Lincoln's Quest for Union - A Psychological Profile

[Pamela]

Just based on vague memories from taking a couple of psychology courses in school, I think with Freudian psychology, humans universally are driven by subconscious sexual impulses from infancy, and resulting jealousies and competitiveness with parents, like the oedipus complex:

Oedipus complex
Word Origin
noun, Psychoanalysis.
1.
the unresolved desire of a child for sexual gratification through the parent of the opposite sex, especially the desire of a son for his mother. This involves, first, identification with and, later, hatred for the parent of the same sex, who is considered by the child as a rival.

The author isn't trying to single Lincoln out being motivated by anything uniquely perverse; he's just applying Freudian analysis to a historical figure.