DU Psychologists/Psychiatrists: Is * insane? Delusional? Stupid?

What is it? Please tell us, because I sure as hell can't explain it!

And, what's the cause? Low IQ? Drug abuse? Both?

I'm serious. I'd like a serious answer from the professionals (and I know you can't really evaluate the guy professionally from a distance, but could you indulge me just this once?).

http://www.essays.cc/free_essays/f2/kfw158.shtml

DIAGNOSIS:
AXIS I Paranoid Schizophrenia
AXIS II Schizotypal Personality Disorder Antisocial Personality Disorder
ANIX III Diagnosis Deferred
AXIS IV Incarcerated for life. No social network.
AXIS V Global Assessment of Functioning = 10
JUSTIFICATION OF DIAGNOSIS: SUBJECT is capable of functioning cognitively and has an appropriate affect. He does suffer from delusions of royalty and compares himself to God. He suffers from auditory hallucinations almost daily when he hears REDACTED speak to him. All of his delusions and hallucinations center on the death of REDACTED. He is not suicidal. Until his arrest he was fully employed as REDACTED. SUBJECT has no social interactions. He continually violates and shows disregard for the rights of others through aggressive behavior. He has murdered thousands of people and shows no remorse. Persistent danger to severely hurting others. He claims that he enjoys eating his victims. Prior to the age of 15, he was apprehended for stealing food and clothes. Global assessment is based on the primarily fact that he is an extreme danger to hurting others. He is currently incarcerated for life. He enjoys hurting others. He does not have suicidal thoughts and does maintain appropriate personal hygiene, as well as a part time job as REDACTED.

What's *really* scary, however, is how many supposedly sane citizens voted for this character, and still think he's just great.

The Germans have nothing on us.

Kanary

"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result"


but this is an anecdotal definition and not a real psychological definition.

There are only two basic defs in psychiatry and one is neurosis and psychosis, and according to these two basic defs he is not insane.

Is he delusional? No he is not delusional. If he was, he'd dismiss his bodyguards and walk around for anyone to bring it on and assasinate him. Oh, he knows he's not God and knows he can die and knows many people hate him. So no, he is not delusional.

Now stupid is subjective and there really is no def universally accepted by all psychiatrist or psychologist or any scientist for that matter. IQ can be measured, but even there the test used to determine such isn't universally accepted either.

Personally, I like to think of him as a goober,





sig:
"The Truth knows no master" - AmyStrange said to me in a dream

10) And best of all, check these out:

the "First Seven Days Underground" by Skinner:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/articles/01/01/010127_7days.html
mirror pages:
http://du.seattleactivist.org/DU-JAN-27-2001-Skinner-7days-1.html
http://du.seattleactivist.org/DU-JAN-27-2001-Skinner-7days-2.html
http://du.seattleactivist.org/DU-JAN-27-2001-Skinner-7days-3.html
http://du.seattleactivist.org/DU-JAN-27-2001-Skinner-7days-4.html


the best "unofficial" DU slang Dictionary in the world:
http://DUG.SeattleActivist.org/





Dave (AmyStrange.com) Ayotte
Please, regularly check the One Missing Person (is one person too many) searchable website for the latest (and archived) missing person news stories:

http://NEWS.OneMissingPerson.org/


Serious serial killer news and
discussion at the "Serial Killer Cafe":
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SK-Cafe/

Glibness/Superficial Charm
Language can be used without effort by them to confuse and convince their audience. Captivating storytellers that exude self-confidence, they can spin a web that intrigues others. Since they are persuasive, they have the capacity to destroy their critics verbally or emotionally.



Manipulative and Conning
They never recognize the rights of others and see their self-serving behaviors permissible. They appear to be charming, yet are covertly hostile and domineering, seeing their victim as merely an instrument to be used. They dominate and humiliate their victims.



Grandiose Sense of Self
Feels entitled to certain things as "their right." Craves adulation and attendance. Must be the center of attention with their own fantasies as the "spokesman for God," "enlightened," "leader of humankind," etc. Creates an us-versus-them mentality



Pathological Lying
Has no problem lying coolly and easily and it is almost impossible for them to be truthful on a consistent basis. Can create, and get caught up in, a complex belief about their own powers and abilities. Extremely convincing and able to pass lie detector tests.



Lack of Remorse, Shame or Guilt
A deep seated rage, which is split off and repressed, is at their core. Does not see others around them as people, but only as targets and opportunities. Instead of friends, they have victims and accomplices who end up as victims. The end always justifies the means and they let nothing stand in their way.



Shallow Emotions
When they show what seems to be warmth, joy, love and compassion, it is more feigned than experienced and serves an ulterior motive. Outraged by insignificant matters, yet remaining unmoved and cold by what would upset a normal person. Since they are not genuine, neither are their promises.



Incapacity for Love
While they talk about "God's love" they are unable to give or receive it. Since they do not believe in the genuineness of their followers' love, they are very harsh in testing it from their devotees and expect them to feel guilt for their failings. Expects unconditional surrender.



Need for Stimulation
Living on the edge, yet testing the beliefs of their followers with bizarre rules, punishments and behaviors. Verbal outbursts and physical punishments are normal.



