The Psychological Assessment of Political Leadersidentification with Joan of Arc. She marched the soldiers into a fire
again and again, suggesting the early foundation of her career long
bent for conflict, perhaps presaging her ultimate martyr's death in
her assassination by Sikh bodyguards in the Golden Temple. It is
instructive to observe that she was characterized as "the goddess of
destruction" by her political opponents and was seen as a leader who
regularly promoted political conflict, lacking her parents' concilia-
tory skills.
Key Life TransitionsErikson follows the course of personality over the life cycle, identify-
ing the major crisis associated with each developmental epoch.
Drawing on Erikson, Dan Levinson's (1978) work on the life course
is instructive in focusing on the three major life transitions—the
young adult transition, the mid-life transition, and the late adult
transition. Levinson emphasizes that the successful negotiation of
each life transition requires successfully weathering the challenges of
the previous life transition. Levinson's work has important implica-
tions for the influences of the life cycle on the leader's political
behavior (Post 1980, 1984). His emphasis on the role of what he
calls the Dream and the importance of the mentor during youth is
particularly important in understanding the influence of key life
experiences in shaping political personality.
Foundations of the Dream: Childhood Heroes and Models
It is important to search for the foundation of political ambition—
the Dream—the crystallization of political ambition that for some
can serve as a lode star. Childhood heroes and models are important
to identify. Young Anwar Sadat, for example, as a boy identified
with Mohandas Gandhi and would cloak himself in a sheet, leading
his goat around while on a self-imposed fast, the germs of his later
role as peacemaker between Egypt and Israel that won him the
Nobel Peace Prize.
The Dream, formed in adolescence, may be the spur to future
greatness, a quest that can be accelerated when confronting major ill-
ness. Both King Hussein and Palestinian chairman Yasir Arafat had
survived over the years by carefully assessing political risks. Hussein
had never broken from major Arab constituencies; nor had Arafat, in