This article was originally published February 20-27, 1998 in The Two River Times, a Red Bank, NJ newspaper.
Two weeks ago, Little Silver resident Karen Herrick received a call from Washington, D.C. asking if she'd be willing to appear on the McLaughlin Group, a weekend discussion program centering on a current event. The topic about to be discussed was the characteristics of adult children of alcoholics as they relate to the President of the United States. Herrick was asked to appear with psychologist Dr. Paul Fick, who in 1994 wrote a book titled, "The Dysfunctional President," examining the impact of Clinton's childhood on his behavior as president.
Herrick immediately said yes. A licensed social worker and certified alcoholism counselor, Herrick founded the Center for Children of Alcoholics in Red Bank 15 years ago. Since then, she has worked with thousands of individuals and families affected by addiction.
Because his mother was addicted to gambling and he is the stepson and adopted son of an alcoholic, Herrick says, she has taken a particular interest in Bill Clinton ever since he ran for national office. A high-achieving 'family hero,' Clinton exhibits many of the personality traits typical of children of alcoholics, Herrick says. Those characteristics include having difficulty with intimate relationships, judging themselves without mercy, and having a tendency to "lie when it would be just as easy to tell the truth."
For that reason, Herrick's clients also tend to cast an interested eye on the Chief of State. "They watch him, because he's one of them," she says. Herrick, too, is 'one of them.'
The daughter of an often violent mother and alcoholic father, Herrick married and later divorced her high school sweetheart, with whom she had two children; then married a former boss, moving with him to Rumson after a job transfer from California. The promise of an idyllic life ultimately fell apart as her husband's alcoholism took its toll on the family.
When the emotional abuse became physical, Herrick took her three children and left the marriage for good. With no self-confidence and no particular sense of direction, she began taking courses at Brookdale Community College. After earning an associate's degree, she transferred to Jersey City State College where she graduated magna cum laude the year her divorce became final. She was 39 years old. She entered the graduate program at the Rutgers School of Social Work. Despite her academic success, Herrick struggled with a deep sense of inadequacy, believing that everyone else was smarter than she; that her admission to graduate school was "a fluke." It was while taking a class on alcohol, drugs and human behavior at Rutgers that Herrick first recognized that the pattern the instructor was describing fit like a dysfunctional Cinderella's shoe. She had found her life's work.
After earning a master's degree in social work from Rutgers, she began work as an alcoholism counselor, leading workshops for adult children of alcoholics through the Monmouth County office of the National Council on Alcoholism, serving as a community counselor in Union Beach and founding her own Center for Children of Alcoholics in 1987. In the years since, Herrick has counseled thousands of children of alcoholics, written numerous articles for professional journals and lectured widely in her field.
In her lectures, Herrick often brings up her own 'war stories' form the emotional battlefield that is the home territory of adult children from alcoholic homes. One story she tells about the old days is how she'd buy a box of ice cream sandwiches when she went grocery shopping, line them up on the dashboard of her car and eat them one by one, all by herself, before going home. The behavior had little to do with liking ice cream sandwiches and a lot to do with a need to deny uncomfortable emotions.
To Herrick and other alcoholism professionals state that the key to President Clinton's present predicament has its roots in his family pattern of addictive behavior. Referring to a recent newspaper headline, "President in Crisis," Herrick comments, "Why would you expect any other kind of headline for a child of an alcoholic? Untreated, they keep causing it.. ."The "bimbo eruptions" that have shadowed the president's career are evidence of what Herrick believes is sexual compulsion as strong as other kinds of addiction. Herrick sees a connection between Clinton's mother's penchant for heavy makeup and flamboyant clothes, and his alleged attraction to women with similiar styles.
Herrick says she is inclined to believe the latest allegations. "That's how compulsion is," she says. "You say you are not going to do it anymore, then the anxiety builds up, then you start to think about it, then you plan it, then you do it. Then you feel guilty. You feel bad and then you are "good" for awhile. It's also a thinking addiction. You need help to stop."
Transcripts from the divorce hearing of President Clinton's mother, Virginia, and stepfather, Roger, in 1959, hold evidence of a family in crisis. An article by Paul Elovitz in "The Journal of Psychohistory," quotes the 14-year-old Bill Clinton's testimony from the transcript: "I was present on March 27,1959, and it was I who called my mother's attorney, who in turn had to get the police to come to the house to arrest the defendant. The last occasion in which I went to my mother's aid, when he was abusing my mother, he threatened to mash my face in if I took her part." Though granted the divorce, Virginia Clinton remarried her husband three months later--an act which Herrick and others in the field interpret as betrayal of her son.
Hillary Clinton's strength during the most recent flurry of embarrassing publicity is classic 'enabling' behavior, Herrick believes. "Her identity is all tied up with keeping him and them looking good. As bright as she is, she hasn't done it for herself. Her identity is making him look good so she still has a job...they are the closest when something like this happens. That's when Hillary would feel needed the most."
Herrick's appearance with Dr. Fick on the McLaughlin Group brought a flurry of criticism from radio personality Rush Limbaugh, who interpreted their contention that the president has an addiction that requires treatment as a way of excusing bad behavior.
"It doesn't excuse his behavior," says Herrick. "He has to take responsibility for it. I don't know why people think if you say you have an addiction, that excuses it. It's just the opposite. That's when you have to take responsibility for the first time."
Source: Two River Times newspaper, Red Bank, NJ 2/98
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