IN SEARCH OF BILL CLINTON

A Psychological Biography

By John D. Gartner

St. Martin's. 466 pp. $26.95

At the end of his introduction to this "psychological biography," John D. Gartner denies that he was wholly "seduced" by Bill Clinton, "the great seducer," which will come as quite a surprise to anyone who has read the preceding 13 pages -- not to mention anyone who manages to make it all the way to the end, more than 400 pages later. In Search of Bill Clinton does have its interesting moments and occasional insights, not all of which are in Clinton's favor, but overall it borders on hagiography, the work of someone who at times appears to be in the grips of a schoolboy crush.

Yes, I know, Clinton does have that effect on people. It has never been my good fortune to come within striking range of his magnetic field, but I know people who have, and they report that the sensation is powerful. "People regularly describe becoming euphoric in his presence," Gartner writes, "as if he were a drug," and though "euphoric" might be a bit strong for my friends (at least one of whom is a sworn Republican), there's unanimous agreement that the man is a force, "sunny, optimistic, and infectiously exuberant," as Gartner puts it, able to make the person with whom he is talking feel as if they are the only two people in the room. These are powerful assets for a politician, and Clinton appears to possess them in almost superhuman quantities.

The essential argument of Gartner's book is that Clinton is the beneficiary, and occasional victim, of what he calls " hypomanic temperament, a mildly manic personality that imbues some people with the raw ingredients it takes to be a charismatic leader: immense energy, drive, confidence, visionary creativity, infectious enthusiasm, and a sense of personal destiny," as well as "problems with impulse control, frequently in the area of sex." Gartner, who is a psychologist at the Johns Hopkins University Medical School and also the author of The Hypomanic Edge (2005), obviously has a professional investment in this theory -- and a personal one as well, since he identifies with those of hypomanic temperament. The reader does well to bear this in mind as his analysis of Clinton unfolds.

It's a strange book. Precisely how qualified Gartner is to analyze Clinton's psyche I cannot say, but he has had only one direct contact of any significance with the former president. He managed to get himself into the press entourage that accompanied Clinton on a tour of Africa in July 2007. In the course of that month he was able to ask Clinton only one direct question, as he reports in an epilogue that is so fawningly adulatory and self-serving as to close on a thoroughly nauseating note. He did interview about 80 people, several of whose knowledge of Clinton dates back to his boyhood in Arkansas, but his questioning does not seem to have been unduly probing.

At one point, for example, he describes his encounter with Marge Mitchell, who "might as well have been Bill Clinton's second mother" and who knew his actual mother, Virginia, intimately. He thought she could enlighten him about "Virginia's sex life," which by most reliable accounts was lively, but he "didn't feel comfortable" about raising such a sensitive matter. Finally he came forth with words notable for their lack of boldness: "I've heard rumors that Virginia was involved with a number of men," to which Mitchell replied, "She probably was," and then went on to describe Bill Clinton as "the most loving person." As Gartner was leaving, "Marge grabbed my hand. 'You have a chance to tell the world who Bill Clinton really is. You don't know the favor you're doing the world. And I admire you.' " To which Gartner replied, doubtless with a modest blush: " 'I promise you, Marge, I'll do my very best to get it right.' "

In Search of Bill Clinton oozes with authorial intrusions such as that one. The book suggests that Clinton may be the illegitimate son of George Wright, who was a physician in Hope, Ark., and is now deceased. Gartner expended a lot of effort trying to substantiate that rumor, but, he tells us, "I wrestled with whether this was the right thing to do. . . . And functioning in my new role as psychologist-investigative journalist, a profession which essentially never existed before, I had no precedent or principles to guide me."

When he finally meets Clinton, he gushes that, "for over a year, twelve hours a day, I'd done nothing but research and write about Clinton, all day long, without ever having met the man. Now he was hugging me!" And when he succeeds in shouting a question to the former president, he says Clinton "burst into a luminous, knowing smile, looked at me, and locked his bright blue eyes onto mine. Strangely, it suddenly felt as if he were inside of me, as if there were now a direct neural connection between his eyes and my heart. Others had described Clinton's penetrating gaze to me, but I had never experienced it until now."