I believe there's a psychological subtext underlying Rev. Wright's (possibly successful) attempt to sabotage Barack Obama's presidential campaign. At this point, it obviously has nothing to do with salvaging his reputation, since that is now in irretrievable tatters.
The behavior Wright is exhibiting is clinically dysfunctional, in a very specific way.
John Bradshaw, in his seminal book The Family defines the dysfunction in another context that is not so far removed from the Wright-Obama relationship:
We must examine [parenting] rules so that we can come to terms with our compulsiveness. Shame, with its accompanying loneliness and psychic numbness, feuls our cimpulsive/addictive lifestyle. Since the child in the adult has insatiable needs, we cannot find fulfillment... and no matter how hard we try to turn our children, lovers and spouse into Mom and Dad, it never works. We cannot be children again...
Shame fuels compulsivity and compulsivity is the black plague of our time. We are driven. We want more money, more sex, more food, more booze, more drugs, more adrenaline rush, more entertainment, more possession, more ecstasy. Like a starving person, more of everything does not satiate us.
At this point, Wright is wealthy and is (was) esteemed by many in his community. He has met the great and the small, and is widely known as a man of God. Yet all this is not enough, because Barack Obama chose to grow beyond Wright's context, and to exercise independent judgment decoupled from his prior relationship with his pastor.
Here is more:
Children who have been victimized by the poisonous pedagogy identify with their abusing parents and reenact the same abuse on their children by vehemently adhering to their parents' way of parenting.
Traumatic bonding and identification with the abuser explain the multi-generational carrying of diseased attitudes. Such identification is an ego defense and allows the child to survive.
Effectively, what Wright appears to be doing is re-enacting a trauma bond stemming from the relationship of master to slave that exists in America's history. This relationship is not genetic and is not ingrained; it is learned. Until this bond is understood for what it is, those who are subject to it cannot evolve beyond it, become a healthy human being, and instead resort to unreal conspiracy theories to explain their issues, and turn on those who reject their frame of reference and grow beyond the old ways.
Obama appears to be a man with solid personal boundaries, who is not only possesed of substantial intelligence but also of the ability to analyze himself objectively and avoid being overwhelmed by his emotions. In other words, Obama possesses at least a measure of emotional intelligence. This is strictly based on the impressions I get the same way everyone else does - through YouTube and other channels.
Wright is attempting to impose shame upon his former parishioner and to force Obama to stay inside the box of behaviors and roles that Wright feels comfortable with. Because Obama imposed his own boundaries and grew away from Wright as his pastor, it is likely that Wright has felt some resentment for some time towards Obama. When Obama spoke so movingly about the role of race in American life last month, it was in the context of Obama's former relationship with Wright.
It is no accident that Obama referred to Wright as someone who was "like family." Wright's exhibiting all the signs of someone who refers to the past for his outlook and personal context. One should study the past and learn from it, but the end goal is to be able to move on and grow, and reject the false "roles" that others seek to force upon us: the dutiful first son; the black-sheep of the family/the family screwup; the One Who Must Carry On The Family Name; the obiedient spouse. The Victim. The Scapegoat. I could go on, but I think you udnerstand what I'm getting at.
It's transparently obvious that Wright is acting out a role, possibly of "the Field Negro" (though it's not transparently obvious to himself) and trying to stuff Obama into another one (possibly "the House Negro"). Instead of accepting reality, Wright is attempting to bend reality to his wishes.
This is profoundly dysfunctional behavior. It's too bad Americans can't see it for what it is, and refrain from using it as a means to judge Obama. Obama knows he cannot control his fellow man. I am certain that millions of Americans will find some reason to blame Obama for this relationship, when in reality many, many of us are subject to the same twisted dynamics in our own personal relationships.
And, unfortunately, the Fourth Estate in this country is held in thrall to this same sick dynamic, seeking to reinforce it at every turn and, most unforgivably, using it as a tool to retain powerful elites in their accustomed position.
Note: I am NOT a psychologist. I have simply been trying to do some serious reading and self-analysis into some of the ugly family dynamics that predominate in my past, as a way of understanding them, working through them and becoming a more mature, understanding person, liberated from the past and looking to the future. This is simply one person's opinion. What is yours?