PSYCHOANALYSIS AND THE PERSONALITY PROFILING OF IDEOLOGICAL ADVERSARIES A

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MAKING ENEMIES: PSYCHOANALYSIS AND THE PERSONALITY PROFILING OF
IDEOLOGICAL ADVERSARIES

A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for a PhD in
Psychoanalysis, awarded by Middlesex University.

AUTHOR:

Barry Geoghegan

SUBMISSION DATE:

March 2016
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ABSTRACT

Focusing in particular on a psychoanalytic understanding of terrorism and
adversarial political leaders, this thesis undertakes the textual analyses of
significant individual profiles and the key texts reflecting psychoanalytic personality
pathology profiling. The thesis situates the methodology of this normative, clinically
oriented paradigm within the psychobiographic tradition of applied psychoanalysis
and critiques the medico-scientific validity of ‘at a distance’ pathologising profiles.

The thesis presents its own analytic tools such as ‘clinical parallelism’, where a
determinist ahistorical schema of a parallel clinical case is superimposed onto the
psychobiographical subject. Arguing that it represents a paradigm shift in
psychobiography, a methodological distinction is made between the
characterological, traditionally Freudian subject of psychobiography, who is
developed by the speculative reconstruction of childhood relationships. This is in
contradistinction from a more object relational personological subject who is mainly
inferred from adult behaviour. The distinction is emphasised throughout the thesis,
and introduced through the wartime psychoanalytic profiles of Hitler.

The origins and early history of the overarching discipline of psychobiography
including a critique of Freud’s only dedicated psychobiography of Leonardo Da Vinci
are explored. This demonstrates that the flaws which surfaced early on in the
psychobiographic project are still apparent in modern personality pathology profiling.
Political personality profiling is then situated within the context of post War American
psychoanalysis and its relationship to American political culture, and there is an
exploration of the ethical dilemmas particularly in respect of the Barry Goldwater
affair, which have ensued.

Predicated in particular, on the notion of early disturbed or traumatogenic object
relating leading to narcissistic and paranoid functioning in adult life, the thesis
examines how psychoanalytic theories are adapted in the pathologising discourse.
There is a critique of the way psychoanalytic conceptualisations are integrated with
ideological imperatives most notably by the principal protagonist of the thesis, Jerrold
Post and the personality pathology theorists’ analysis of terrorist ‘pathology’.

The thesis concludes by arguing that the elision of psychoanalysis with the
Western hegemonic and normative ideological position of the personality pathology
paradigm represents an inherent bias. This risks through for example Nancy Kobrin’s
cultural psychobiographic analysis of suicide terrorism, alienating in particular Islam,
and undermines the perception of psychoanalysis as a universal discipline.
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OBJECTIVES

1. To critically investigate the historical context of psychobiography within
psychoanalysis, its methodology and precepts.

2. To show that normative interpretations of psychoanalytic concepts are deployed
in adversarial political personality profiles, with the intention of constructing
pathological subjects out of ideological adversaries.

3. To argue that the ‘at a distance’ technique deployed in personality pathology
profiling cannot replicate the clinical context of psychoanalysis, and thus have
neither diagnostic validity nor predictive efficacy.

4. To critique the taken for granted assumptions of personality pathology theory, in
the psychoanalytic discourse of terrorism.

The thesis has as its overarching research question:

‘Can evidence be provided that psychoanalysis has been deployed for the
ideologically determined personality pathologising of the leaderships of adversarial
political regimes or those adversarial groups labelled as terrorist?’

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to acknowledge the following contribution: Debbie Howes, Catherine
Geoghegan, Geraldine Day and Edward Day for their tolerance, encouragement and
love; my supervisors Professor Antonia Bifulco and Dr Anne Worthington for their
academic support and guidance.
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CONTENTS

ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................................................... 2
OBJECTIVES .................................................................................................................................. 3
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................................. 3
1 The Ideological Context........................................................................................................ 9
2 The Assimilation of Psychoanalysis in American Culture. .................................... 11
CHAPTER ONE: ............................................................................................................................... 14
SETTING THE SCENE ................................................................................................................... 14
1 Introduction. ......................................................................................................................... 15
2 Chapter Structure and Summaries. .............................................................................. 15
3 Key Concepts Defined. ....................................................................................................... 20
4 Psychobiography as Case History in Applied Psychoanalysis. ............................. 24
5 Developing the Psychoanalytic Narrative of the Subject. ....................................... 26
6 Flaws Inherent in the Psychobiographic Method. ..................................................... 29
7 Countertransference and Psychobiographic Bias. .................................................... 33
8 Clinical Neutrality and Scientific Validity in Psychobiography. ........................... 37
9 Identification and the Power to Label. .......................................................................... 40
10 Evidential Limitations in Psychobiographic Analyses. ........................................... 43
11 Conclusion. .......................................................................................................................... 47
CHAPTER TWO: ............................................................................................................................... 48
METHODS ......................................................................................................................................... 48
1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 49
2 Collecting Evidence. ............................................................................................................ 49
3 Ethics....................................................................................................................................... 52
4 Clinical Parallelism. ............................................................................................................ 53
5 A Differentiation between Personality and Character in Psychobiography. ..... 56
6 Conclusion. ............................................................................................................................ 61
CHAPTER THREE: .......................................................................................................................... 63
THE EARLY BEGINNINGS OF THE PSYCHOBIOGRAPHIC PROJECT .......................... 63
1 Introduction. ......................................................................................................................... 64
2 Freud’s Early Psychobiographic Musings. .................................................................. 64
3 Isidor Sadger and the Pathography Debate. ............................................................... 68
4 Leonardo, Freud’s First Dedicated Psychobiography. ............................................. 72
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5 The Clinical Significance of Leonardo’s ‘Vulture’ Fantasy. .................................... 77
6 Introducing Psychoanalytic Concepts into Historical Research. ......................... 80
7 The Cultural Perspective in Psychobiography. .......................................................... 82
8 Freud’s Study of Woodrow Wilson, the First Political Psychobiography. .......... 85
9 The Controversy over Freud’s Involvement in the Wilson ‘Pathography’. ......... 88
10 Conclusion. ......................................................................................................................... 90
CHAPTER FOUR: ..................................................................................................................... 92
WHAT MAKES HITLER ‘TICK’?: PROFILING THE ENEMY ........................................ 92
1 Introduction. ......................................................................................................................... 93
2 Background to and Personnel of the Langer Study. ................................................ 94
3 Langer’s Motivational Analysis and Methodology. .................................................... 96
4 Hitler and the Primal Scene. ............................................................................................ 98
5 The Coprophilic Perversion at the Core of Hitler’s Personality. ......................... 101
6 Hitler’s Syphilophobia and Ideological Anti-Semitism. ......................................... 103
7 The Theoretical Distinction between the Langer and Murray Approaches. ... 106
8 The ‘Prediction’ of Hitler’s Suicide. .............................................................................. 109
9 Post and a Modern Re-Appraisal of the Langer Study. ......................................... 112
10 A Culturally Oriented Psychobiographic Perspective of Hitler. ........................ 114
11 Conclusion. ....................................................................................................................... 116
THE MODERN CONTEXT OF POLITICAL PROFILING .................................................. 118
1 Introduction. ....................................................................................................................... 119
2 Psychological Wellbeing in the American Political Establishment. ................... 119
3 Renatus Hartogs and the ‘Schizoid’ Lee Harvey Oswald. ..................................... 121
4 Hartogs the Accidental Profiler ..................................................................................... 126
5 Barry Goldwater: The Anti-Establishment Presidential Candidate. ................. 128
6 ‘Psychiatrists use Curse Words’: Slander by Diagnosis. ...................................... 129
7 President Richard Nixon Directs the Burglary of a Psychoanalyst. .................. 134
8 Jerrold Post: The Ethics of Political Profiling ........................................................... 136
9 Conclusion. .......................................................................................................................... 144
CHAPTER SIX: ............................................................................................................................... 146
THE PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY BEHIND JERROLD POST’S PERSONOLOGICAL
PROFILING. ..................................................................................................................................... 146
1 Introduction. ....................................................................................................................... 147
2 Modern Conceptual Developments of the Pathologising Discourse. ................ 147
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3 Object Relations and Adapting the Kleinian Notion of Paranoia. ...................... 150
4 Heinz Kohut and the Turn to Narcissism. ................................................................. 154
5 The Traumatic Triggering of Narcissistic Pathology............................................... 157
6 Borderline Functioning. .................................................................................................. 159
7 Jerrold Post’s Conceptualisation of Political Narcissism. .................................... 163
8 The ‘Grandiose Self’ of the Narcissistic Leader. ....................................................... 167
9 The ‘Ideal-hungry Personality’ of the Follower. ........................................................ 169
10 Charismatically Led Religious Cults as Model for Terrorist Groups. ............. 173
11 The Temporarily Overwhelmed Follower of the Charismatic Leader. ............ 176
12 Destructive and Reparative Charismatic Leaders. ............................................... 178
13 Jerrold Post and Task-Oriented Personality Profiling. ........................................ 181
14 The Malignant Narcissist as Political Leader. ........................................................ 183
15 Saddam Hussein and the Evolution of a Profile. .................................................. 187
16 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 191
CHAPTER SEVEN: ........................................................................................................................ 193
PSYCHO-CULTURAL CRITIQUES AND IDEOLOGICAL POLEMICS............................. 193
1 Introduction. ....................................................................................................................... 194
2 A Psychoanalytic Discourse of Political Terrorism. ................................................ 195
3 The Ideological Determinants and Clinical Psychoanalytic Theorisation. ...... 198
4 Psychoanalysts and Overt Ideological Polemics. ..................................................... 202
5 Nancy Kobrin’s Cultural Psychobiography of Islam. ............................................. 206
6 Normative Conceptualisations of Ego Development. ............................................. 212
7 Developmental Ascriptions for Contingent Categories. ......................................... 213
8 A Collective Phantasy as Opposed to Individual Fantasy. ................................... 217
9 The Ideological Exploitation of the ‘Inclination to Aggression’. .......................... 221
10 The Psychic Conditioning for Brutality. .................................................................... 223
11 Conclusion. ....................................................................................................................... 227
CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................................. 229
1 Introduction. ....................................................................................................................... 230
2 The Limitations of the Research. .................................................................................. 231
3 The Overarching Flaws Inherent in the Psychobiographic Project. .................. 235
4 Bias and Personality Pathology Theory. ..................................................................... 237
5 Psychobiography as a Personal Construct and a More Holistic Approach. ... 242
BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................................................. 247
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INTRODUCTION
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1 The Ideological Context

