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And how to do you feel about that, Mr. President?

15 comments on And how to do you feel about that, Mr. President?

And how to do you feel about that, Mr. President?

: There’s a rash of psychoanalyzing of the President going on in media. The New York Times today on Bush hanging Saddam’s pistol in the White House:

In other words, the gun is more than a gun, at least according to the Freudians.

“It’s the phallic equivalent of a scalp – I mean that quite seriously,” said Stanley A. Renshon, a psychoanalyst and political scientist at the City University of New York…

And in the Guardian, plugs/quotes a book by a shrink putting Bush on the couch:

Justin Frank, a clinical professor of psychiatry at George Washington University, argues that the president’s inclination to see the world in black-and-white, good-versus-evil terms, and his tendency to repeat favourite words and phrases under pressure, are not simply politics as usual, but classic symptoms of untreated alcoholism….

Well, it could be that today, the world is black-and-white, good-versus evil. And repeating favorite words and phrases? That’s showbiz.

15 responses to “And how to do you feel about that, Mr. President?”

  1. g wiz Avatar
    g wiz

    Justin Frank and George Bush are a lot alike then, because I heard Frank get completely shredded by Michael Medved on his show last week. It wasn’t even a fair fight. Frank’s response to almost every point made by Medved was to repeat simplistic, tired cliches over and over. How ironical. Anybody else heard that show?

  2. chuck Avatar
    chuck

    Never heard the show. These things sure don’t help my already low opinion of psychiatry, though. Feels like every nutcase on the planet, many of whom are psychiatrists, is suddenly in my face.

  3. Andy Avatar
    Andy

    Analyzing the President’s Personality was more fun when it was Clinton. At least we had some sex, maybe some violence, some lying, some indiscretions, some speculation about Hillary, AND some examination about bombs and weapons and troops.
    Analyzing Bush is boring. It didn’t lead anywhere with Clinton it sure ain’t gonna work with Bush.
    P.S.
    Clinton is Back and the Analysis continues. Its still more interesting than analyzing Bush but totally irrelevant to anything else going on.

  4. Steve in Houston Avatar
    Steve in Houston

    Maybe it’s just me, but I think I can hear the sound of stops being pulled out, a lot of them. Maybe even all of them. It’s kind of hard to tell above the noise.

  5. Reid Avatar
    Reid

    I am almost positive I have heard Dr. Frank’s diagnosis before almost verbatim.
    But, that diagnosis was for Ronald Reagan all those years ago.

  6. Thomas Avatar
    Thomas

    When my algebra (college) students complain about their troubles on tests, I find that the more-complicated lengthy exercises are not always the ones they find most difficult. Instead students tend to stress over the more simplistic questions where they take a realitively short and simple problem and try to make more out of it. After examples which have an extensive number of steps or analysis required, the ones that are brief and straightforward seem too easy and they second-guess their common sense.
    Politicos, psychologists, and the media fall into the same trap. Sure there are many complicated problems in the world and it takes a lot of effort to try to understand them – but there are some issues that are fairly simple. Al Qaida and radical Islamists hate America and want to kill Americans and end western culture as we know it is a pretty simple thing to understand – one doesn’t need to spend inordinate amounts of time dissecting it trying to unlock some secret because there isn’t one hiding. As unsophisticated as it may seem, gray areas don’t always exist.

  7. Steven Jens Avatar
    Steven Jens

    “Phallic equivalent of a scalp”? Am I the only one having trouble figuring out that metaphor?

  8. Andrea Harris Avatar
    Andrea Harris

    When you realize the people saying that are d*ckheads, it all becomes clear.

  9. Dreams Into Lightning Avatar
    Dreams Into Lightning

    Maybe that’s why they call them head shrinkers.
    Yeah, don’t these folks get tired of hearing themselves talk about how “those people see the world in black and white terms”? Do they have any idea how idiotic this sounds to us? Haven’t they figured out that some thing in life really are “black and white”?
    No, because that would require that conclusions be drawn from that information, and action taken. And so the situation in the Mideast must constantly be obfuscated. They want to drag the rest of us into their own state of self-induced confusion.
    I ran into my ex-therapist on the street, just a couple of days after saddam was captured. “Hey,” I said, “we got Saddam Hussein, isn’t that great?” She gave me a confused look and said, “Er, yeah … I guess so.”

  10. GWB Avatar
    GWB

    Yes, many things in this life are black and white.
    For example, poor people should just stay out of the way. Just be happy we energy barons let you breathe the little air we’re leaving behind.
    If you criticize me or my pals, I’ll sic my attack-lackeys on you.
    I don’t even know who Ronald Reagan was (I was pretty coked up back in the 80s), but if the people loved him so much, I guess I should name-drop him. He hated the poor too, so he can’t be all bad.
    It’s fun to initimidate media people. If they print bad things about you, or correct your lies, threaten to cut off their access. They’ll come around, the pussies.

  11. onecent Avatar
    onecent

    Busmiller is an idiot, so is the psychoanalyst, who don’t count for much in psychiatry today for all of the right reasons, she quoted. It was a nice gesture by the military giving Saddam’s gun to their Commander-in-Chief. A gesture done throughout history.
    To understand how silly it is for Busmiller to have quoted this partisan hack, you need to appreciate how discredited psychoanalysis is in psychiatry today.
    Psychoanalysis has gone the way of Freud. Now reduced to a nice quaint spot for the worried well and people that have oodles of time and money and no serious major mental illness. You won’t see it featured in a psychiatry residency today, because psychiatry is based now on pharmacology as the major diseases it treats have a neurochemical basis unknown in Freud’s time.

  12. mdmhvonpa Avatar
    mdmhvonpa

    All sickness (mental or physical) is the result of sexual repression. What a load.

  13. Mikey Avatar
    Mikey

    “Well, it could be that today, the world is black-and-white, good-versus evil.”
    You beleive this? Ouch.

  14. Steel Magnolia Avatar
    Steel Magnolia

    “classic symptoms of untreated alcoholism….”
    Nothing symptomatic, let alone classic, about it. Sheesh.

  15. Andrea Harris Avatar
    Andrea Harris

    And just what is “untreated alcoholism” anyway? Is there an anti-alcoholism pill? I was under the impression that Bush stopped drinking due to his religious faith. I guess that isn’t an approved method of “treating” alcoholism.