Psychologist Analyses W's Behaviour - UK Guardian. MUST READ

[Pert_UK]

Psychologist Oliver James analyses the behaviour of the American president in the UK 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...

(At Yale) He was aggressively anti-intellectual and hostile to east-coast preppy types like his father, sometimes cruelly so. On one occasion he walked up to a matronly woman at a smart cocktail party and asked, "So, what's sex like after 50, anyway?"...

As he grew older, the fury towards his father was increasingly directed against himself in depressive drinking. But it was not all his father's fault. There was also his insensitive and domineering mother...

Bush's deep hatred, as well as love, for both his parents explains how he became a reckless rebel with a death wish. He hated his father for putting his whole life in the shade and for emotionally blackmailing him. He hated his mother for physically and mentally badgering him to fulfil her wishes. But the hatred also explains his radical transformation into an authoritarian fundamentalist. By totally identifying with an extreme version of their strict, religion-fuelled beliefs, he jailed his rebellious self. From now on, his unconscious hatred for them was channelled into a fanatical moral crusade to rid the world of evil. "

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

Oliver James's book They F*** You Up - How to survive family life is published by Bloomsbury, priced £7.99.

[SharonAnn]

1. Yep, that's been pretty my take on his psyche.

He's not that hard to read. I said to my friends and family that his real, underlying reason for invading Iraq was to show his father that he could outdo him.

[ewagner]

2. Interesting analysis

They must have gleaned those transforming incidents in his life from snippets because I don't think dubya would share any of them.

Thanks for the post

[cliss]

3. Very interesting article.

Thanks for the post. There are many more issues which are related to alcoholism. This illness seems to run in the Bush family. G's daughters could be developing it. Also, Jeb's daughter is a substance abuser. I've seen other Bushes in scrapes with the law.

As far as G deciding to go sober and replacing his addiction with fundamentalism: his chances are very poor of maintaining sobriety. He would have been better off with AA which replaces the addictive thinking with a new set of behaviors.

Also, I read on this site that during his vacation, he was drinking non-alcoholic beer (which isn't non-alcoholic, it contains a small amount). If this is true, it won't be long until he goes back to the bottle.

It will be very interesting to see how his advisers handle this. He could already have relapsed. They will probably have to go to great lengths to keep him out of the public eye, in particular press conferences where he has to "wing it".

Keep your eye on this situation as it develops.

[snyttri]

5. Relapse is already a topic for late night comedians. Stewart and/or

Letterman have shown photos of him looking frizzy around the edges. Maybe it's just war pressure. Comedy show ridicule might have more effect than devastating stories in the mainstream news.

What ever happened to George's old party buddies? If it was Clinton somebody might invent some. Also, an insulting story like the article could be the story of the day on Fox if it was about Clinton.

[kskiska]

4. Interesting

in that trying to outdo the old man and not listening to his advice, he's screwing up again, just like he always did. Dear old dad had to bail him out of every scrape he got himself into, but this time there's not much even he can do.

[dw]

6. Thanks for this. It seems to me...

... that with the bettar part of a year to prepare for presidential debates, the major Democratic contenders should be strategizing on the article's conclusion:

However, it is certain that however much Bush may sometimes seem like a buffoon, he is also powered by massive, suppressed anger towards anyone who challenges the extreme, fanatical beliefs shared by him and a significant slice of his citizens - in surveys, half of them also agree with the statement "the Bible is the actual word of God and is to be taken literally, word for word".

Bush's deep hatred, as well as love, for both his parents explains how he became a reckless rebel with a death wish. He hated his father for putting his whole life in the shade and for emotionally blackmailing him. He hated his mother for physically and mentally badgering him to fulfil her wishes. But the hatred also explains his radical transformation into an authoritarian fundamentalist. By totally identifying with an extreme version of their strict, religion-fuelled beliefs, he jailed his rebellious self. From now on, his unconscious hatred for them was channelled into a fanatical moral crusade to rid the world of evil.

As Frum put it: "Id-control is the basis of Bush's presidency but Bush is a man of fierce anger." That anger now rules the world.