Description

Using analytic skills honed to a sharp edge with years of psychotherapy experience, John Berecz explores such contemporary issues as “Was Nixon a wife-beater?” “Is Dubya smart enough to be president?” “Is Gore too uptight to lead the free world?” “Did the 2000 election boil down to a choice between personality and competence?” Skillfully, Berecz explores the relationship between character and personality, helping the reader understand how a man with the moral integrity of Jimmy Carter could bungle the presidency and a man like Clinton, with so little character, could manage it so successfully.

Drawing on three decades of teaching and therapy, Berecz burrows beneath the surface of personality and character to reveal the real person working in the Oval Office. With penetrating insight and concise writing, the author acquaints the reader with the real people behind the pageantry of the presidency.

This book clearly disentangles the contradictions of Bill Clinton’s presidency by examining his split personality. Berecz explains and clinically documents Clinton’s dual personalities: a sociopathic personality (Slick Willy) and a codependent personality (Baptist Billy). Resulting from Clinton’s two-world childhood, these personalities are only loosely connected and operate serially to control his behavior. Like many adult children of alcoholics (ACA), Clinton seeks-by-turn-to please or to manipulate. Baptist Billy told voters, “I feel your pain,” and he did, but Slick Willy said he “didn’t inhale” and didn’t have sex with “that woman.”

Character in Chief is a must-read for anyone interested in politics in general and the presidency in particular. Berecz will lead you to a deeper understanding of our great democracy and the people who lead it with fairness and compassion.