U.S. President Andrew Jackson Psychohistory

About the U.S. President Andrew Jackson, history and a psychological analysis or psychohistory.

FULL PORTRAITS OF SELECTED PRESIDENTS

7th President

ANDREW JACKSON

PSYCHOHISTORY

Jackson was one of the most emotionally unstable men ever to be president. Who but Jackson would have fired his entire cabinet simply because he believed they had socially snubbed the wife of one of his friends? Anyone who dared oppose him, even on the most trivial issues, was automatically a "scoundrel" and a "Judas" and worthy of immediate hanging. Jackson had absolutely no sense of humor about himself. On several occasions during his youth, when friends attempted to poke gentle fun at him, the result was a challenge to a duel. This painful insecurity was no doubt the product of the harsh facts of Jackson's childhood and youth. At the age of 14, Jackson lost his mother and both brothers as a result of the war, and in this context his view that the world was out to destroy him becomes comprehensible. The death of his wife further intensified his passionate paranoia. Plump, good-natured Rachel had always been something of a substitute mother to the emotional Jackson, and he felt considerable guilt because he had pursued his political career against her wishes. When Rachel died, Jackson placed this guilt on his political opponents' shoulders and blamed them for her death. It is therefore small wonder that he pursued his political objectives with such irrational fury.

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