The President's Therapist [Hardcover]

John Wareham (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 30, 2008

PRESIDENT'S THERAPIST DISCLOSES SECRET OVAL OFFICE SESSIONS
Political thriller details George W. Bush relapse and treatment for alcoholism

Truth may be stranger than fiction, but the lines are blurred in THE PRESIDENT'S THERAPIST, a riveting, about-to-be released political thriller in which readers share an insider's portal into President George W. Bush's closet alcohol addiction, leadership travails, marital woes, and more, through the first-person account of the president's psychotherapist.

THE PRESIDENT'S THERAPIST by eminent leadership consultant John Wareham, delivers an eerily accurate portrayal of the 42nd president, as lead character psychotherapist Dr. Mark Alter attempts to help the failing president address his clandestine addiction to alcohol and reverse the course of the disastrous Iraq War. Along the way, Dr. Alter also engages in cathartic marriage counseling sessions with First Lady Laura Bush, and heated arguments with Vice President Dick Cheney and political strategist Karl Rove.

The novel's uncanny realism stems from Wareham's lifetime of experience as confidential counselor to corporate leaders, and his meticulous research into the psyche of George W. Bush. Through Dr. Alter, Wareham presents balanced, authentic insights into perhaps the most tragic president in modern times, and shows precisely how his presidency might have been rescued. THE PRESIDENT'S THERAPIST is a brilliantly original psychological journey, whose cliffhanger ending will satisfy mystery lovers, literary sophisticates, and political junkies from both sides of the aisle.

"The President's Therapist by John Wareham, a "what if" novel wrapped in layers of reality, offers an unnerving "case study" of alcoholism in the White House. We enter a series of psychological and forensic intelligence forays engendered by the US Secret Service along with a certain Dr. Mark Alter, leadership psychologist and wizard at "coaching" damaged CEOs into restoring their acumen and performance. In this case, however, the patient is none other than President George W. Bush. Wareham's 231-page book is a winner." -Jess Maghan / Christian Science Monitor.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A 'what if' novel wrapped in layers of reality that offers an unnerving "case study" of alcoholism in the White House where the patient is none other than President George W. Bush. Wareham's 231-page book is a winner." --The Christian Science Monitor

Unique, highly recommended, and sure to please . . . explores a fictionalized alcohol problem of the 43rd president of the United States, George W. Bush. Told by the president's psychologist, it's a story with a unique twist and perspective, blending real events from the past eight years into the tale.  - Midwest Book Review --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From the Author

It was telling, for me, as author of The President's Therapist (and the secret intervention to treat the alcoholism of George W. Bush), that W's own memoir, Decision Points, opens with his avowal that not a drop of liquor passed his lips since 1986. Quite apart from the series of intemperate decisions that resulted in the needless loss of tens of thousands of lives--and the blackened eye that supposedly resulted from "falling off the couch while choking on a pretzel"--evidence to the contrary seems amply apparent in the shocking deterioration of his fluency over the course of his troubled presidency--see archive.org/details/BrainTenYrs) - until, finally, the slurring of words became a constant within his rambling, rambunctious public utterances. That said, Decision Points is an engaging, deftly written work that spins the GWB presidency with warmth, generosity and wit. A brilliant editor has struck a perfect tone, lacing the book with W's own words to showcase the folksy charm that can confect the W persona. I was intrigued, however, that W seems to remain in total in denial of the emotional damage inflicted by the neglect of his philandering father, and the cruelty--both verbal and physical--of his callous, sarcastic mother. He refuses, for his readers anyway, to connect the dots concerning his troubled upbringing, and insists that his personal journey--and obsession with toppling Saddam Hussein--was unrelated to unconscious Oedipal urges. The W presidency will nonetheless ultimately be judged by the patently perverse decision to commence a war with Iraq, the absence of WMD's, the wanton loss of American blood and treasure, and the legal sophistry and non-sequiturs that W inveighed to personally authorize torture. This is the part of the book that no ghost writer, however deft, can sanitize, excuse, or wipe away.  All in all, Decision Points is an exercise in psychological "undoing." W's editors offer up his good heart, good deeds, and good intentions, in the hope that the reader will fail to notice the whopping denials and delusions advanced to escape culpability for the heinous, cowardly acts that will forever stain the W presidency. It may work for some, but as poet Nathan Alter noted of W's second inaugural address:
 
