Lately those most likely to seek high political office also seem to be those most likely to implode in weird public psychodramas of their own devising. Typically, sex is the vehicle: Somehow an otherwise intelligent person, typically male (sex scandals are still the ultimate glass ceiling, though this will surely change as more women maneuver their way into traditionally masculine enclaves of power), “forgets” that sending lewd photos of himself to constituents or assaulting hotel maids or committing serial groping or frequenting high-priced prostitutes is unlikely to stay private for long in today’s exposé-driven political culture.
1But how much do we really know about why people turn their erotic capacities and drives into instruments of self-flagellation rather than pleasure, while seemingly oblivious to the consequences? In this connection, Susan Wise Bauer’s The Art of the Public Grovel: Sexual Sin and Public Confession in America (2008) should be required reading. (In fact, anyone seeking public office might want to order a copy pronto.) Remember: An apology is not the same thing as a confession, Bauer advises those caught in sex scandals. An apology is simply an expression of regret, whereas a confession requires an expression of fault, and the public is keenly attuned to the difference.
2If confessions require genuine soul-searching, note that this is largely an impossible task, according to a rather alarming book by psychologist Herbert Fingarette titled simply Self-Deception (1969). Not only is “spelling things out” to oneself an acquired skill, but there can be compelling reasons to avoid doing it, and to avoid becoming conscious of your avoidance. (See under: Edwards, John.) In other words, all the self-examination in the world isn’t going to help anyone bent on self-deception, which unfortunately applies to all of us, at least some of the time.
3In fact, nothing is more endemic to the human species, according to psychoanalyst Theodor Reik, an acolyte of Freud’s. In The Compulsion to Confess: On the Psychoanalysis of Crime and Punishment (1945), Reik posits a universal tendency toward guilt, which he links to a buried need for self-punishment. This is what prompts people to commit crimes for which they absolutely know, at some subterranean level, they’ll be caught and punished. In fact, getting caught is the point. Not a cheery premise, to say the least. In any case, watching one public figure after another set himself up for inevitable public disgrace might prompt us to ask whether the drives that lead people to seek higher office are the same drives that should also disqualify them. Obviously, the psychology of men in power is a far darker continent than we yet understand.
Laura Kipnis is the author of “How to Become a Scandal: Adventures in Bad Behavior” and a professor at Northwestern.
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