Behind every leader is an instructive life story. It often promotes a public image that inspires others to live by it. And, sometimes, even to live or to die for it. As leadership qualities and image issues gain significance in the public discourse, the psychological study of leadership is a critical factor in any discussion. With its trenchant insights into leaders past and present, The Leader: Psychological Essays, Second Edition, updates a pioneering text in this field and provides a solid basis for ongoing dialogue on this important subject.

Within the context of the ever-evolving disciplines of psychoanalysis and psychodynamics, this thought-provoking volume examines the lives of several prominent leaders from ancient Greece through the start of the 21st century. The authors explore how these leaders imposed their individual missions and mystiques on others, thereby fulfilling – and, sometimes, creating – distinct needs in their followers.  The volume brings into vivid focus issues with the potential for devastating consequences on the global stage.  

Coverage includes:



Biblical times, ancient Greeks and the seeds of leadership.
Lincoln during the 1850s, leading a dividing nation.
Thomas A. Kohut on Kaiser Wilhelm II and the German national character.
George W. Bush, atonement/redemption narratives and the American Dream.
Bin Laden, man and myth.

A study of paranoid leadership and its implications for future politics and policy.

This must-have Second Edition is indispensable reading for researchers, professors, and graduate students across many disciplines, including political psychology, psychoanalysis, history and political science, psychiatry, anthropology, and personality and social psychology. It is importantreading for anyone with an interest in the life stories of leaders past and present and how they affect our world even long after they are gone