Your words hang briefly in the air like chaff
but your lies will rise as your epitaph.  --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 236 pages
• Publisher: Welcome Rain; 1st edition (October 30, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1566499542
• ISBN-13: 978-1566499545
• Product Dimensions: 1.1 x 5.1 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,568,813 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

John Wareham is a leadership psychologist, lecturer, writer, and poet whose work transcends genre. His latest work, Sonnets for Sinners, Everything One Needs to Know About Illicit Love, uses poems by classic and modern poets, to illustrate the perils of love-triangles. His prior work, a novel, The President's Therapist, as only fiction can, examines the troubled psyche of the 43rd United States President, George W. Bush. Earlier works include Secrets of a Corporate Headhunter, a popular business bestseller, The Anatomy of a Great Executive, a 13-language reference classic, How to Break Out of Prison, a life-changer, and Chancey On Top, a critically acclaimed novel that explores themes of leadership, love, and enlightenment.

John draws upon vast experience, having counseled top business leaders on three continents, and, at the other end of the social spectrum, transformed the lives of prison inmates in New York's toughest prisons. His firm, Wareham Associates, specializes in corporate leadership selection and development. He is also founder and chief executive of The Eagles Foundation of America, a non-profit organization dedicated to developing leaders within the prison population. He makes his home in New York.

Insight and wit hallmark his writing. "If I'd not entered the consulting world I flatter myself that I might have been a full time novelist," he says. "I wrote my first book to promote my firm. When it was nominated for a national award I got hooked on the process, and just kept on going. It was a treat to see my business books become bestsellers, and I also got a lot of pleasure from the reaction to How to Break Out of Prison. It was a challenge to write a cross-over self-development work for overachievers and prison inmates alike. It's always satisfying when people say that you helped them get what they want from life.

"All in all, however, I'm proudest of my novels, The President's Therapist and Chancey On Top, both of which chronicle the psychological journeys of flawed leaders. My publisher says the only good poet is a dead poet, but the chance to inject a little poetry into the passion seemed too good to miss, and I've been excited by the warm reaction of literary critics to this conceit. I was happy, too, with how both books played out. The test of a novel is credibility and a denouement that satifies and surprises the reader, and critics say I reached that lofty plateau. I just have to confess that, even to me, both endings came as shockers."

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

55 of 58 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars I couldn't put it down! January 1, 2009

By Robert S. Babecki

Format:Hardcover

As the administration of George W. Bush slips into history, many people are happy to be done with him. The man inspires vitriol as few can. One recalls Cindy Sheehan's media events outside his Crawford ranch during the summer of 2005 when each enunciation of his surname was a veritable expectoration. His almost unprecedented unpopularity reached its symbolic nadir with the November 2008 ballot initiative in California known as Proposition R which proposed to rename the City of San Francisco's Oceanside Water Treatment Plant after him. So to write a piece of historical fiction about him runs twin risks: to focus attention on a subject most people are only too eager to forget or to be seen as piling on long after the heavy hits have been made and the play has been whistled dead. I believe these reasons may dissuade readers from buying The President's Therapist and that would be a shame because it is a fascinating read without being tendentious or cruel.

In the beginning of the story the author engages our interest by introducing Dr. Alter, a sympathetic protagonist. In addition to being very good at what he does, he has also suffered two huge personal tragedies with grace. We like him and want him to succeed, but can he? He faces a tough challenge with a very brief opportunity to work the problem. So far we have an ordinary work of fiction, but then as Dr. Alter assembles the mosaic of Bush's life from pieces everyone knows and some that very few people know, we come to realize that we are reading something that goes far beyond mere storytelling. Through Dr. Alter's analysis the author leads us to see with startling clarity the culminating event of Mr. Bush's life. (It was not an election victory.) The truth of this insight gripped me, made me believe in Dr. Alter, and kept me turning pages to find out how the story will end.

