How Paul Elovitz Used What He Learned about Childhood, Leadership, Listening, and Personality to Become a Presidential Psychobiographer of Trump and Biden

ABSTRACT

The author is a psychoanalytically trained presidential psychobiographer who probes the role of leadership in his life and those of presidents. He starts with the roots of leadership in childhood and the ability of leaders to listen to others. While his leadership as a scholar, editor, and teacher in the field of applied psychoanalysis is very different and quite inconsequential when compared to that of the leadership of presidents, the focus on childhood and listening remains the same. Elovitz explores the unusual career of Donald Trump, who defiantly fails to listen to others in his quest for power and at the time of writing is failing to accept his loss of the 2020 presidential election. In contrast, Joseph Biden is an empathetic listener as well as a talker.

KEYWORDS:

• Biden
• childhood
• Elovitz
• presidential-psychobiography
• Trump

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Paul H. Elovitz

Paul H. Elovitz, Ph.D., is affiliated with Clio’s Psyche/The Psychohistory Forum/Ramapo College.