I have long thought GWB wasn't quite right.

[Pacifist Patriot]

The disconnect between his words and his actions, his words and reality, his actions and common decency, etc. have always struck me as dysfunctional. But I couldn't quite put my finger on it other than having an instinct that he was behaving like a sociopath. All charm and no warmth coupled with complete indifference to anyone besides himself and the God with whom he identifies.

Someone here recommended I read the book, Bush On The Couch. I cannot remember your screen name, but whoever you were, THANK YOU! Dr. Frank's analysis may or may not be 100% on the mark, but much of what he has to say certainly goes a long way in explaining the disconnects that have bothered me for years.

George W. Bush as POTUS is the Projecting Oedipal Tyrannical Unhinged Sadist. But having a psychotic in the White House isn't nearly as chilling as the thought that a group of powerful businessmen (PNAC, et. al.) decided he was going to be very useful. And even that thought is not as chilling as the thought that so many Americans have chosen to align themselves behind a mad man when a preponderance of evidence exposes him for the lying dispassionate fiend he is. Exactly how do we get America on the couch and on the way to recovery?

[texpatriot2004]

1. I am sick and tired of being TERRORIZED by HIM! He is

DELUSIONAL and INSANE and FANATICAL!

[Pacifist Patriot]

2. I agree. He is a sadist plain and simple.

Erich Fromm's "Escape From Freedom" has a great section on sado-masochism (non-sexual) and GWB is classic.

[tsuki]

43. Sorry, I must disagree. I don't think he has enough upstairs to

be a sadist plain and simple. Years of abuse are being to show (This is your brain, this is your brain on drugs.) I am one of the growing number of Americans who must force themselves to watch him. I run when I hear his voice. But every fews month I make myself sit through one of his increasing disjointed and inane press announcements. His condition will be announce shortly after leaving office.

I still wonder, knowing that the Reagans and the Bushes were barely cordial, what was Nancy doing visiting Laura when POTUS was bicycling around MD. And why was he not told about the threat? Is it because Nancy spent all those years protecting her husband? Was she there for a consultation?

Further, the spin out of the WH is that Bush did not know how desperate things were in NOLA until an aide approached him. Even allowing for "spin," does this seem reasonable?

I am not being sarcastic. I am seriously concerned about his mental ability, because I know that he has his finger on the button. And that scares me to death.

[Pacifist Patriot]

45. I don't think sadism has anything to do with intelligence.

It's certainly possible to be a stupid sadist.

I mentioned on another thread that Bush's insulation from reality and the trepidation with which aides approach him reminds me of an alcoholic family. Everyone walks on eggshells around the alcoholic father fearing the next thing to set him off.

In my opinion, an incompetent president is no better or worse than an uninformed one. And the lack of curiosity on his part is simply one aspect of his incompetence. The book I mention in the OP has much to say on the subject of his lack of curiosity. It's very telling. This "excuse" doesn't play well no matter how you look at it.

I concur. His mental state, whatever the true diagnosis, is frightening indeed given his position.

What is really interesting about this book is anyone who had read it could have predicted with reasonable accuracy his behavior concerning Hurricane Katrina.

[tsuki]

50. But to be a sadist takes a certain amount of mental agility. I think

that he was once very probably a sadist. But I wonder if he has the cognitive ability to be a sadist. This is different from being a stupid sadist.

Oh well, he is our jonah, unfortunately.

[atomic-fly]

3. an observation

I know why people fall into liking him. He has a certain smile that he uses a lot. It catches you off guard and you actually smile back at him(or tv screen). I have caught myself doing this. He can work a crowd with his charm...that is his greatest strength. I have seen him using this lately and it comes off as totally inappropriate (in wake of this disaster).

[Vickers]

7. Seriously, you think he's charming? Holy shit, he's repulsive to me

He is the fakest, most cowardly motherfucker I could imagine.

He is a pussy, about as far away as you can get from "hero" or "cowboy" or whatever the fuck it is he thinks he is trying to be.

