Majestic Failure

In this intriguing psychoanalytic study, the author suggests that the Shah of Iran (1919-1980) maintained his fragile equilibrium through four "psychic twinships," or relationships: with his sister, Princess Ashraf; with Ernest Perron, a friend from Swiss school days; with Assadollah Alam, his last minister of court; and finally, with the United States government. As these relationships disintegrated during the 1970s, Zonis avers, the Shah's core character traits (passivity and dependence) became dominant, rendering him incapable of coping with the challenges of the Iranian Revolution. Applying psychoanalytic techniques, Zonis, professor in the the University of Chicago's psychology department and business school, and an acquaintance of the late ruler, examines the Shah's lifelong fear of his father, his bristling disdain for women, his narcissism and grandiosity.