The Psychological Assessment of Political Leaderstent and setting the stage for Ayatollah Khomeini's Islamic revolu-
tion. In his rush to accomplish his dreams before he died, the Shah
superimposed his personal timetable on the political timetable.
The Role of the MentorThe role of the mentor in determining a leader's political behavior is
extremely consequential, and it is important to subject it to careful
analysis. Young losif Dzhugashvili (who was not to assume the pseu-
donym Stalin until twenty years later), oppressed by the rigors of the
Orthodox seminary in Tbilisi, rebelled by smuggling in the works of
Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin. He came particularly to admire,
indeed idealize, Lenin through his revolutionary writings and left
the seminary to serve the cause of the revolution and assist his ideal-
ized mentor in pursuing that dream. But the contrast between Lenin
as idealized model at a distance and Lenin as personal mentor was
striking. A mentor is both a role model for political behavior, the
source of important political ideas, and a teacher of the practice of
politics, but a mentor also can be seen as an impediment to achiev-
ing power. Initially a loyal protege, increasingly Stalin became
restive under Lenin's leadership, seeking power and authority for
himself, which led to a powerful confrontation between Stalin and
his mentor when Stalin was in his early forties. Lenin subsequently
suffered a disabling stroke, and Stalin went on to consolidate his
power.
Another example of lifelong effects of a positive role model,
although not as intense a relationship as that of Stalin to Lenin, is
provided by Menachem Begin, who early came to admire the Zion-
ist pioneer Vladimir Jabotinsky, whose dreams of a secure Jewish
homeland were deeply influential and became consolidated within
Begin as a core aspect of his political personality.
The Influence of Early Experiences
Autobiographic memoirs are a particularly rich source of material
for determining the political behavior of leaders. With Menachem
Begin we were fortunate to have not one but two memoirs: White
Nights, which detailed his years in political exile in Siberia, and The
Revolt, the story of his leadership of the underground resistance
group Irgun in the struggle for Israeli independence. Begin
recounts being seared by the experience of losing many of his fam-