He is pathetic.

[Pacifist Patriot]

8. I find him repulsive too, but...

remember in the 2000 election cycle thinking he was charming. In a Ted Bundy sort of way. Charming until you know what he is capable of.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

39. He's a less intelligent version of Ted Bundy, but on a larger scale.

[quiet.american]

47. Yes. This is how I think of him. Ted Bundy.

The serial killer in the White House.

[atomic-fly]

19. I have always despised the man, but

I have always despised the man, but I was just trying to state, that he can connect with people this way. I think he is total shit, but I recognize it.
I agree with all the negative images you imply.

[electropop]

14. His "smile" frightens me.

Creepy and icky. I have no idea why it appeals to anybody.

[Imagevision]

16. I say Bush truly is detached from reality, can't blame all of it

on Rove, most of it but this president has mental issues he needs to deal with.

[Pacifist Patriot]

18. To me, it casts Rove and the other handlers in an even worse light.

Exploiting the mentally ill for their own agenda. In a weird way I feel an eensy teensy bit of sympathy for Bush...but only in that respect. Bush needs help and instead he's being used. Granted, he's getting much out of it.

[AbbyR]

33. He seems sick to me, too...

anyone who has been in the public eye for as long as he has and went through prep school and college, yet still cannot put a coherent sentence together has real problems. I'm honestly wondering if it's early-onset Alzheimer's.

I despise him, but I feel sorry for him, too. I think he's a puppet.

[Pacifist Patriot]

35. I'm not sure it's Alzheimer's so much as

the residual effects of his decades of alcohol abuse compounded by the stress of the job.

[Arugula Latte]

44. So phony and creepy. The smile of a sociopath before he makes

a suit out of your skin ...

[Pacifist Patriot]

46. Ew, now that's a visual I didn't need.

I listened to that book on tape driving to back to college after a break. I had a new car air freshener in my car. I had to throw it away because the smell became associated with the creepy feeling. To this day, pine car fresheners turn my stomach.

[Bridget Burke]

20. Since he was my Governor, I've "known" him for a long time.

And I was never tempted to like him.

But I've seen taped speeches from his gubernatorial campaigns. He was able to answer questions & speak extemporaneously. No deep intelligence was evident, but he's definitely gone downhill since then.

[atomic-fly]

21. Exactly....

He was much more articulate in his early years.
Now he sounds like a 6th grader trying to give a report on a book he did not quite read.

[Booster]

37. Isn't it funny how we all see things differently. I have never, ever

looked at Bush, even when his father was pres, and thought he was charming. He always, always looked to me as just what he it. A spoiled, narcistic, arrogant fratboy with very little intelligence. There has never been a day that I thought he was doing a good job because everything he does seems so fake to me, and lately that has been exposed by the press as being true. The rest of the world got it right and half of us got it really wrong; they pegged him much earlier that a lot of Americans.

[Pacifist Patriot]

42. I was like that with Reagan.

It seemed like everyone was praising him as the Great Communicator and charmed by his self-deprecating humor. I found him stiff, phony and irritating. And I was a pre-teen/teenager during his tenure in office.

[Jade Fox]

4. I'm forever recommending people read that book....

so I'll take credit! :)

There is something seriously wrong with Bush, coupled with the arrogance
and insulation of his class. It's NOT a good combination!

[Pacifist Patriot]

9. Exactly. It's bad enough that he's priviledged and it's bad

enough that he's psychotic. But priviledged and psychotic? Ay yi yi!

Caveat: I do know some "priviledged" people who had really smart parents who exposed them to the responsibility that goes along with having more....but honestly, they are pretty few and far between.

[Jade Fox]

17. I've worked for no less that three bosses...

who were from priviledged backgrounds. Two of them were outspokenly
Liberal.

However, even those two had much trouble connecting to the reality of
those around them, and trouble not treating others as servants who
happily put their own needs second. There is a lot of rich people culture
that can't be unlearned, even if the intention is there. That's the
conclusion I came to working closely with these people.

