George W. Bush and the Redemptive Dream: A Psychological Profile

George W. Bush remains a highly controversial figure, a man for whom millions of Americans have very strong feelings. Dan McAdams' book offers an astute psychological portrait of Bush, one of the first biographies to appear since he left office as well as the first to draw systematically from personality science to analyze his life. McAdams, an international leader in personality psychology and the narrative study of lives, focuses on several key events in Bush's life, such as the death of his sister at age 7, his commitment to sobriety on his 40th birthday, and his reaction to the terrorist attacks of September 11, and his decision to invade Iraq. He sheds light on Bush's life goals, the story he constructed to make sense of his life, and the psychological dynamics that account for his behavior. Although there are many popular biographies of George W. Bush, McAdams' is the first true psychological analysis based on established theories and the latest research. Short and focused, written in an engaging style, this book offers a truly penetrating look at our forty-third president.

Dan P. McAdams is professor of psychology and professor of human development and social policy at Northwestern University. He is a Charles Deering McCormick Professor of Teaching Excellence at Northwestern, and he is also the director of the Foley Center for the Study of Lives, an interdisciplinary research enterprise at Northwestern that studies personality and social development in the adult years. An international leader in personality psychology and the narrative study of lives, McAdams is the author of over 150 scientific articles and chapters and the editor of 9 books. In addition, he has written five books: Power, Intimacy, and the Life Story: Personological Inquries into Identity (1985, Dorsey Books, Guilford Press); Intimacy: The Need To Be Close (1989, Doubleday); The Person: An Introduction to the Science of Personality Psychology (five editions: 1990, 1994, 2000, 2006, 2009; Harcourt Brace, John Wiley & Sons); The Stories We Live By: Personal Myths and the Making of the Self (1993, William Morrow, Guilford Press); and The Redemptive Self: Stories Americans Live By (2006, Oxford University Press). The Redemptive Self won the American Psychological Association's 2006 William James Award for best-general interest book in psychology (across all subfields), and it won the 2007 Association of American Publishers Award for Excellence in Professional and Scholarly Publishing, top prize in the area of "Psychology and Cognitive Science." The Redemptive Self was also recognized through the 2006 Theodore Sarbin Award, awarded by the American Psychological Association to Professor McAdams for contributions in theoretical and philosophical psychology. Professor McAdams is also the winner of the 1989 Henry A. Murray Award from the Society of Personality and Social Psychology for excellence in personality research and the study of lives. His work has been featured many times in The New York Times and in a number of other high-profile media outlets.