The Errant Æsthete

We’ll never know exactly what New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer was thinking when he allegedly arranged a dalliance with a high-priced prostitute, risking the collapse of both his career and his family. Even he may not fully understand his own actions. But all too many powerful men can at least identify with him, because they’ve been there. Spitzer is simply the latest married politician caught with his pants down, a group so large that “pretty soon there will be enough of them to do a scientific study,” says Texas psychologist Brian Gladue.

Why do men with so much to lose take the chance that they may in fact lose it? Psychologists say they fit a profile: the traits that help them succeed at high-powered jobs are often the same ones that cause them to fail in their personal lives. Newsweek’s Mary Carmichael asked several analysts to put the typical philandering politician on the couch.

“It does have an element of Greek tragedy to it. There’s a certain amount of hubris that goes with getting to the top,” says Gladue. “You think you’re invincible. You just don’t think it could happen to you.” Until, of course, it does.