General George S. Patton, Jr. was a highly successful World War II battle commander whose flamboyance and many idiosyncrasies made him a focus of interest for biographers. But he was an enigmatic and complex man whose success came at a high price. Despite his prominence and celebrity, there have been minimal efforts to examine his psychological makeup so crucial to his success on the battlefield. In this essay, Paton's personal story and how it relates to the stresses of war and to his leadership of men in arms is examined. Central to his success was his early triumph over dyslexia, his ability to control the fear and guilt inherent in combat, his intense physical activity, his theatrical skills, and his deep knowledge of the history and methods of warfare.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
BlumensonM. (1972a) The Patton papers, 1885–1940. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.
2.
BlumensonM. (1972b) The many faces of George S. Patton, Jr.Colorado Springs, CO: United States Air Force Academy.
3.
BlumensonM. (1974) The Patton papers, 1940–1945.Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.
4.
BlumensonM. (1984) Breakout and pursuit: United States Army in World War II.Vol. 5. Washington, DC: Center of Military History, U.S. Army.
5.
BlumensonM. (1985) Patton: the man behind the legend, 1885–1945. New York: William Morrow.
6.
BrooksR. B. (1994) Children at risk: fostering resilience and hope. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 64, 545–553.
7.
BurdenR. (2005) Dyslexia and self-concept. London: Whurr.
8.
ByronL. (1927) Don Juan, Canto 9, Stanza 4. In The complete poetical works of Lord Byron. New York: Macmillan. P. 1152.
Da CostaJ. M. (1871) On irritable heart. American Journal of the Medical Sciences, 16, 17–52.
11.
D'EsteC. (1995) Patton: a genius for war. New York: HarperCollins.
12.
DyerG. (2004) War: the lethal custom. New York: Carroll & Graf.
13.
FaragoL. (1964) Patton: ordeal and triumph. New York: Ivan Obolensky.
14.
FirstM. B.FrancesA., & PincusH. A. (2004) DSM–IV guidebook. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Publishing.
15.
FitzgeraldM. J. T. (1985) Neuroanatomy, basic and applied. London: Bailliere Tindall.
16.
FreudS. (1964) Why war? Letters of Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud. (Transl. GilbertS. & StracheyJ.) In Standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud. Vol. 22. London: Hogarth. Pp. 195–215.
17.
FrithU. (1980) Unexpected spelling problems. In FirthU. (Ed.), Cognitive processes in spelling. London: Academic Press. Pp. 495–515.
18.
FrithU. (1985) Beneath the surface of developmental dyslexia. In PattersonK. E.MarshallJ. C., & ColtheartM. (Eds.), Surface dyslexia: neuropsychological and cognitive studies of phonological reading. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Pp. 301–330.
19.
GolemanD. (2000) Emotional intelligence. In SadockB. J. & SadockV. A. (Eds.), Kaplan & Sadock's comprehensive textbook of psychiatry. Vol. 1. (7th ed.) Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Pp. 446–462.
20.
GrossmanD. (1995) On killing: the psychological cost of learning to kill in war and society. New York: Back Bay Books/Little Brown.
GrumetG. W. (2008) Insubordination and genius: Gallileo, Darwin, Pasteur, Einstein, and Pauling. Psychological Reports, 102, 819–847.
23.
HirshsonS. P. (2002) General Patton: a soldier's life. New York: HarperCollins.
24.
HoggI. V. (1982) The biography of General George S. Patton. New York: Galley Press.
25.
KingsburyR. R. (2008) The eighteen-year-old replacement facing combat in Paton's Third Army. Columbia, MO: Univer. of Missouri Press.
26.
LevinsonH. N. (1984) Smart but feeling dumb. New York: Warner.
27.
LorenzK. (1966) On aggression. (Transl. WilsonM. K.) New York: Harcourt, Brace & World.
28.
McCulloughD. (1992) Truman. New York: Simon & Schuster. Pp. 428–429.
29.
MontaguA. (1976) The nature of human aggression. New York: Oxford Univer. Press.
30.
MurphyA. (1949) To hell and back. New York: Holt.
31.
OrangeV. (2006) The German Air Force is already “the most powerful in Europe”: two Royal Air Force officers report on a visit to Germany, 6–15 October 1936. Journal of Military History, 70, 1011–1028.
32.
ReadyJ. L. (1996) Arrogance on the battlefield: a primary cause of defeat 1755–1999. London: Arms and Armour Press.
33.
RutterM. (1985) Resilience in the face of adversity: protective factors and resistance to psychiatric disorder. British Journal of Psychiatry, 147, 598–611.
34.
SasserC. W. (2004) Paton's panthers. New York: Pocket Books.
35.
ShaywitzS. E.ShaywitzB. A.PughK. R.FulbrightR. K.ConstableR. T.MenclW. E.ShankweilerD. P.LibermanA. M.SkudlarskiP.FletcherJ. M.KatzL.MarchioneK. E.LacadieC.GatenbyC., & GoreJ. C. (1998) Functional disruption in the organization of the brain for reading in dyslexia. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, 95, 2636–2641.
36.
ShephardB. (2001) A war of nerves: soldiers and psychiatrists in the twentieth century. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univer. Press.
37.
SnowlingM. J. (2006) Language skills and learning to read. In SnowlingM. J. & StackhouseJ. (Eds.), Dyslexia, speech and language. (2nd ed.) London: Whurr. Pp. 1–14.
38.
SobelB. M. (1997) The fighting Pattons. Westport, CT: Praeger.
39.
SwankR. L., & MarchandW. E. (1946) Combat neuroses: development of combat exhaustion. Archives of Neurology and Psychology. 55, 236–247.
40.
TottenR. E. P. (2005) The button box. Columbia, MO: Univer. of Missouri Press.
41.
WrightQ. (1964) A study of war. Chicago, IL: Univer. of Chicago Press.
