SOURCE: "Alternative Psychologial Interpretations of Woodrow Wilson," in Mid-America: An Historical Review, Vol. 65, No. 2, April-July, 1983, pp. 71-85.

In the following essay, Lewis assesses various psychological interpretations of Wilson's life and career and argues that one should not assume policy necessarily follows from personality.

Any serious examination of Woodrow Wilson's career must take into account his personality and his motivations—what Churchill described as "this man's mind and spirit." The historian who looks to academic psychology for help soon discovers that the field is divided into many schools of thought, and that the psychohistorical/ psychobiographical interpretations of Wilson naturally reflect this theoretical pluralism. In choosing among the alternative interpretations, the historian must look at the logical and empirical evidence in defense of the alternative theories of psychology, and one must also consider the relative coherence of the theories when applied to the historical facts of Wilson's psyche. Using this...