Arianna Online - - -
http://www.dkosopedia.com/index.php/Bush_On_The_Couchexcerpt
How can a president send American soldiers into combat under false pretenses and then proceed to joke about the deception, finding humor in the absence of WMD under his Oval Office desk? Lo and behold—GW Bush has brought institutionalized sadism to the Oval Office. The grandiose Bush’s indifference to the real sufferings of others is a passive manifestation of innate sadism. While he tries to maintain an inner life free from conflict, he betrays an unconscious fear of conferring reality to others. His own sadism may escape undetected if the object of his attacks is a known sadist. (Can you say Saddam Hussein?)
While he can joke about the absence of WMD, he denies the public a chance to view the Dover military coffin photos. Dr Frank believes this may suggest an unconscious resentment toward troops whose extreme bravery put his own sad wartime service record to shame.
Falling back on the infantile apparatus that causes the individual to “project” (or “call the kettle black” in simple terms), a sadist detaches his destructiveness and assigns it to someone else. Interestingly, Bush turned the public’s post-9/11 pain into a fantasy of even greater pain—diminishing the real tragedy of 9/11 while trying to elevate his ”anti-Saddam vendetta” into a new national crusade. His treatment of the killings of Saddam’s sons sent a vivid message about his insensitivity to violence. (I can’t help but wonder if it didn’t inspire those at the Abu Ghraib prison to act out as they did).
http://www.rawstory.com/exclusives/mayhew/bush_couch_review_71804.htmBook Review: 'Bush on the Couch'
A fascinating psychoanalysis of President Bush
By Pablo Mayhew
excerpt
Labeling the president a “dry drunk,” Frank goes on to detail how Bush’s fear of falling off the wagon — and the resultant avoidance he displays toward any situation(s) that might threaten his tenuous sobriety — forces him into a rigid and narrow routine of behavior, as well as a continual pattern of escape … that, along with the inflexible dogma espoused by his strict Christian beliefs, forms Bush’s intolerant and paranoid, black-and-white worldview — where he fancies himself a de facto Old West lawman, on the trail of an elusive roaming posse of ne’er-do-well evildoers. Whether he’s fighting terrorism abroad or political foes at home, Frank writes, Bush “shows a rigid inability to consider the idea that anything in his own behavior might qualify as destructive; instead he projects such impulses onto his many perceived persecutors, to maintain his sense of self.” Such self-righteous and pious crusading is at the heart of every decision Bush has made since becoming president in 2001.
In “Bush on the Couch,” Frank presents a compelling argument that George W. Bush is mentally unfit to lead the United States of America. It is an intriguing read with a poignant message — more a clarion call, really, to which all Americans should heed. As Frank writes at the end of the book: “Our sole treatment option — for his benefit and for ours — is to remove President Bush from office. It is up to all of us — Congress, the media and voters—to do so, before it is too late.”
http://www.ariannaonline.com/columns/column.php?id=722George W. Bush: Presidential or Pathological?
By Arianna Huffington
excerpt
Poking around in the presidential psyche, Frank uncovers a man suffering from megalomania, paranoia, a false sense of omnipotence, an inability to manage his emotions, a lifelong need to defy authority, an unresolved love-hate relationship with his father, and the repercussions of a history of untreated alcohol abuse.
...
One of the more compelling sections of the book is Frank’s dissection of what he calls Bush’s “almost pathological aversion to owning up to his infractions” — a mindset common to individuals Freud termed “the Exceptions,” those who feel “entitled to live outside the limitations that apply to ordinary people.”
Limitations like, for instance, not driving while drunk. Or the limitation of having to report for required Air National Guard duty. Or the limitation of having to adhere to international law.
...
At the end of his analysis, Dr. Frank offers the following prescription: “Having seen the depth and range of President Bush’s psychological flaws … our sole treatment option — for his benefit and for ours — is to remove President Bush from office.”
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
