All in the Family

* Re “All Our Children: The Inner Appeal of America’s Primal Families,” Opinion, March 18: Peter Wolson uses psychobabble to explain why the public is intrigued by people like the Sopranos and the Clintons “who break social rules and don’t care about hurting others.” Wolson would do much better to apply his psychoanalytic skills to explaining why he has projected his own beliefs about the Clintons onto the public at large. The Clintons have broken no more social rules than have their “upstanding” accusers and, to the extent that they have hurt others, they certainly have shown that they care.

Wolson’s thesis that the public is intrigued by the “criminality” (perceived or actual) of the Clintons is rejected by the public’s overwhelming lack of interest in people like President Bush who have broken a few rules and clearly don’t care about hurting others, including women, laborers and future generations of human beings.

RICHARD S. MARKEN

Los Angeles