The personality of Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill could very well be a
subject of interest to an alienist who, by definition, is a physician who treats
mental disorders. There is a saying that the world is governed with very little
sense and there are times when one could add to this statement that it often has
been governed by lunatics.
Churchill was born in 1874 and died in 1965. His father was Randolph
Spencer-Churchill, a son of the Duke of Marlborough. The first Duke was John
Churchill, one of England’s most capable military commanders, who died without
male issue in 1722 and the title was given to one of his nephews, a Spencer. As
a courtesy, the Spencer family was allowed to add Churchill to its name,
separated by a hyphen. Winston always wanted to believe that he was a gifted
military leader in the mold of the first Duke but his efforts at generalship
were always unqualified disasters that he generally blamed on other people. This
chronic refusal to accept responsibility for his own incompetent actions is one
of Churchill’s less endearing qualities.
Randolph Churchill died early as the result of rampant syphilis that turned him
from an interesting minor politician to a pathetic madman who had to be kept
away from the public in the final years of his life. His mother was the former
Jennie Jerome, an American. The Jerome family had seen better days when Jennie
met Randolph. Her father, Leonard, was a stock-market manipulator who had lost
his money and the marriage was more one of convenience than of affection.
The Jeromes were by background very typically American. On her father’s side,
Jennie was mostly Irish and on her mother’s American Indian and Jewish. The
union produced two children, Winston and Jack. The parents lived separate lives,
both seeking the company of other men. Winston’s psyche suffered accordingly and
throughout his life, his frantic desire for attention obviously had its roots in
his abandonment as a child.
As a member of the 4th (Queen’s Own) Hussars, in 1896 Churchill became embroiled
in a lawsuit wherein he was publicly accused of having engaged in the commission
of “acts of gross immorality of the Oscar Wilde (homosexual) type.” This case
was duly settled out of court for a payment of money and the charges were
withdrawn. Also a determinant factor was the interference by the Prince of Wales
with whom his mother was having an affair.
In 1905, Churchill hired a young man, Edward Marsh (later Sir Edward) as his
private secretary. His mother, always concerned about her son’s political
career, was concerned because Marsh was a very well known homosexual who later
became one of Winston’s most intimate lifelong friends. Personal correspondence
of March, now in private hands, attests to the nature and duration of their
friendship.
Churchill, as Asquith once said, was consumed with vanity and his belief that he
was a brilliant military leader led him from the terrible disaster of Gallipoli
through the campaigns of the Second World War. He meddled constantly in military
matters to the despair and eventual fury of his professional military advisors
but his political excursions were even more disastrous. Churchill was a man who
was incapable of love but could certainly hate. He was viciously vindictive
towards anyone who thwarted him and a number of these perceived enemies died
sudden deaths during the war when such activities were much easier to order and
conceal.
One of Churchill’s less attractive personality traits, aside from his refusal to
accept the responsibility for the failure of his actions, was his ability to
change his opinions at a moment’s notice.
Once anti-American, he did a complete about-face when confronted with a war he
escalated and could not fight, and from a supporter of Hitler’s rebuilding of
Germany, he turned into a bitter enemy after a Jewish political action
association composed of wealthy businessmen hired him to be their spokesman.
Churchill lavishly praised American President Franklin Roosevelt to his face and
defamed him, with the ugliest of accusations, behind his back. The American
President was a far more astute politician than Churchill and certainly far
saner.
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