Fear of flying?

One of Gillard’s cabinet ministers has been reported as saying: ''Gillard is at her best when she's on the front foot. When she's scared of making a mistake, she's not good.''

Dixon wrote that “people vary in the degree to which they adjust the riskiness of their decisions to the realities of the external situation. Individuals who become anxious under conditions of stress, or are prone to be defensive and deny anything that threatens their self-esteem, tend to be bad at judging whether the risks they take, or the caution they display, are justified by the outcomes of their decisions. For example, they might well adopt the same degree of caution whether placing a small bet, getting married, or starting a nuclear war.”

So, a question is: When is Gillard scared of making a mistake? Is it only on big issues, or also on small?

And Dixon continued: “Nervousness, the need to respond because of the fear that one will lose either the desire or ability to respond, enhances the likelihood that a response will be triggered off by an insufficient stimulus, and thus make for instability. …a proportion of people will make irrational decisions whose riskiness is unrelated to reality … because, being neurotic, they will strive to maintain an image of themselves as either ‘bold and daring’ or as ‘careful and judicious decision-makers’, and the urge to sustain their particular conceit will take precedence over the need to behave realistically.”

Kelly wrote that “after her elevation (to the position of prime minister) by the (Labor Party) caucus Gillard felt a legitimacy problem and dashed off to an election where, mid-campaign, she felt driven to reveal the ‘real’ Julia.”

Was the legitimacy problem a “threat” to Gillard’s “self-esteem”? Was the decision to dash off to an election unnecessary and “triggered” by an “insufficient stimulus”?

Gillard, contrary to her expectations, was able to remain prime minister only with the help of the “Greens” and independent members of parliament.

Was Gillard “bad at judging whether the (election) risks” she took were “justified by the outcomes” of her decision?

Kelly wrote that “from this saga of near (election) disaster Gillard has taken a strategic decision - to operate as a strong policy leader. She has nothing to lose.” Nothing to lose, perhaps, except the position of prime minister!

But, is there something of the “real” Julia in this “strategic decision”?

Dixon wrote that “the authoritarian personality …(tends) …to be aggressive, superstitious, punitive, tough-minded.” Gillard claims not to be religious, but we do not know if she is superstitious. However, Kelly wrote that she has “tenacity and ambition”.

Dixon wrote that “the lifestyle of the authoritarian personality is one of finding and prosecution in others what he has come to fear in himself. … attack, being the surest method of defence, would be incomplete, however, if the individual did not entertain a highly idealized view of himself. … Because he has to deny his own shortcomings, he dare not look inwards. He is fearful of insight, and strenuously avoids questioning his own motives … In the place of free-ranging, creative and inventive thought, an authoritarian’s thinking is confined to rigid formulae and inflexible attitudes. He is intolerant of unusual ideas and unable to cope with contradictions… (with a) preference for order and simplicity. … If he has a problem the best thing to do about it is not think about it and just keep busy. … Similarly, the authoritarian personality is intolerant of ambivalence and ambiguity.”