THE POLITICAL WRITINGS OF Harold D. Lasswell ® Psychopathology and Politics aoe POLITICS: Who Gets What, When, How eae Democratic Character‘This work was published originally by The Free Press in 1951. All rights in the work were assigned by the estate of the work’s author, Harold D. Lasswell, to New Haven Press, Inc. Permission to reproduce the work has been granted by ‘New Haven Press, Inc, The work may not be reproduced in any form, using any existing or future technology, for ‘commercial purposes. The work may be used for educational purposes.PUBLISHER'S FOREWORD In moder political seience two volumes have made @ special impact because of their originality of content and brevity of expression. One is Professor Lasswell’s Psycho- pathology and Politics (1930) and the other is his Politics: Who Gets What, When How (1936). These hooks are made conveniently accessible in the present publication, together with a third book, a wholly new treatment of Democratic Character. Political science is one of the social sciences that has been revolutionized by the epochal advances that have been made in recent years in the study of human per- sonality. Medical psychology has been the greatest source of deeper knowledge of the mind of man, especially since the discovery of psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud. Lass- well’s Psychopathology and Politics was the earliest full- scale application of the principles of psychopathology to politics. It was much more than a simple re-statement and formal application of psychopathology to a special topic. With the cooperation of eminent physicians in this country and abroad the intimate life histories of active politicians were collected and analyzed in the light of the insights provided by modern psychiatry. One of the leading spon- sors of the research, for cxample, was the late Dr, William Alanson White who was the superintendent of St. Eliza. Deth’s Hospital, Washington, D. C., the chief government hospital for the care and study of the insane. In the Psychopathology a sharp distinction is drawn between individuals active in polities, and “political per-