The Political Personality of 2007 French Presidential Candidate Ségolène Royal

The Political Personality of 2007 French
Presidential Candidate Ségolène Royal

From left to right: Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Bertrand Delanoë and Ségolène Royal sitting in the front row at a meeting held on Feb. 6, 2007 by the French Socialist Party at the Carpentier Hall in Paris.

Photo Credit: © Marie-Lan Nguyen / Wikimedia Commons

Pascal de Sutter and Aubrey Immelman

University of Louvain-La-Neuve, Belgium, and St. John’s University, Minn., U.S.A.

January 2007

Abstract

This paper presents the results of an indirect assessment of the personality of Ségolène Royal, candidate of the Socialist Party in the 2007 French presidential election.

The study was conducted from the conceptual perspective of Theodore Millon’s model of personality. Information concerning Royal was collected from biographical sources and media reports and synthesized into a personality profile using the second edition of the Millon Inventory of Diagnostic Criteria (MIDC), which yields 34 normal and maladaptive personality classifications congruent with Axis II of DSM–IV.

The personality profile yielded by the MIDC was analyzed on the basis of interpretive guidelines provided in the MIDC and Millon Index of Personality Styles manuals. Royal’s primary personality patterns were found to be Conscientious/compulsive and Ambitious/self-serving, with secondary features of the Dauntless/dissenting, Dominant/controlling, and Contentious/resolute patterns.

The amalgam of strong Conscientious and Ambitious patterns in Royal’s profile suggests the presence of Millon’s bureaucratic compulsive syndrome. According to Millon, people with this personality composite feel empowered in formal organizations, where group rules provide identity and security. They tend to be officious, high-handed, intrusive, petty, meddlesome, and closed-minded.

The major implication of the study is that it offers an empirically based personological framework for anticipating Ségolène Royal’s leadership style as chief executive, thus providing a basis for inferring the character and tenor of a prospective Royal presidency.

Related links

“Un profileur décrypte Ségo et Sarko.” Pascal de Sutter, Le Nouvel Observateur, 19 Avril 2007. [English translation]

Ces fous qui nous gouvernent: Comment la psychologie permet de comprendre les hommes politiques. Pascal de Sutter

Related research papers

The Political Personality of 2007 French Presidential Candidate Ségolène Royal. Paper presented by Pascal de Sutter and Aubrey Immelman at the 31st Annual Scientific Meeting of the International Society of Political Psychology, Paris, France, July 9–12, 2008. Abstract and link for full-text (29 pages; PDF) download at Digital Commons: http://digitalcommons.csbsju.edu/psychology_pubs/27/

The Political Personality of French President Nicolas Sarkozy. Paper presented by Pascal de Sutter and Aubrey Immelman at the 31st Annual Scientific Meeting of the International Society of Political Psychology, Paris, France, July 9–12, 2008. Abstract and link for full-text (24 pages; PDF) download at Digital Commons: http://digitalcommons.csbsju.edu/cgi/siteview.cgi//psychology_pubs/26/