Clinton Needs Psychotherapy (article)

What is it with Clinton?, is what we keep asking ourselves. Why does he persist in sexual behavior that lands him in so much trouble? It was not enough that he got into trouble once with Gennifer Flowers; then he got into trouble again with Paula Jones. Was he so grandiose that he thought he would not get into trouble with another sexual adventure? He certainly took greater risks with Monica Lewinsky by engaging in “wrongdoing” under his own roof in the White House; he says he knew that sooner or later she would make it public. Then why did he persist?

It has been suggested that he has an addiction to sex. Is his addiction so out of control that he needed the entire country to stop it? Is he so much in need of love that the nation needs to prove their love for him through their acceptance of his bad self again and again? A majority of the public seems to feel that they will do that for him again, but this time not unconditionally. The general consensus is that he has made it clear that he has a problem dealing with his sexuality and that it is time he takes care of this problem and gets on with the job of governing.

I fully agree with this assessment and believe that he needs psychotherapeutic counseling. The first thing that needs to be defined is whether this symptom is encapsulated or generalized; that is, can he perform in his capacity as President, or is he so preoccupied with sexual thoughts that it impairs his performance? As a psychoanalyst I would have to assume that anxiety about fear of losing something that is psychologically important to him is at the base of his repetitive symptom. If this is so, I would have to assume that losing the Presidency is not as important as losing this other something. The function of symptomatic behavior is to distance awareness from that which we are afraid to lose. His repetitive behavior seems to communicate a wish to be remembered as a sexually potent President, and this unconsciously seems to be more important to him. Consciously he denies that his thoughts are or were on sex (“I did not have sex with that woman”) and that the only important thing to is to be an effective President.

It has been my clinical experience with men who engage in sexual escapades at the risk of losing something important that the casual encounter takes place when the integrity of the self is threatened by some disappointment, some frustration, or what is perceived as an unavoidable but unfair demand. In essence, the unconscious aim of the sexual encounter is both a soothing and an obtaining something from another that is a

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compensation for what they had to put up with or what they have been put through. If one looks at President Clinton’s actions one can imagine the enormous amount of stress a President is under; and if we add to that the constant opposition and scrutiny from Congress and the Independent Counsel, he must sometimes feel that he deserves time out to play. The sexual encounter can restore a sense of lightness when he is feeling over-burdened, a sense of entitlement when feeling depleted, a sense of restoration of his power when his power or potency has been systematically eroded.

It could be, in psychoanalytic terms, a regression in the service of the ego. When there is a regression in the ego, the omnipotence and grandiosity, which we manage to control as we mature, reappears. At one level there is awareness that there is danger, but it becomes intellectualized and split off from the feeling ego. Prior to the moment of sexual involvement the ego experience is one of depletion; with the sexual encounter it returns to a place where it can feel stronger and soothed. From there the ego reconstitutes itself and returns to a more normal level of functioning, thus creating a temporary feeling of wellbeing. If this is so in President Clinton’s case then this form of soothing had to be discovered some time back as the only possible way to cope with painful or threatening stimuli.

As we proceed developmentally, coping mechanisms undergo transformations and adaptations to the demands of the adult world. It is also possible for some of them to evolve but not others, thus creating an encapsulated infantile pocket. What is wrong with Clinton could be precisely this: an encapsulated coping mechanism that he needs to change in order to stay out of trouble.

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