 Richard Nixon: The Shaping of His Character was published in late 1981 and received reviews less enthusiastic than any of her earlier books. Writing in The New Republic, Godfrey Hodgson questioned both her psychoanalytic approach and her motives: “ [W] e are in danger of having the insights of psychotherapy used as a tool for character destruction, certainly for libel, potentially for revenge. ” Sales of the book were disappointing, in part because of the reviews, in part because memoirs by Nixon associates such as Henry Kissinger, John Ehrlichman, and John Dean had recently flooded the market. Perhaps Brodie ’ s book was most influential in stimulating Oliver Stone to create his controversial 1995 movie Nixon.
