three limi-
tations that must be kept in mind. First, reporters may report events accurately
but may miss important aspects of an event, either because it is not evident at the
time, because they did not have access to all that went on, or because they sim-
ply didn't appreciate the implications of what they were reporting. Second,