ABSTRACT
BY THE intensive examination of personality in politics we become aware of the frequency with which unrecognized factors present in the personality of the politician handicap his success. Power holders may deliberately relinquish their position and retire; but we now speak of those who want power. Overwhelming circumstances may liquidate power; but external influences are not germane to the present point. Men and women have often had brilliant careers for a time in politics, yet they have brought blight upon themselves and upon those who believed in them because of the warping effect on judgment and action of certain unconscious tendencies. Without intending to give up power, they have imperiled or lost it. The enormous variety among political figures is strikingly exemplified when we compare them in terms of the realism of their decisions. The result is to cast into high reliéf one group of persons who consciously seek power in spíte of unconscious tendencies that handicap them.
