The motives and characteristics of stalking has been a subject of research for decades. However, when one tries to understand persons who stalkers public figures like Presidents, there is an obvious gap in typology. The President of the country is the most visible celebrity; therefore, the psychopathology of the stalkers is essential when evaluating psychiatric state of these people.
It is obvious that all stalkers have some psychological disorders that push them to act in a weird way. Some of them act openly and aggressively, while others try to hide themselves and mean no harm. The motives derive from various grounds. People relate their problems, desires and some political aspirations to the image of the President, blaming or praising him. The ECSP highlighted eight major motives that make people act like stalkers towards the President. They look for notoriety or fame as well as try to draw attention of the public to some issues. Some also seek for committing suffering in an effort to end personal pain. Another group believes that by their acts they are saving the world or country. The most common motives are getting a monetary gain of one form or another or causing some political change (Griffith, n.d.).
The efforts to conceptualize classification of presidential stalkers mostly faced exceptional hardship. Robert Phillips (2006) tried to integrate what had been previously investigated and research new things in this area that may help to come up with a new typology of stalkers. He addressed Clarke’s (1982) and based his analysis on the four types of stalkers: those, who see their acts as a sacrifice for the victory of their political ideal; those, who seek for personal egocentric needs realization; those, who believe that their lives are meaningless and try to destruct society; and those, who have emotional and cognitive distortions related to the image of the President (p. 14-16).
Having compared a few approaches, Phillips (2006) analyzed five types of stalkers and assassins. The first type is Resentful. It includes a significant number of stalkers and can be characterized by high aggression. The main motive is retribution that derives from political disagreement and rage. People normally do not have any delusions, while their actions have obvious harm intent. The second type is Pathologically Obsessed. Such stalkers act out of a persecutory or grandiose nature and intend to do harm to the President. They believe that he or she is the one who is responsible for their life problems. Therefore, the main motive is retribution or personal gain. The third type is Infamy Seeker. Such people try to target Presidents considering this a means to make a political statement. They usually have no delusions and are ready to do harm, if this is exactly what can make their goal achievable. The fourth type is Intimacy Seeker. Stalkers try to make true and realize their fantasized relationship, having erotomanic delusions towards the President. Usually, such pursuit has no harm intent. The fifth type is called Nuisance or Attention Seeker because stalkers of such a nature try to win the attention of the President. Their main aim is to provide help or get help from the President as well as to be seen with him or her. They have no delusions or psychosis and usually have no harm intent.
In this context, it would be useful to refer to some examples from the history to better understand the psychology of presidential stalkers. There are many various records of people who tried to approach to the Presidents of different countries. John Wilkes Booth was a notorious hater of the Abraham Lincoln presidency. Blinded with rage, he organized a group of conspirators, who planned to kidnap Lincoln. The plan failed, but Booth proceeded with a desire to assassinate. He planned the event in detail, including the exact schedule of the President and his location. Despite the fact that events did not go according to plan, in the end, he managed to deliver one shot to the back of the President that became fatal for him. Therefore, Booth meets the criteria of a Resentful Stalker. Another example is Ms Doe. She became known to the US Secret Service in 1990’s after her attempt to give flowers to President Clinton at one of the presidential sites. She insisted on meeting with him and at the interview pointed out that she had a great affection to him and had demonstrated it by sending a huge number of small gifts to his address. For years, she had been continuing to appear at various events that were related to the President and sent lots of letters. Her behavior seemed to pose no threat until she tried to break into the presidential limousine. Ms Doe as an Intimacy Seeker was not a threat to the President’s life while she was expressing her feelings in a calm manner. However, her acts that included aggression and her persistence in a desire to meet the President brought her to the hospital in the end.
References
Clarke J. W. (1982). American Assassins: The Darker Side of Politics. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Griffith, C. (n.d.). Profiling Presidential Stalkers. Issues in Psychological Profiling: Argosy University. Retrieved from https://carusvenustas.wordpress.com/university-papers/profiling-presidential-stalkers/
Phillips, R. (2006). Assessing Presidential Stalkers and Assassins. J Am Acad Psychiatry Law, 34(2), 154-164. Retrieved from http://www.jaapl.org/content/34/2/154.long
