A study of Kaiser Wilhelm's development and personality, which reveals a man both anxiously insecure and brashly arrogant, flamboyant in public yet vacillating and ineffective in his political decisions.

'An impressive example of what a historian can do in investigating the mixture of unconscious pressures, private motives, and public postures that affect political decisions.'

'The great merit of Thomas Kohut's study lies in the fact that he does not approach his subject as an amateur psychologist. He has immersed himself in the relevant literature with the aim of producing a "history informed by psychoanalysis". Nor is he dogmatic about his approach and opts for a range of theories. His pluralistic approach enables the author to interpret the available sources on Wilhelm's birth defect and his upbringing as a royal prince plausibly and coherently.' Times Higher Education Supplement