[Southpaw Bookworm]

31. A huge sense of entitlement

Even for seemingly minor things that are just common courtesy, like putting a gym towel in a basket in the locker room rather than just leaving it wherever for someone else to pick up. Or rewinding a rental video. Or not letting their kids completely destroy a shelf of books in your friendly neighborhood bookstore.

[Double T]

5. Mental institution or prison- YES.

White House and Oval Office-NO.

[electropop]

6. Sometimes you have to hit rock-bottom before you can begin recovery.

I hope we have finally gotten there with Katrina. This seems to have been a big wake-up call to Americans that their dubya addiction is a problem.

[Canuckistanian]

10. I wonder if he could recite a single PNAC talking point

He's not really a neocon, he just plays one on TV. No, Cheney is the PNAC stovepipe, the one who tells the pResident what the talking points are for the day.

[Pacifist Patriot]

12. I don't know about that.

I've heard a lot of people say that Bush is "pandering" to the far right. And that while he isn't PNAC, he's just surrounded himself with them (Wolfowitz, Cheney, Perl, etc.)

I think Bush IS the far right and he knows damn well what PNAC wants. He may not want it for the same reasons, but their goals align perfectly with his. He doesn't strike me as someone who particularly cares if motivations differ as long as the actions agree with his desires. As long as there is no dissent, to quote Mr. Bush, "What's the difference?"

[windbreeze]

48. May not be PNAC?

Well, gee whiz, his brother is...and I suppose they never talk about anything? Then every signer is a member of this admin, one way or another...as advisors...in DOD...and so on...he may not have put his signature with the rest of them...but kid yourself not, he IS one of them...
I can't stand the man, can't watch him, can't listen to him speak..turn the channel the minute his face appears for any reason...I don't need this man to tell me how to think, and I am sick of men who try to tell me the sun is shining, when I can feel raindrops falling, every time he opens his mouth, he tells us how far out there he is, and that his reality is not our reality...I don't hold any sympathy for any problems he might be having, or what causes them...to hell with him...
windbreeze

[Pacifist Patriot]

49. Hey, you and I are on the same page.

I'm telling you what excuses I've heard. I don't fully buy in to the "puppet" theory. I think there are more intelligent and more powerful people pulling strings but Bush is hardly an unknowing pawn. I think he is being used because his mental illness suits the situation perfectly, but he's having his needs met too. Perfect symbiotic relationship.

[Stand and Fight]

11. I have made the recommendation several times...

That is, I've made the recommendation several times for people to read Dr. Justin Frank's book, but I don't recall to whom. I am happy to hear that you enjoyed the analysis, as frightening as it may or may not have been.

[Lexingtonian]

13. He represents the mentally more deranged half of the population

and, in that sense, is doing a rather spectacular job.

The complete evidence, if you really do a careful accumulation and accounting of it all, adds up to Dubya being an epileptic- usually with temporal lobe seizures, occasionally the other kinds- as a result of Fetal Alcohol Effects. People who are good at concealing mental illness of the kind tend to illusions of omnipotence and grandiosity.

Bob Woodward has revealed that he takes two prescription medications, and the regimen for one of them matches Topamax.

The side effects and general effects of Topamax are described in pretty extensive detail at http://www.crazymeds.org/topamax.html . Put that together with a full clinical description of the symptomology of temporal lobe epilepsy and mild general epilepsy, and you have a picture that resembles what we know of Dubya rather exactly- plus an explanation for why the fellow is so secretive and lives in a capsule of secrecy, is something of a religious freakazoid, exercises (and falls down) so much.

It's why the mentally deficient and soul-devoid and psychologically dead-while-still-physically-alive so strongly identify with him and defend him.

[Imagevision]

15. Bush needs to get on medication? -- or get off of it...!

[htuttle]

22. President Caligula is fucking nuts

[foo_bar]

38. Caligula put a horse on the Senate, * made Mike Brown the head of FEMA

[Southpaw Bookworm]

23. Seeing Babs in action

And considering her activities and commentary, it's no surprise how &*$#ed up the Shrub is. As I believe Al Franken commented: George is Barbara's boy.

