President Trump's chief of staff, Susie Wiles, says he has an "alcoholic personality." He does not drink alcohol, yet she suggests he believes he can do anything regardless of how unrealistic it may be.
Alcohol can provide at least temporary courage and confidence. Ernest Hemingway called it "a great killer." Three of the most prominent American novelists of the 20th century — F. Scott Fitzgerald, Hemingway himself and William Faulkner — were all alcoholics.
Shakespeare, through the drunken porter in "Macbeth," noted that alcohol has a peculiar relationship with sexual performance and desire: it provokes the desire but retards the performance.
Alcoholism involves a paradoxical, toxic blend. It is, in a sense, the eighth wonder of the world — but one might be better off visiting it than living there.
Note: This is not a direct transcript of the audio.
Copy Edited by Eryn Lent
