BUSH ON THE COUCH by Justin A Frank, MD.
I have to wonder why a distinguished psychiatrist; a clinical professor in the Department of Psychiatry at George Washington University Medical Center; a teaching analyst at the Washington Psychoanalytic Institute; a past president of the Greater Washington Chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility and an all-around good guy would put himself and his reputation at the mercy of the GOP Slime Machine and dare to write a book which analyzes George W. Bush at a distance.
He did and let me tell you, this book is thorough and damning.
I don't claim to know a great deal about psychoanalysis. I never made it past my first semester of 'Nuts and Sluts' (Abnormal Psyche) at Yaletoo many stats, not enough fun.
But Dr. Frank writes in a way that even I can comprehend. Again, I cannot comment on the medical veracity of his observations. And indeed, he himself makes just such a professional disclaimer. But he also makes the case that there is enough public record about Bush, his family and certainly his behavior before and during his Presidency that allows Dr. Frank to paint a fairly complete portrait of our dearly beloved War, er Peace er CEO President.
To answer the following questions,
-How can someone so friendly and playfulo be the same person who cuts funds from government programs aiding the poor and hungry?
-How is it that our deeply religious president feels free to bomb Iraq-and then celebrate the results with open expressions of joy?
-How can the president sound so confused and yet act decisively?
-How can a president send American soldiers into combat under false pretneses and then proceed to joke about the deception, finding humor in the absence of weapons of mass destruction under his Oval Office desk?
chapter headings alone provide a hint of what's to come from Dr. Frank. "Affability and Disability", "Message in the Bottle", "In God I Trust", "The Smirk", "Twisted Tongues", "I Am the Chief", and so on.
Basically, George has a serious Mommy problem. Babs never nurtured him. Well I guess one could say that's a no-brainer, but Frank really delves into this area and makes a very convincing case.
Poor baby. Mommy was an empty vessel.
Frank continues this theme and intertwines others. The bottom line is that Bush has never really made it past adolescence. He is ruled by fears of failure and covers them by an outgrown sense of omnipotence which is great in protecting Teens from too-early self-recognition/self-awareness, but dangerous in a President.
Bush is shallow. He is not introspective. His arrogance is dangerous and is not transitory. His grandiosity morphs into magicial thinking which has had and can have terrible consequences.
Bundle up...this passage should put your nipples at attention:
Adolescent omnipotence evolves into adult grandiosity, but they share a common pathology: Like the adolescent who feels he is never going to die, the grandiose adult denies the possibility of death, indulging instead in fantasies of immortality. Most adolescents behave this way at one time or another-driving too fast, drinking too much, taking too many risks in the spirit of assumed invincibility. The adult version of grandiosity can link to magical delusions in less perilous ways, from buying lottery tickets to investing in a new sports car. (page 86)
The same cannot be said for George W. Bush, who has brandished his "wanted, dead or alive" mentality brazenly since September 11.He repeats his taunts over and over, like a child who says "I'm gonna get you" to a scary parent figure. (page 86)
One aspect of magical thinking is the simplification of termsAll complexities were reduced to dichotomies: good versus evil, peace versus violence, civilization versus chaos-all grandiose variations on the us-versus-them division that shapes a mind-set like Bush's from infancy onward. (page 87)
And finally, from this chapter, OUTLAW, this summary:
The ability to process complex thought-to differentiate between our own omnipotence and the challenges of the real world-is one of the cpacities that help us distinguish fact from fiction. And it is in Bush's failure to make this distinction-deliberately, unconsciously, or both-that his comfort with living outside the law is perhaps most apparent.(page 89)
Whew...and this is a tiny bit from just one chapter. Dr. Frank takes the reader on a lucid yet frightening journey through Bush's pathology-his pathological need to lie; to look 'tough'; to swagger; to smirk; to punish; and above all, to avoid responsibility and vulnerability. According to Frank's analysis, Bush is a jumble of anxiety and fear.
Great, just what we need in a leader in these horrific times. We know that in the past, Bush has used alcohol-vast quantities-to numb himself from these fears and anxieties. And according to Kitty Kelly's new book, he appears to have used pot and cocaine as well.
And then he did the lateral transfer to Fundamentalist Religion where he stopped these activities (or so we're told) and accepted Jesus as his personal savior.
But when one does that, one does not have to, once again, take any responsibility for one's past bad behavior. Jesus just takes you on with 100% forgiveness, no harm, no foul, no questions asked.
Unlike Alcoholics Anonymous where taking responsibility for past bad behavior is one of the essential steps to recovery, in Bush's world, accepting Jesus means never having to say you're sorry.
So he continues out of control. And Dr. Frank pursues this avenue of analysis and why Bush is so dangerous to himself and to us.
Again, I stress, and Dr. Frank stresses that any analysis of a person from a distance cannot be 100% accurate.
But all disclaimers aside, Dr. Frank takes a bold chance in this effort to analyse Bush from afar. And what he says makes a great deal of sense to me. It reinforces what I've felt intuitively about Bush since he ran for President. And I believe that Dr. Frank has done a service to those who would take the time to read this valuable book.
I wish it could sway the election. Oh well.