‘The cause is not the cause ... individuals become terrorists in order to join terrorist
groups and commit acts of terrorism’
(Post, 1998, p 35, emphasis in the original).

‘political terrorists are driven to commit acts of violence as a consequence of
psychological forces, and that their special psycho-logic is constructed to rationalize
acts they are psychologically compelled to commit’
(Post, 1998, p 25, emphasis in the original).

‘To succeed in achieving its espoused cause would threaten the goal of
survival ... Terrorists whose only sense of significance comes from being terrorists
cannot be forced to give up terrorism, for to do so would be to lose their reason for
being’
(Post, 1998, p 38, emphasis in the original).

‘for the paranoid individual seeking a “legitimate” channel for his aggression, the
terrorist group provides an ideal venue. Because terrorists bring their personalities
with them when they enter the group, the same personality distortions that led to
their conflict and isolation in society will express themselves in the group’
(Post, 1986, p 223).

In constituting the pathological terrorist subject, Jerrold Post’s statements above
represent the key ‘ideological’ tenets of the ‘personality pathology’ theory of
terrorism. As the leading proponent of this personality pathology paradigm and the
principle protagonist of this thesis, Post’s personality pathology model is inherently
predicated on the presumption that terrorists are a distinct psychologically
classifiable group. As such, they have a uniform psychological functioning or
‘psycho-logic’ (Post, 1998, p 25). The central hypothesis of the personality
pathology theory of terrorism is then, that terrorists are driven by internal
psychological forces and thus not motivated ‘to achieve instrumental (e.g. political
or economic) goals but rather rationalize violent acts that they are compelled to
commit’ (Post, 2000, p 172).
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Exploiting the psychoanalytic theories of early object relating from principally
Heinz Kohut and Otto Kernberg, Post and the mainstream of personality pathology
theorists argue that terrorism reflects not simply group pathology, but an
accumulation of individually pathological group members. Similarly, as Shmuel
Erlich points out, the individual terrorist in the ‘currently widely held
psychoanalytic stance is clearly expressed in this formulation that mistreatment,
delinquency, and disregard for others stem from faulty or traumatogenic early
object relations’ (Erlich, 2003, p 148).

The terrorist group is seen in personality pathology theory as providing a home
for these narcissistically injured paranoid individuals, with the group’s functioning
then reflecting their paranoid pathology. Attempting compromise with terrorists
would be ineffectual, because that would threaten their psychological raison d’être
of perpetuating terrorist violence (Post, 1986; Post, 1998). So that for Kernberg, the
‘only effective way to deal with terrorism is to control and defeat it’, echoed by
former US Vice President Dick Cheney who tells Fox News in January 2006 ‘[w]e
don’t negotiate with terrorists. I think you have to destroy them’, (Kernberg, 2003,
p 964; Newsmax, NewsMax.com Wires, January the 20th, 2006).

Recognition of a negotiable existential casus belli is counterproductive to a
narrative in which the conceptualisation of terrorism is framed in terms of
unconscious motivations existing within the terrorist himself. The thesis argument
is that a taken for granted, hegemonic, normative ‘Western’ perspective, has
enlisted psychoanalytic conceptualisations in support of one side in explaining
politico/ideological conflicts. As Raymond Corrado argues, political terrorists are
then seen as engaging ‘in gratuitous violence, which reveals psychopathological
rather than socio-political’ causes (Corrado, 1981, p 295). The policy consequences
are that if terrorists are pathological, ‘their political demands can be ignored and
the strategic focus will be overwhelmingly a military response. If terrorists are
political idealists, then it raises the possibility that complex political and social
issues must be addressed by governmental policy’ (ibid, p 293).

At the present time, the Western preoccupation is with the rise of Islamic State or
ISIS. Pretending Graeme Wood believes, that ISIS ‘isn’t actually a religious,
millenarian group, with theology that must be understood to be combatted, has
already led the United States to underestimate it and back foolish schemes to