Genius and Madness

From Elvis to Picasso and the thorny intersection of "madness" and creativity.

William Todd Schultz is Professor of Psychology at Pacific University in Oregon and edited the Handbook of Psychobiography (Oxford University Press 2005). See full bio

September 30, 2008, Politics

Comments on "Why Palin Can't Perform"

Why Palin Can't Perform

By William Todd Schultz on September 30, 2008 in Genius and Madness

Of course, there are in fact several reasons why Palin can’t perform, prominent ones being her lack of knowledge and her apparently unreflective, incurious nature. But there may be something else at work too, something a bit more psychological. Last year two of my undergraduate students did their Senior Thesis on the subject of “choking.” As they investigated the phenomenon, they came across a concept I had never heard of before: reinvestment. Read More

If she keeps it up it may be

Submitted by Troy on September 30, 2008 - 7:05pm.

If she keeps it up it may be a nightmare for her but it will be some quality schadenfreude for me.

ease up

Submitted by Becky on October 1, 2008 - 7:26am.

I can't even imagine being so violently thrust into the public sphere the way Palin was and not having a bit of a "reinvestment" struggle. There was another article in these very blogs that addressed the way the media takes a single statement and uses it either for or against a candidate leaving no room for a meaningless error in word choice or the impossible to overcome human tendency to occassionally mis-speak. With such pressures it is no wonder any candiate not fully adjusted to the hollywood aspects of politics, may need a bit of time to relax thier approach to the media. It seems a bit of a generalization to take her performance on a few talk interviews and determine that she will never overcome her tendency to "reinvest" or that it is any indication that in less media-charged situations she will be unable to act automatically when instinct is called for. The campaign trail is a very different from an actual VP position. There is more to this election than being smooth, or at least thier should be.

Hi Becky--I did not say she

Submitted by William Todd Schultz on October 1, 2008 - 8:17am.

Hi Becky--I did not say she would never overcome her tendency to reinvest; i just said it would be difficult to do, especially when she seems to be getting coached to such an extreme degree... Anyway, apart from reinvestment, I think her main hurdle is simply that she lacks knowledge. Like I said, in my view she also seems unreflective and incurious... I don't want her to be smooth; I want her to show depth.

Palin's depth

Submitted by cary on August 15, 2009 - 4:02pm.

"Depth"? Just to be sure your observations are not more political than psychological, are you implying, in contrast, that Joe Biden speaks out of depth?

And, by his multiple malaprops and innaccuracies does Biden's off-the-cuffness make him a poster child for either "knowledge" or non-reinvestment?

Better take off the white lab coat of Objectivity and acknowledge that this particular posting is purely political--not psychological science.

One person's naivete, unreflectiveness, incuriousness, or shallowness is another person's directness, self-confidence, non-obfuscationism, honesty, and straight-shootingness, you betcha. . . .