Political Personalities

PSY362
Mark Best

In examining the life of Abraham Lincoln we see that he was born to parents who were
illiterate in 1809. His father managed to live somewhat prosperously for a few years in Kentucky
until the family lost their land due to a land dispute. According to McPherson, 2000, the
Lincolns were forced to move and moved to the Indiana wilderness, living on public land and
hammering out a meager living until Thomas was eventually able to purchase the land.
(McPherson, 2000). Abrahams mother then died when he was 9 years old and his father
remarried a year later.
Sarah, Abrahams stepmother, encouraged him to learn to read and his interested in all
things intellectual took off. Thomas Lincoln neither understood nor encouraged his son's
intellectual ambition; quite the contrary, he chastised Abraham's "lazy" preference for reading
over working. (McPherson, 2000). Here we see that Thomas Lincoln did not share his sons
views and thus Abe strived to better himself because his living parental figure didnt believe in
him, probably stated negative things about the things that he loved and may have even told him
he would never be successful. Abraham's thinly veiled disdain for the life of a backwoods
farmer doubtless irritated his father. Abraham in turn resented the requirement of law and custom
that any wages he earned before he came of age--by hiring out to neighbors to split rails, for
example--must be given to his father.(McPherson, 2000). This if view through Adlerian Theory
would have push Abraham Lincoln to study harder and work harder to do something great with
his life. It has been suggested that Abrahams hatred of slavery started with Thomas
appropriation of Abrahams wages while he was still a minor. This would if view for Adlerian
Theory show why Abraham strove to abolish slavery.
In 1828 Lincoln and a friend took a flatboat loaded with farm produce down the Ohio
and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans. He repeated the experience in 1831. These trips widened

his horizons and, by tradition, shocked him with the sight of men and women being bought and
sold in the slave markets of New Orleans. Although he came of age in 1830, he did not
immediately strike out on his own. Once more his father sold the farm and set forth to greener
pastures, this time in central Illinois. After helping his father clear land, Abraham hired out to
split rails for other farmers, and he kept his earnings. In the summer of 1831 he settled in New
Salem, a village on the Sangamon River bluff about twenty miles northwest of Springfield.
(McPherson, 2000). Here we see Abrahams first exposure to slavery. He may have made a
correlation between the appropriation of his wages and how slaves were treated. If this
connection was made then we see how Abraham came to feel empathy for slaves.
Lincoln's six years in New Salem were a formative period. For a time he drifted from
one job to another: store clerk, mill hand, partner in a general store that failed, postmaster,
surveyor. (McPherson, 2000). He seems to have been drifting from one job to another trying to
make a living and figure out who he wanted to be at this point. This is perfectly normal for
youth. People strive for superiority or success as a means of compensation for feelings of
inferiority or weakness. (Feist, 2008). I believe at first this may have been how Abraham
Lincoln strived for success. In the early years he didnt have a real goal.
In 1832 the Sac and Fox Indians under Chief Black Hawk returned to their ancestral
homeland in Illinois, precipitating the short-lived Black Hawk War. Lincoln volunteered for the
militia and was elected captain of his company, which included the Clary Grove boys. They saw
no action, but Lincoln later recalled his election as captain as the most gratifying honor of his
life. (McPherson, 2000). In this part of his life Abraham seems to have discovered that being
promoted to a position where he could make difference is exhilarating to him. That would bring
him to think about want he wanted to do in life and position himself in a place where he could

work toward these goals. During the New Salem years Lincoln developed new purpose and
direction. The local schoolmaster, Mentor Graham, guided his study of mathematics and
literature. Lincoln joined a debating society, and he acquired a lifelong love of William
Shakespeare and Robert Burns. He also acquired a passion for politics and in 1832 announced
his candidacy for the legislature. Although he failed of election, he received 92 percent of the
vote in the New Salem district, where he was known. When he ran again in 1834, he campaigned
throughout the county and won decisively. (McPherson, 2000). In contrast to people who strive
for personal gain are those psychologically healthy people who are motivated by social interest
and the success of all humankind. These healthy individuals are concerned with goals beyond
themselves, are capable of helping others without demanding or expecting a personal payoff, and
are able to see others not as opponents but as people with whom they can cooperate for social
benefit. (Feist, 2008). I believe that we see the beginning in Abraham Lincolns life of a strive
for success not for personal gain but to do what he could to help others. He wanted to change
society as a whole and change the world around him.
We see that Abraham befriended the local school master to help to educate him further in
a way that just reading could not do. He learned and what he needed to know to move into
politics so he could change the way our nation was and abolish the slavery of men in our nation.
Eventually Abraham Lincoln would work his way up through the political world to become
president of the United States. Our nation would fall into one its darkest hours, a war that pit
brother against brother, the civil war. Abraham Lincoln guided this nation through this very
rough time in history and reunited a broken nation. During the war he was able to abolish slavery
in our nation, but it would be a long time before there was equality.

References
James M. McPherson (2000). "Lincoln, Abraham" American National Biography Online,
Retrieved from http://www.anb.org/articles/04/04-00631.html
Feist, Jess, Gregory Feist. Theories of Personality, 7th Edition. McGraw-Hill Learning
Solutions, 07/2008. VitalBook file.