Clarence Thomas: Cover For Paranoia

Appreciate your analysis and the book review. Although C-Span isn’t allowed to video at the Supreme Court sessions, they were allowed to film the book party Armstrong Williams threw for Justice Thomas, with some 250 invitees.
No quiet fellow there, Thomas was smiling, laughing, clasping and hugging “Buddy” after “Buddy.” Those were just the men! Didn’t catch his greeting to the women attending, but for the few minutes I watched the program, they, too, were supremely sympathatic and supportive of the guest of honor.
Thomas’ gregariousness among this group was so unlike what is usually shown in news items.

He also appears to be looking with thinly veiled contempt at something to his Left.

White, red and black with brown. Anyone recognize the color scheme?

What struck me about this cover was how cluttered it was. Thomas himself takes up less than half the picture, and the trappings of his success–the law books in particular, but also the desk and oil portrait–fill up the rest. We’ve seen this technique with George Bush too–since the man does not have the personal authority to fill his office, the props that symbolize his authority are used instead.
I assume this is supposed to be a dignified, flattering portrait, but his expression startles me. It looks angry, contemptuous and vulnerable at the same time. He can’t look us directly in the eye. Though I generally don’t use Freudian psychology, I wonder about Thomas’s ego defenses. How does he maintain self-respect and suppress the anxiety of suspecting that he isn’t in the same league as most justices, as is so obvious to most observers? The portrait hints that he does it by anger and contempt, and evidently, the text confirms that anger and contempt against white society (it’s just racism, not his ability) and against liberals in particular (who patronize and dared to criticize.) The clinical tip is interesting!
Keeping in mind that book covers are chosen by marketing, not authors (if my little experience of the book industry was representative), I compared this cover to that of other biographies or autobiographies of people who are more respected. Clinton is shown in visionary profile, of course, as we have discussed in these threads previously. Colin Powell looks directly at us, hands folded, as does Obama (yeah, yeah, I know… Lucaites!) Biographies of Condoleeza Rice emphasize her head and shoulders. The portrait of Thomas is quite different from all of these (except superficially for the folded hands but in this case the hands seem more like a fence than thoughtfulness because the angle is different–all we see are Thomas’s interwoven fingers.)