William Jefferson Clinton, the 42nd

William Jefferson Clinton, the 42nd President of the United States, was born in 1946 and grew up in the Hope, Arkansas area. His original name was William Blythe III but his father was killed in an automobile accident shortly before his birth, and his mother remarried a man named Roger Clinton. Bill excelled in school and music, and was even fortunate enough to meet President John F. Kennedy at one time. This encounter was the catalyst for his desire to serve the public in the government sector. Mr. Clinton was a Rhodes scholar at Oxford University and later received a law degree from Yale University. He married his wife, Hillary in 1975, shortly after he entered the public service realm in Arkansas. He was elected State Attorney General in 1976 and then Governor in 1978, where he served off an on until he was elected President of the United States in 1992. Clinton served two terms as President, and is accredited with a wide variety of accomplishments during this time. He is also seen as one of the more scandalous Presidents in U.S. history, after admitting in 1998 that he had an extra-marital affair with Monica Lewinski, a White House intern. Clinton was later impeached by the House of Representatives for perjury relating to this case (William J.Clinton, 2009). He was the first President to be impeached since Andrew Johnson in 1868.

Maslow and His Core Tendencies

Abraham Maslow was an American psychologist born in Brooklyn in 1908. He studied law at the City College of New York and later moved to Wisconsin to study psychology at the University of Wisconsin. He taught at Brooklyn College and was a frequent lecturer all over the world on topics relating to his Hierarchy on Needs Theory and other psychology-related issues (Maslow, 1999). Maslow's Core of Personality Theory outlines the psychological needs in human beings, according to a specific hierarchy. The core tendencies, which hare also outlined in this theory, dictate that a person is first concerned with survival, but after these basic survival needs are met, they become concerned with self-actualization and other related personal struggles (Maslow, 1999). It can be seen that President William Clinton's actions and accomplishments in the White House could be more easily understood and explained based on Maslow's outlining of core tendencies.

Maslow's first and most important core tendency is a human being's push for physical and psychological survival. This arises from the discomfort and pain due to biological deprivation, and humans are always looking at reducing the tension and stress associated with this pain (Maslow, 1999). In order for a person to become interested in self-actualization, the most basic of core tendencies, the need for survival, must be satisfied (Maslow, 1999). Maslow characterizes this as deprivation motivation. President Clinton's basic need for survival was met well before he entered the Presidency, but the question of whether or not his wife, Hillary Clinton, was a satisfactory biological mate, and was satisfying Mr. Clinton's basic need for sexual contact is debatable. Any person in a powerful position is likely going to have better sexual selection opportunities. This is true with Clinton, as many women were attracted to him outside of his marriage. Clinton likely felt the direct need, both from a survival and pro-creation standpoint, as well as from a self-actualization standpoint, to maximize his sexual potential within the certain reasonable bounds. He likely felt that his encounters with Ms. Lewinski would not become public, but none-the-less desired to fulfill the basic human biological need for sex and sexual survival.

Maslow also argues that after a person meets their basic survival needs, they will begin to self-actualize (Maslow, 1999). This means that they will now become concerned with an increase of tension related to their own achievements, goals, and behavior. If Clinton had felt that his physical and psychological needs had not been met, then his main concern would have been tension reduction. Tension reduction would have likely resulted in a lack of sexual desire for other women that could result in tension in his marriage. But since Clinton's basic survival needs were satisfied, he was able to seek out relationships and behaviors that would implicitly likely create more tension, and serve to try and satisfy the need for achievement and self-actualization.

By definition, Maslow's need for self-actualization, sometimes referred to as growth-motivation, cannot be satisfied (Maslow, 1999). People try to enhance their lives instead of their survival, and often do not know when enough is enough. Since Bill Clinton had held positions of power for decades before becoming President, he was likely used to the power, achievement and fame that came with them. He would have likely sought out more power, achievement, and fame at any cost, and in ways that were both socially acceptable and otherwise (Maslow, 1998). No longer as concerned with what was morally or socially reprehensible, Clinton sought to expand his achievements in every realm. Clinton functioned on the second level of the Core Tendencies, since, as President of the United States, he likely was not worried about his own physical survival on a day-to-day basis. His political survival is another story.

Clinton was impeached for lying under oath during hearings surrounding the Monica Lewinski Trial. Clinton's own political survival, as experienced by him and his family, and, arguably by the Democratic Party, was at stake. By any means necessary, Clinton felt that he was to fight against the attack on his credibility and his character. He resorted to lying and twisting the truth in order to survive politically and perhaps psychologically. This is evidence that, once a person comes under attack in these ways, they will revert back to satisfying their survival needs, doing everything they can to survive (Maslow, 1998, 1999). It is at this point that their concerns with self-actualization are no longer primary. Maslow argues that human beings will do just about anything to secure their survival, and Bill Clinton is no exception.