I heartily recommend The President's Therapist. The psychological insights are profound and the story is well crafted. The dialogue always rings true; I could not help but hear George and Laura Bush speaking their lines as I read them. The author maintains dramatic tension throughout the plot, and this kept me reading until I had finished it in one sitting. Buy the book even if (especially if) you don't like George W. Bush.

45 of 50 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars advice that helps January 18, 2009

By stewart mackay

Format:Hardcover

Multi-talented John Wareham, leadership counselor, writer, poet and sophisticated Freudian has created a self-help guide for presidents, or perhaps just for one. The President's Therapist, an in-depth examination of George W. Bush's travails--inner and outer--is wise and insightful. In spite of--or perhaps because of--being a compassionate, apolitical study of W, the work is ultimately devastating--and, of all the Bush books, the most informative so far. Wareham reveals a deeply troubled individual who never left childhood: a boy who for sport blew up frogs with firecrackers; a man, (allegedly, deeply religious) who chose to start a mindless game of "shock and awe" that sent 4000 young U.S. soldiers--and countless Iraqi citizens--to their deaths; a born-again Christian proud to be semi-literate. Wareham's insights are based on succinctly stated scholarly searching and researching, a meticulous trolling of the disconnections of W's words and deeds. We watch in awe, as Wareham brilliantly and gently holds up mirror in which the naked cowboy suddenly catches sight of his own impotence. Along with W, we are shown precisely how and why he handled his role so badly. As noted, Wareham is a savvy Freudian analyst, so be prepared for passages that reference that theoretical framework. Readers hoping for a full color portrait will be gratified. This work is lucid, honest and laced with a darkly wicked wit reminiscent of Truman Capote's "non-fiction novel", In Cold Blood. In this case, however, using novelistic license, and his alter-ego self in the form of the fictional Dr. Mark Alter, Wareham delivers empathetic, authentic insight into W's otherwise inexplicable mix of fundamentalism, cockiness, truculence, didacticism, obsequiousness--and alcoholism. Of particular interest is how Wareham characterizes much of the American public and media as enablers, responding as children to an alcoholic parent. Dr. Alter's encounters with Cheney, Rumsfeld and Rove--and some delicious marital counseling sessions with Laura Bush--offer even more chilling insights. In all, The President's Therapist is a heady confection of piercing insight and black humor that presents the reader with a sometimes frightening but always tempting cocktail from which every truth-seeker of should drain the last drop

27 of 29 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A "WHAT IF" SCENARIO WRAPPED IN LAYERS OF REALITY December 29, 2008

By Jesse L. Maghan

Format:Hardcover

The PRESIDENT'S THERAPIST
(And the secret intervention to treat the alcoholism of GEORGE W. BUSH)
John Wareham - Welcome Rain Publishers, New York, 2008

John Wareham's staging of a "what if" scenario, wrapped in layers of reality offers an unnerving "case study" of alcoholism in the White House. We enter into a series of psychological and forensic intelligence forays engendered by the U.S. Secret Service along with a certain Dr. Mark Alter, leadership psychologist and wizard at "coaching" damaged C.E.O.s into restoring their acumen and performance, with the "patient" being none other than President George W. Bush. It gets even better. We become a fly-on-the-wall in Dick Cheney's office; the private quarters of the president's ranch in Crawford, Texas; and, within the ranks of the president's high echelon secret service agents. Like a calculated hornet's nest, the movements of all these characters are fine tuned into a plot in which the restorative treatment expertise of Dr. Alter circuitously sways President Bush into writing an EXECUTIVE ORDER constituting a global message of apology for the war in Iraq and an announcement of the immediate withdrawal of all troops. (I will leave the fate of Dr. Alter to you). This striking possibility theory classic will leave the reader roiling in a rapture of the truth and the comics. Even those Bushwhacked among us will find this book offering an antidote to the nightmare of the Bush years. Moreover, Wareham has deployed a new generation version of Keats' 1817 perspective of negative capability now so popular in today's leadership training. Eureka! The anxious phantoms that provoke our intuition are not foes but friends after all. Like the missing final piece to a puzzle, Wareham's 231-page bonzer will continue to delight your future parlor games. I would further submit that, The President's Therapist, is one hell of a collector's item

Jess Maghan, PhD
Professor and Director
Forum for Comparative Correction
Chester, CT - December 29, 2008