So George, how do you feel about your mom and dad?

[buff2]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1033904,00.html

So George, how do you feel about your mom and dad?

Psychologist Oliver James analyses the behaviour of the American
president

Tuesday September 2, 2003
The Guardian

As the alcoholic George Bush approached his 40th birthday in 1986, he
had achieved nothing
he could call his own. He was all too aware that none of his
educational and professional
accomplishments would have occured without his father. He felt so low
that he did not care
if he lived or died. Taking a friend out for a flight in a Cessna
aeroplane, it only
became apparent he had not flown one before when they nearly crashed on
take-off. Narrowly
avoiding stalling a few times, they crash-landed and the friend
breathed a sigh of relief
- only for Bush to rev up the engine and take off again.

Not long afterwards, staring at his vomit-spattered face in the mirror,
this dangerously
self-destructive man fell to his knees and implored God to help him and
became a
teetotalling, fundamentalist Christian. David Frum, his speechwriter,
described the
change: "Sigmund Freud imported the Latin pronoun id to describe the
impulsive, carnal,
unruly elements of the human personality. Bush's id
seems to have been
every bit as powerful and destructive as Clinton's id. But sometime in
Bush's middle
years, his id was captured, shackled and manacled, and locked away."

One of the jailers was his father. His grandfather, uncles and many
cousins attended both
his secondary school, Andover, and his university, Yale, but the
longest shadow was cast
by his father's exceptional careers there.

On the wall of his school house at Andover, there was a large
black-and-white photograph
of his father in full sporting regalia. He had been one of the most
successful student
athletes in the school's 100-year history and was similarly remembered
at Yale, where his
grandfather was a trustee. His younger brother, Jeb, summed the problem
up when he said,
"A lot of people who have fathers like this feel a sense that they have
failed." Such a
titanic figure created mixed feelings. On the one hand, Bush worshipped
and aspired to
emulate him. Peter Neumann, an Andover roommate, recalls that, "He
idolised his father, he
was going to be just like his dad." At Yale, a friend remembered a
"deep respect" for his
father and when he later set up in the oil business, another friend
said, "He was focused
to prove himself to his dad."

EDITED BY ADMIN: COPYRIGHT

[lazarus]

1. buff2

In accordance with DU rules concerning copyright, please edit your post to an excerpt.

lazarus, DU moderator

[Kat 333]

2. Dear god ...

These sick-o's bring a whole new meaning to the term dysfunctional. Norman Bates begins to look rather "normal" after reading about this lot.

[Zhade]

3. Excellent piece.

I've wondered a lot about this myself.

He says he loathes "people who felt guilty about their lot in life because others were suffering".

This is one of the most damning - and disturbing - things I've yet heard him quoted as saying. Gives me the creeps.

[Scurrilous]

4. Poor 'misunderestimated' George Bush.

Forced to play highly competetive tiddlywinks. Can't repeat a word when writing. No wonder he drank.

[Lisa]

5. "even when his mouth seems to be smiling"

This is evident from the Pelosi film -- he's all smiles at social functions, but once anything happens to scratch the surface (e.g. people asking inconvenient questions) he can be quite nasty. And if you look at his eyes while he is glad-handing, they often show how bored, resentful, and vindictive he really is.

A close family member of mine shows similar traits ... people are always saying, "it must have been so much fun growing up with ****" -- truth is, they don't know the half of it.