The Clinton Syndrome: The President and the Self-Destructive Nature of Sexual Addiction

Rating:
Summary: What everyone should consider before judgement
Review: Dr. Levin is an expert on addictions and the psychological forces that fuel them. His professional knowledge, combined with a good deal of research on Clinton's life, make his "speculative" case compelling and convincing. Clinton's stormy childhood has been acknowledged, but Levin is the first to trace cause and effect, and to try to penetrate Clinton's psyche--the place, of course, where the Lewinsky scandal sprang from. Levin pieces together past and present, and makes a compelling case for sexual addiction and unconscious trauma. Levin needs a writer, however, to craft his argument into a more convincing and fleshed out whole. A voyeuristic psychological profile of a political figure is a treacherous endeavor, especially considering the moral miasma that political scandals wade in. And Levin's conventional and informal prose do not do his subject, or his professional knowledge and experience, justice. But if you realize that Levin is a psychologist, and not a writer, you will be rewarded with a much needed and convincing portrait of our President as a psychological being.

Rating:
Summary: Finally a psychological perspective!
Review: Dr. Levin is an expert on addictions and the psychological forces that fuel them. His professional knowledge, combined with a good deal of research on Clinton's life, make his "speculative" case compelling and convincing. Clinton's stormy childhood has been acknowledged, but Levin is the first to trace cause and effect, and to try to penetrate Clinton's psyche--the place, of course, where the Lewinsky scandal sprang from. Levin pieces together past and present, and makes a compelling case for sexual addiction and unconscious trauma. Levin needs a writer, however, to craft his argument into a more convincing and fleshed out whole. A voyeuristic psychological profile of a political figure is a treacherous endeavor, especially considering the moral miasma that political scandals wade in. And Levin's conventional and informal prose do not do his subject, or his professional knowledge and experience, justice. But if you realize that Levin is a psychologist, and not a writer, you will be rewarded with a much needed and convincing portrait of our President as a psychological being.

Rating:
Summary: Who would buy this?
Review: Prima Publishing, a small company known for appealing to a market segment of right-wingers who have $24.95 to throw around on tacky books like the Starr Report, was counting on this book to be their big bestseller this year. Whoops. It's a clumsily-written analysis of Clinton that will surprise no one. Near the end of the book, the author -- some bearded, wild-eyed quack who no one else would publish -- appeals for the President to get help by going to see a therapist like the author himself. How touching.

Rating:
Summary: What everyone should consider before judgement
Review: This book is a must read for everyone who is so quick to condemn President Clinton on the grounds of his "zipper problem." It is a poignant biographical book that follows his problem [addiction] through his life.