I read that a former senior administration official who remains close to colleagues in the White House believes that the root of Bill Clinton's current difficulties is that he has not been able to "compartmentalise" the Lewinsky scandal in the way he did with previous scandals. The same day I was fortunate enough to meet the well-respected international socio-political psychologist, William If, and I first asked him what exactly was meant by this.

Compartmentalising (said William) is a sophisticated mental process by means of which difficulties are addressed in serial manner to the temporary exclusion of all other problems and potential collateral damage.

You mean Bill deals with one thing at a time?

That is a rather reductive way of putting it. The American President takes a focused approach on the selected issue under consideration while keeping the broader picture in perspective.

So when Monica is in full focus, everything else, up to and including the ever-present danger of nuclear destruction, is a blur?

You have rather predictably introduced a vulgar note, and your conclusion is inaccurate. Everything else is not a blur, but a component contained in temporarily adequate peripheral view.

Sorry about the crude reference to the H-bomb. So you mean issues are kept in separate mental compartments, like files in a briefcase?

Precisely. But what if one compartment suddenly pops open while Bill is focusing on another?

The professional compartmentaliser and his experienced back-up team take care that such an event cannot happen.

Never?

Never. Or almost never.

Say two other compartments open simultaneously?

This is a non-scenario.

It couldn't happen?

It is a near-impossibility so close to a non-possibility that it is not worth considering. But you are deliberately creating doomsday scenarios which are unhelpful and your attitude has been noted.

All right. Tell me, William: Democratic senator Joseph Lieberman has recently distanced himself from Bill Clinton, and others have endorsed his strictures. What is the appropriate distance involved in these circumstances?

It is good to see you back on track. The answer to your question is, not less than 500 miles. That's an international convention, then?

No. You must remember the US is a big country. In Ireland for example, were a party member attempting to distance himself from a TD or party leader, approximately 10 miles, or whatever is the shortest distance to the county border, would suffice.

I see. Now, regarding the Lewinsky affair, a senior Democratic aide has said that there is a least one, and maybe two more acts to the opera. What do you think of this?

Not much. I hate metaphors. And to be honest, I am not a great opera fan, though I enjoy the spectacle in Wexford every year.

Nevertheless?

If we must speak metaphorically, we have already had at least five acts to the Clinton/Lewinsky opera, without a single decent interval, and the thought of two more is deeply depressing.

You would prefer a one-act play?

Precisely.

A tragi-comedy perhaps?

I am not well versed in theatrical nomenclature but suspect this is not the type of play I would enjoy.

All right. Tell me, what do you think of the prospect of Mr Clinton "returning to see old Shannon's face again in the springtime" as John F Kennedy famously expressed his hope in June 1963?

I do not know who Shannon is or was, or what Mr Clinton's relationship with her may be, so I would rather not comment.

Perhaps she is merely another invention of political opponents and a prurient media?

I imagine that is quite likely.

No doubt you hold negative views on the so-called media circus surrounding these events?

Correct. I am no more keen on the circus than the opera or theatre.

All right. Tell me, William, what do you make of my theory that since Bill is at his political best in adversity, and is aware of this, he himself engineered the whole affair to display himself at his best, so that his only crime is one of vanity?

That is the most intelligent and imaginative theory I have yet heard regarding this whole sorry affair. Congratulations.

Thank you.

Times Square will resume on September 24th