The Clintons Meet Freud: A Psychohistory of Bill, Hillary And Chelsea
By Paul Lowinger, M. D.
ISBN: 0964261464
Knoll Press, 2004 / $17.95 / 173 pages [amazon]

This book is for anyone interested in the use of psychological analysis to explain human behavior. The focus is on the Clinton’s but includes a critique of the psychological state of the people in the United States during the Clinton presidency, the decade of the 90’s.

The Clinton’s hidden emotions and secret motivations are exposed in The Clintons Meet Freud by looking at their unconscious minds. Bill’s infancy and childhood, his colorful mother, absent father, alcoholic stepfather and his Arkansas milieu are considered.

Hillary’s suburban Illinois upbringing, demanding father and embittered and passive mother are examined. The Clinton’s only child Chelsea is described as depressed when she experiences frightening thoughts and dreams in response to 9/11.

What others have to say about The Clintons Meet Freud …

“In the historical tradition of Freud and Erikson, Dr. Paul Lowinger presents a fresh perspective on the Clintons and contemporary America...deftly illustrating the interplay of the personal and the political, the psychological and the sociological, and the family and society. The book’s timeliness, accessibility and lively prose make it especially attractive...” Carl Cohen, M. D., Professor of Psychiatry, State University of New York, Downstate Medical Center, Brooklyn, N. Y.

“A penetrating study of the Clintons, spiced with psyches, sex and political ambition...a series of informed and incisive comments on the Clintons, still an important political family. Insights ... afford some unusual answers.” - Richard J. Kozicki, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus of Politics, University of San Francisco

“...an impressive amount ot research into the ...Clinton family...a lucid and original portrait...an accessible explanation of psychoanalysis...applied to a well known group of individuals.” Astrid Rusquellas, M. D., Berkeley, CA, Fellow of the Academy of Psychoanalysis

Excerpts from The Clinton’s Meet Freud:

Bill had hundreds of affairs “before turning forty” but then he began a concerted effort to be faithful . . .This information suggests to a psycho-historian that Bill began to have episodes of impotence after forty . . .a punishment imposed by the superego or conscience that he rationalized as moral improvement. This was part of a midlife crisis that revived his childhood masturbation guilt with its castration anxiety. . .Bill’s separation anxiety echoes as he says to Monica, “Why do they have to take you away from me? I trust you so much. . .”

Smoldering midlife crises can be fanned into flames by personal stress like the death of Bill’s mother, Virginia, in January, 1994. . .It was during this midlife crisis. . .that Bill acceded to the demands for the appointment of a Special Counsel which led to the Whitewater investigation and eventually to impeachment saying, “I did it because I was exhausted and I had just buried my mother, and because I had people at the White House who couldn’t stand the heat.”

. . .the defeat of the Clinton health care reform. . .involved the complementary sadomasochism of both Hillary and Bill. . .Bill’s mistake, the assignment of a doomed mission to Hillary lies in Bill’s sadism and masochism . . .Hillary’s health plan failed by February, 1994. . .in December, 1993, the stories about the Arkansas state troopers’ procurement of women for Governor Bill began to appear and soon the First Couple were barely speaking to each other. . .there were no arm-twisting presidential phone calls to the Hill for Hillary’s health bill . . . It was the masochistic Hillary who withdrew her failed health plan from the Congress . . .

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