- A new book by a prominent Washington psychoanalyst says
President George W. Bush is a "paranoid meglomaniac" as well
as a sadist and "untreated alcoholic." The doctor's analysis
appears to confirm earlier reports the President may be emotionally unstable.
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- Dr. Justin Frank, writing in Bush on the Couch: Inside
the Mind of the President, also says the President has a ""lifelong
streak of sadism, ranging from childhood pranks (using firecrackers to
explode frogs) to insulting journalists, gloating over state executions
... [and] pumping his fist gleefully before the bombing of Baghdad."
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- Even worse, Dr. Frank concludes, the President's years
of heavy drinking ""may have affected his brain function - and
his decision to quit drinking without the help of a 12-step program [puts]
him at far higher risk of relapse."
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- Dr. Frank's revelations comes on the heels of last week's
Capitol Hill Blue exclusive that revealed increasing concern by White House
aides over Bush's emotional stability.
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- Aides, who spoke only on condition that their names be
withheld, told stories of wide mood swings by the President who would go
from quoting the Bible one minute to obscenity-filled outbursts the next.
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- Bush shows an inability to grieve - dating back to age
7, when his sister died. "The family's reaction - no funeral and no
mourning - set in motion his life-long pattern of turning away from pain
[and hiding] behind antic behavior," says Frank, who says Bush may
suffer from Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.
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- Other findings by Dr. Frank:
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- His mother, Barbara Bush - tabbed by some family friends
as "the one who instills fear" - had trouble connecting emotionally
with her son, Frank argues. George H.W. Bush's "emotional and physical
absence during his son's youth triggered feelings of both adoration and
revenge in George W." The President suffers from "character pathology,"
including "grandiosity" and "megalomania" -- viewing
himself, America and God as interchangeable. Dr. Frank has been a psychiatrist
for 35 years and is director of psychiatry at George Washington University.
A Democrat, he once headed the Washington Chapter of Physicians for Social
Responsibility.
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- In an interview with The Washington Post's Richard Leiby,
Dr. Frank said he began to be concerned about Bush's behavior in 2002.
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- "I was really very unsettled by him and I started
watching everything he did and reading what he wrote, and watching him
on videotape. I felt he was disturbed," Dr. Frank told Leiby. Bush,
he said, "fits the profile of a former drinker whose alcoholism has
been arrested but not treated."
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- Dr. Frank's expert recommendation? ""Our sole
treatment option -- for his benefit and for ours -- is to remove President
Bush from office . . . before it is too late."
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- White House spokesman Scott McClellan refused to comment
on the specifics of Dr. Frank's book or the earlier story by Capitol Hill
Blue.
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- "I don't do book reviews," McClellan said,
even though he last week recommended the latest book by the Washington
Post's Bob Woodward to reporters at the daily press briefing.
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- © Copyright 2004 by Capitol Hill Blue http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_4687.shtml
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