Ron Suskind's article was great in the NYT, but I felt there is a piece of the story missing: a non-reality-based presidency is evidence, not simply of "resolute faith" but of profound psychiatric disturbance. I went back to Dr. Justin Frank's book, BUSH ON THE COUCH, and want to pass on a few graphs that I thought fascinating at the time -- and more so today:
The faux press needs to look at this guy from something other than a political perspective to report on him. It's time to get with the program.
Dr. Frank writes:
"A careful consideration of the evidence suggests that behind Bush's affable exterior operates a powerful but obscure delusional system that drives his behavior. The most precise psychiatric term to describe his pathology is most frequently used to identify a particular condition exhibited by schizophrenics that, as we'll see, has broader applications as well: megalomania.
"....A megalomaniac sees himself as the center of the world, the one figure who has all the answers. He tolerates no disagreement, and sees external reality as either threatening or nonexistent. This view stems from a need to triumph over insecurity and fear, to deny and annihilate internal fantasies of persecution and fears of being attacked. It is a condition easier to detect in psychotic patients, but it can lurk beneath the surface of the most ordinary person..."
"Both megalomania and mania exhibit three overtly similar defensive characteristics: control, contempt, and triumph. Simple mania involves love and the need to deny dependency or loss of a loved person; megalomania involves hate and a need to triumph over paranoid fears...The megalomaniac is indifferent to any damage he caused, because he had a reason for his actions; he is without guilt or compassion, and incapable of even thinking about making reparations."
pp. 200, 201, 202
Quoting such brief passages doesn't "make the case," but I refer people to this book and the doctor's insights into our non-reality-based president and the delusional hold he has on his staff AND the country. Bush isn't "tough" and "resolute," he's deeply disturbed and delusional.
