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Though undoubtedly unsatisfactory in many ways, to both psychoanalysts and scholars, this is an unusual book which raises questions deserving of careful thought. It is a political commentary about the work and influence of one living politician by another. Leo Abse was an active and respected back bench Labour Member of Parliament at Westminster for about thirty years until his recent retirement. But, most unusual for a politician, he aims to use psychoanalytical insights.
The intention of the book is unabashedly polemical, seeking to expose the weaknesses and dangers, as the author sees them, inherent in Margaret Thatcher's character. Abse makes no attempt to be balanced in his view, and his gathering of evidence and scholarship is sketchy. What is more, his style, honed no doubt from years of political brawling, is heavily rhetorical in a way that is alien to a psychoanalyst's pen. It is perhaps not surprising that, in Britain at least, the book has offended literary, scientific and political sensitivities and received, with one or two exceptions, bad reviews. So why does it deserve our attention here?
The reason is this: Abse believes that the characters of leaders, particularly in their pathological aspects, together with those of their followers, should be open to public scrutiny. Social and economic factors are insufficient to evaluate properly the dynamics of a leader's charismatic influence. This can often be so powerful and dangerous that leaving an investigation for later history to decide upon the nature of a leader's personal character is irresponsible. So, armed with his reading of psychoanalysis, not only from Freud but also Jones, Klein, Winnicott, Kohut, Segal, Bowlby and others, Abse sets out on his character analysis of Thatcher and his investigation of her influence.
He does not seem to try, or expect, to be praised for his pains, he says: 'Nor, moreover, will many British psychoanalysts approve of this effort to plunder what they regard