Formative Events in Presidential Psychobiography

Early childhood is a critically important stage because it shapes development of the principal desires and patterns of life. A dominant desire, such as for achievement, for wealth, or for protecting endangered people, can usually be traced to experiences and responses in the first few years of life. My psychobiographical research has emphasized situations or events in the early childhood of males that are unusual and that can be interpreted as having major influences on personality development.

One type of unusual childhood situation occurs when the son’s father is 20 or more years older than the mother. Typically, the much older father is a benign rather than threatening parent.

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The son becomes more closely attached to his young mother and grows to be self-confident and assertive. His strong identification with his mother, combined with his minimal fear of his father, may result in a compensatory reaction of exaggerated masculine assertiveness. Extraordinary ambition and dominance characterize the following four men whose fathers were much older than their mothers.

When future President Franklin D. Roosevelt was born in 1882, his father was 53 years old and his mother was 27. In the case of Adolf Hitler, his father was 52 and his mother was 27. Sigmund Freud’s father was 40 and his mother was 20 at the time of his birth. For all three of these pairs of parents, it was the father’s second marriage and the mother’s only marriage. At the birth of George Peter Murdock, an anthropologist who was the principal developer and leader of cross-cultural research using ethnographic reports, his father was 50 and his mother 23. In this case, it was the only marriage of both parents.

Another unusual experience is the death of the father prior to the birth of the child. This tragic event has a major effect on the social environment of the family. The son who grows up without a father may be expected to develop strong identification with his widowed mother. He may also develop a strong desire to emulate the idealized descriptions of his dead father while being free from the punitive and threatening attributes of a living father. Three Presidents of the United States—Andrew Jackson, Rutherford Hayes, and Bill Clinton—were born posthumously. Each of these Presidents tried with substantial success to be an exemplary father figure for the people of the United States. Jackson was a fervent, aggressive populist; Hayes provided an honest administration, helping to reconcile post Civil War Northern and Southern whites; and a prominent part of Clinton’s Presidential program was “putting people first.”

I have identified several other famous men who were born after the death of their father. An especially powerful leader was Muhammad, founder of the Islamic religion. Legends state that his father died either just before or shortly after Muhammad’s birth. Islam demands complete obedience to Allah, who constitutes an exalted father figure. Two kings of England, Henry VII and William III, who were born after their fathers died, were diligent and shrewd monarchs. Other eminent Englishmen born after their fathers died were the great scientist Isaac Newton and the great journalist Jonathan Swift, author of Gulliver’s Travels.

A more frequent occurrence is that of a boy whose middle name is the same as his mother’s premarital surname. The special name connection may increase the attachment of the mother and son, perhaps diminishing the boy’s subordination to his father. I applied this research to the Presidents of the United States because their political achievement is distinctive and their prominence increased the availability of substantial biographical information. The middle name of eight Presidents was the mother’s premarital surname: James Knox Polk, Thomas Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Lyndon Baines Johnson, Richard Milhous Nixon, Ronald Wilson Reagan, and George Herbert Walker Bush. A brother of each of these Presidents had the same first name as the father. Biographical information indicates that during childhood, in comparison with the brother named after the father, the future President whose middle name associated him with the mother was generally more similar to and more closely affiliated with her. The Presidential policy of these eight Presidents was assertive and militant, with most of them directing major warfare while commander in chief.

The death of a parent during early childhood is a traumatic event with the child tending to react with feelings of anxiety and depression. Several studies have shown elevated incidence of childhood bereavement among psychiatric patients. The child also may react to this dreadful loss by increased self-reliance, initiative, and ambition. Thus, in rare cases, early bereavement sometimes leads to future residence in the White House rather than in a mental hospital. For example, Presidents John Tyler and Abraham Lincoln lost their mothers at ages seven and nine. George Washington’s father died when he was 11, Andrew Johnson’s when he was three, and James Garfield’s when he was one. Herbert Hoover suffered a double loss, losing his father at six and his mother at nine. Both symptoms of a stressful childhood and unusual achievement were exhibited by each of these six Presidents, as well by Jackson, Hayes, and Clinton, who were born after their fathers’ deaths.

When an infant dies, the grief of the parents might have a severe effect on the young children in the family. An infant sister died when Washington was eight years old; John Quincy Adams, two; and James Buchanan, ten. An infant brother died when James Madison was seven; Chester A. Arthur, seven; and Dwight Eisenhower,

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four. Jefferson was six and seven years old when two brothers died successively in infancy. Benjamin Harrison was five when his infant sister died and six when his infant brother died. Most of these nine Presidents were introspective or intellectual rather than gregarious.

The death of a sibling who is old enough to walk and talk may have a more severe effect on the young child. Lincoln was four years old when his brother died at the age of two. Hayes was two when his brother died at the age of nine. Both Presidents suffered from severe episodes of depression during adulthood.

George W. Bush, a first-born child, was given his father’s first name. Contrary to the typical pattern for boys with these characteristics, he was a mediocre student but very socially sensitive and a popular leader. A crucial experience may have been the death of his three-year-old sister when he was seven. The unusual characteristics that led him to the White House may have originated from his response to that traumatic event. He spent much time with his mother, sharing her grief and comforting her. His strong maternal affiliation and assertive adult personality resemble the pattern found among Presidents whose middle name was the same as their mother’s premarital surname. His subsequent identification with and similarity to his father may be enhanced by the fact that his father’s two middle names were derived from the maternal grandfather, George Herbert Walker, rather than from the father, Prescott Bush.

I believe that psychobiographic studies will acquire stronger explanatory and predictive power if they demonstrate that a single influential experience has a similar effect on a sufficient number of people. Other types of influential experiences from more diverse samples of people, including women, as well as alternative interpretations should be selected in future research. Greater diversity of people will increase the generality of the conclusions and the validity of the explanations.

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