98 of 102 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Fool me twice... Can't get fooled again, March 29, 2006
Without a personal interview, I believe all a psychiatrist can tell about a subject, in most cases, is whether he is alive or dead. But then, there's George Bush. While the author spoke in paradigms I did not understand or accept, he brought up some interesting events and behaviors in the life of George Bush that literally crawl with clues:
The loss of his sister, and not being told she died until after the fact. (Guilt?)
Putting firecrackers up the behinds of bull frogs and lighting the firecracker. (Psychopathic?)
His temper tantrums on the golf course. (Infantile? Can't get his own way.)
Following his mother's advice not to use the same word over and over, he gets a Thesaurus to find another word for tears. He adds to his essay, "The lacerates came streaming down her face." (Learning disability?)
Telling a college professor that the poor are lazy, and wish to remain that way. (Limited thought processes?)
As governor he presided over more executions, more than any other in the state's history. One was a woman who had been domestically abused by her husband for eighteen years. Even prominent religious leaders pleaded on her behalf. George let her die. (Again, psychopathic?)
As governor he received another plea from a murderer to have her execution stayed. He play-acted a woman pleading for her life, to a stunned (conservative) commentator named Tucker Carlson. (Again, really psychopathic?)
His rather simple and linear thinking. Responding to the question why terrorists hate us, he said, "They hate our freedoms." (Inability to think in complex abstracts?)
George cannot read the line: ".... shame on me." The type was quite clear. His inability to admit a mistake. George Bush has still failed to admit any major mistake since he took office. (Rigid?)
George has trouble speaking English properly. "Is our children learning?" (Again, learning disability?)
He blames others for what goes wrong, particularly the media. (Projects his limitations onto others?)
He has not attended any funerals for servicemen or women killed in action. (Inability to feel compassion?)
Arrested for vagrancy and drunk driving. (Alcoholism?)
Holds a basic belief that he is superior to others, that his position is a birthright. (Narcisstic?)
Trying to emulate Daddy at every level and failing. Daddy: youngest pilot in the Navy; George: lowest score accepted for pilot training (25th percentile) in the Air National Guard; Daddy: Yale; George: Yale; Daddy: baseball team; George: Cheerleader; Daddy: Oilman; George: Starts Arbusto Drilling. Texans soon call it El Busto. (A need to gain parental approval?)
The author doesn't imply that George Bush may be sociopathic, but it is there for anyone who wishes to infer it.
Finally, the most powerful man in the world is on vacation, on his home turf, surrounded by secret service, family and friends, and appears afraid to meet with Cindy Sheehan, especially considering that he could have put any spin on the meeting he would have chose to. (Cowardice?)
Doesn't this author make you wonder? Does Bush really have the capacity to lead the country, and does he really give a damn about Americans?
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687 of 750 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
We are in BIG trouble., June 28, 2004
By A Customer
This review is from: Bush on the Couch: Inside the Mind of the President (Hardcover)
I'm 56, a grown woman descended from a long line of Republicans, including a
multi-term Republican State Senator.
Actually I had voted for a Republican candidate in every
Presidential election since I was 21 years old.
But when George W. Bush was running for President I saw a History Channel
documentary during which one of "W"'s oldest friends was being interviewed. The man
merrily related an anecdote he considered hugely amusing...
To make a long story short, although former First Lady Barbara Bush had
suggested to her new daughter-in-law Laura that it would be unwise to ever
criticize "W", Laura Bush made the mistake of doing just that.
Once.
It was during the period of time when Bush was newly entering politics. He gave
a speech that Laura had listened to very carefully.
Driving home from the political rally, George asked his young wife how she
thought he did.
She told him honestly that she didn't think he had done as well as he might
have.
The friend relating the story laughed that Bush was so furious at Laura's criticism
that he drove clean through his back garage wall and right out the other side
of the building.
The friend of George Bush who related the story thought it absolutely hilarious.
I didn't find it the least bit funny.
What I did think, was that it suggested a major character flaw and a horrifying
lack of self control.
And I found the very idea of that kind of flaw in a Presidential candidate to
be very unsettling.
And the idea of a violent, uncontrolled response to nothing more than a minor
criticism left me extremely uncomfortable with the idea of having George W.
Bush at the helm of this country.
So although I HAD voted for his father, for the first time in my life I chose
NOT to vote Republican when George W. Bush ran for President.
Actually, the more I saw of George W. Bush in the years AFTER he assumed the
Presidency, the MORE uncomfortable I became.
And after 9/11, and the invasion of Iraq. one thought kept resurfacing....."This whole scenario just
doesn't FEEL right".
I received an email from an old friend which mentioned a book by Dr. Justin A. Frank, a Washington, D.C.-based psychoanalyst and professor of psychiatry.
In his book, "Bush on the Couch: Inside the Mind of the President", Frank wrote, "....when the most powerful man on the planet consistently exhibits an array of multiple, serious, and untreated symptoms -- any one of which I've seen patients need years to work through -- it's certainly cause for further investigation, if not for outright alarm".
Clearly I wasn't the only one with the feeling that something is just not quite right.
Saturday, out of curiosity, I went to see Michael Moore's documentary
"Farenheit 9/11".
Personally, I don't particularly care for Michael Moore.
But to give credit where credit is due, he does do his homework.
And I was curious. So I went.
By about halfway through the movie, the entire audience had become deathly
silent.
You could have heard a pin drop in that theatre.
So this is my take on the movie.
It doesn't matter whether you're a Democrat or a Republican.
It also doesn't matter whether you're a Christian, a Jew, a Buddhist, a Muslim,
an Athiest or an Agnostic.
Do yourself a favor and leave your political and religious affiliations at
home.
Walk in the theatre door as simply an average American citizen.
I believe that you will emerge every bit as shaken as each and every person in
that theatre did Saturday afternoon.
Do you consider yourself a reasonably intelligent human being?.
Presented with fair and unbiased information, do you think you can analyze a
situation and draw your own conclusions?.
Occasional sardonic movie commentary from Moore aside, there's MORE than enough
fair and unbiased historical video in that film to scare the living hell out of
ALL of us.
Because much of what you're going to see has been edited out of our evening
news.
You're also going to see candid interviews with our duly elected officials.
From BOTH political parties.
Read the book. Go see the documentary. Make your own decision.
My humble opinion? Man, we are in BIG trouble.
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69 of 72 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Hits the nail on the head, February 4, 2006
This review is from: Bush on the Couch: Inside the Mind of the President (Hardcover)
Having been a psych RN for years, I think Dr. Frank has hit the nail on the head with his analysis of Bush's behaviors and actions. For the record, he rarely mentions that Bush is a Republican (and when he does, it's usually in a situational reference to his being the Republican candidate running against the Democratic candidate), he doesn't say that all Republicans are like this, and he doesn't say that the reason Bush does and says these things is because he's a Republican. This is not a political book that way.
Instead, he focuses on one human being's very public behaviors. He has a lot of insight into the motivations of this president based on an extensive review of an enormous amount of factual information--including autobiographies of members of the Bush family, as well as everything Bush has said or done in public. For example, incidents during his childhood which were written about in his parents' autobiographies could have come up in a session. Instead, Dr. Frank was able to read about them. He also looks at situations Bush has faced during his political career, and explains that how he handled those challenges gives us a glimpse into his character and motivations.
I think it's interesting that Bush supporters criticize Dr. Frank for analyzing Bush based on the mountain of PUBLIC behaviors and statements that come right from the horse's mouth, despite not having spoken with him personally. If no one could ever be judged by their words and actions, why do we know in our hearts that "actions speak louder than words"?
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