George W. Bush and the Redemptive Dream: A Psychological Profile

In exploring Bush's reasons for invading Iraq, narrative psychologist McAdams (The Person) taps behavioral science to probe the 43rd president's psyche, resulting in a fascinating, fun, and highly unusual profile. McAdams sees the answer in a "perfect psychological storm" of personality traits that came together at a particular moment in history. The first-born son of a privileged family, Bush is a "blazing extravert" who, after the death of his sister, comforted his grieving mother with humorous antics. Though he entered adulthood as a hard drinking and carousing frat boy, marriage and a religious transformation helped him conquer alcoholism and catapulted him into the White House, the redemptive turnaround narrative that Americans admire. Bush also, however, according to McAdams, exhibited a "low openness to experience" that made him unreceptive to other points of view. McAdams upends the conventional wisdom regarding Bush's relationship with his father, finding that the son most often expressed admiration and love, turning the invasion of Iraq into more of a demonstration of filial devotion than an attempt to upstage his dad. Pay no heed to the ponderous title; this accessible and engaging psychobiography easily moves into a must-read tier of works on George W. Bush. (Dec.)