[Pacifist Patriot]

24. Every last one of her children is "hers."

Given GWHB's resume I would assume he missed most of their childhoods. Frank has a good chapter on Bab's influence. Does a bit of a mini-analysis on her as well. Not exactly flattering.

[npincus]

25. it might have been me- I've recommended this book to some DUers

it's frightening and at the same time makes perfect sense- explaining the underpinnings of behavior that's so contradictory compared with the "message" and also so destructive.

Makes you realize matters won't get better until he is OUT.

[Pacifist Patriot]

26. True, but then it begs the question...

what enabled him to get in?

[npincus]

27. in 2000 he cheated; in 2004 it was 9-11

As hard as it is for ME to believe that people could be so fucking stupid, 9-11 left us a traumatized nation, the MSM was the echo chamber for TERRA-ROUND-THE-CLOCK and did not provide a counterpoint or a critical analysis of what the Iraq adventure really meant, question the WMD propaganda and allowed the Repug smear machine to swiftboat the alternative, Kerry. Why the hell all of the scandals and anti-Bush disclosures didn't resonate with more people, G-d only fucking knows. I never will get it. But I believe it had everything to do with 9-11.

[Pacifist Patriot]

28. One little quibble...

In 2004 it was 9-11 AND the GOP cheated. :)

[MN ChimpH8R]

29. Bush on the Couch

I have plugged this book often, as have other DUers. Frank's insight is so sharp and focused that it stands as a definitive diagnosis. Chimpy is unquestionably suffering from some combination of ADHD, narcissistic personality disorder, sociopathic personality disorder and generally delusional thinking as well as untreated alcoholism whether he's boozing again or not. He can't even fake empathy - he skated through 9/11 on dick-wagging, but that won't work for the Katrina disaster, which requires real empathy.

Speaking from some personal experience and gathered knowledge, there is no question in my mind that His Chimperial Majesty is heavily medicated. His facial expressions, tics and weird reactions to normal stimuli indicate to me that he is probably being treated with powerful anti-psychotics of some sort and possibly Ritalin or something in the speed family when he has to make a public appearance.

The Chimp belongs in a mental hospital, not anywhere levers of power. He is highly dangerous to others and probably psychotic.

[pushycat]

30. Something about him suggests he isn't healthy

to me. See him before 2000 and he is a smartalecky SOB, bouncing up and down slightly to give us the impression he's full of energy, just chomping the bit to get to that 'hard work' he does.

Now, those eyes darting all over, his face pinched and tired, and that stupid jaw twist. That started during the 2004 debates I think - hard to miss now because he does it all the time. Doesn't look good

[mtnsnake]

32. Bush 5, Cheney 2

That's the number of back-to-back strokes each one has most likely suffered in secret. These guys appear to be stroked out plain and simple, and that would explain some of the behavior exhibited and their obvious loss of major brain function thereof. I don't think Bush's disfunctional actions can simply be attributed to mental retardation as many believe, but a combination of retardation, multiple strokes, and whacking off to horses 6+ times a day.

[Catherine Vincent]

34. He has no clothes!

[Pacifist Patriot]

36. And I think you've adequately represented his penis.

[WinkyDink]

40. *WAVES!*

I recommended it on this website!

(It's a very "Eureka!" type of book!)

[Pacifist Patriot]

41. Why thank you.

*Bowing deeply.* I just finished it. I think there are some gaps in his analysis of why people voted for him, but he does acknowledge he's not a social psychologist. I think Fromm's work ties in nicely with this book and helps explain the phenomenon of Bush supporters.

I only wish I'd found the book BEFORE the election. I can think of at least 10 people I would have given copies and paid them to read it who probably would have read it to humor me. Might have pried open some eyes I couldn't budge with the facts.