Callousness/Lack of Empathy
Unable to empathize with the pain of their victims, having only contempt for others' feelings of distress and readily taking advantage of them. Their skills are used to exploit, abuse and exert power. Since the follower cannot believe their leader would callously hurt them, they rationalize the behavior as necessary for their (or the group's) own "good" and deny the abuse. When devotees become aware of the exploitation it feels like a "spiritual rape" to them.



Poor Behavioral Controls/Impulsive Nature
Rage and abuse, alternating with small expressions of love and approval produce an addictive cycle for abuser and abused, as well as creating hopelessness in the victim. Believe they are all-powerful, all-knowing, entitled to every wish, no sense of personal boundaries, no concern for their impact on others. The followers only see them as near perfect.



Early Behavior Problems/Juvenile Delinquency
Usually has a history of behavioral and academic difficulties, yet "gets by" by conning others. Problems in making and keeping friends; aberrant behaviors such as cruelty to people or animals, stealing, etc.



Irresponsibility/Unreliability
Not concerned about wrecking others' lives and dreams. Oblivious or indifferent to the devastation they cause. Does not accept blame themselves, but blame their followers or others outside their group. Blame reinforces passivity and obedience and produces guilt, shame, terror and conformity in the followers.



Promiscuous Sexual Behavior/Infidelity
Totalist leaders frequently practice promiscuity, child sexual abuse, rape and sexual acting out of all sorts. This is usually kept hidden from all but the inner circle. Stringent sexual control of their followers, such as forced breakups and divorces, removal of children from parents, rules for dating, etc.

THIS IS THE ONLY ONE WE CANNOT BE SURE ABOUT...



Lack of Realistic Life Plan/Parasitic Lifestyle
Tends to move around a lot or makes all encompassing promises for the future. Many groups claim as their goal world-domination or other utopian promises. Great contrast between the leader's opulent lifestyle and the followers' impoverishment. Support by gifts and donations from the followers who are pressured to give through fear and guilt. Highly sensitive to their own pain and health.



Criminal or Entrepreneurial Versatility
Changes their image and that of the group as needed to avoid prosecution and to increase income and to recruit a range of members. Is able to adapt or relocate as needed to preserve the group. Can resurface later with a new name, a new front group and a new twist on the scam.

http://home.datawest.net/esn-recovery/artcls/socio.htm

"Stringent sexual control of their followers" -

- *'s utterances on homosexuality?
- Constitutional amendment defining marriage?

Lord knows what Laura puts up with...

Check out "People of the Lie" by Scott Peck

There's also Narcissistic Personality Disorder.

Diagnostic Criteria

A pervasive pattern of grandiosity (in fantasy or behavior), need for admiration, and lack of empathy, beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts, as indicated by five (or more) of the following:

1. has a grandiose sense of self-importance (e.g., exaggerates achievements and talents, expects to be recognized as superior without commensurate achievements)

2. is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love

3. believes that he or she is "special" and unique and can only be understood by, or should associate with, other special or high-status people (or institutions)

4. requires excessive admiration

5. has a sense of entitlement, i.e., unreasonable expectations of especially favorable treatment or automatic compliance with his or her expectations

6. is interpersonally exploitative, i.e., takes advantage of others to achieve his or her own ends

7. lacks empathy: is unwilling to recognize or identify with the feelings and needs of others

8. is often envious of others or believes that others are envious of him or her

9. shows arrogant, haughty behaviors or attitudes

Or there's the diagnosis from my sister, who's a clinical social worker...Asshole Personality Disorder. ;-)

See Lewis Lapham's essay in the April 04 Harpers, "Bush Lost in the Fog of Self."

A view from a British psychologist:


So George, how do you feel about your mom and dad?

Psychologist Oliver James analyses the behaviour of the American president

Tuesday September 2, 2003
The Guardian


....Bush had a profound loathing for this perfect model of American citizenship (GHW Bush) whose very success made the son feel a failure. Rebelliousness was an unconscious attack on him and a desperate attempt to carve out something of his own. Far from paternal emulation, Bush described his goal at school as "to instil a sense of frivolity". Contemporaries at Yale say he was like the John Belushi character in the film Animal House, a drink-fuelled funseeker.

***

As he grew older, the fury towards his father was increasingly directed against himself in depressive drinking. But it was not all his father's fault. There was also his insensitive and domineering mother.

Barbara Bush is described by her closest intimates as prone to "withering stares" and "sharply crystalline" retorts. She is also extremely tough. When he was seven, Bush's younger sister, Robin, died of leukaemia and several independent witnesses say he was very upset by this loss. Barbara claims its effect was exaggerated but nobody could accuse her of overreacting: the day after the funeral, she and her husband were on the golf course....

***

Bush's deep hatred, as well as love, for both his parents explains how he became a reckless rebel with a death wish. He hated his father for putting his whole life in the shade and for emotionally blackmailing him. He hated his mother for physically and mentally badgering him to fulfil her wishes. But the hatred also explains his radical transformation into an authoritarian fundamentalist. By totally identifying with an extreme version of their strict, religion-fuelled beliefs, he jailed his rebellious self. From now on, his unconscious hatred for them was channelled into a fanatical moral crusade to rid the world of evil....


http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1033904,00.html

"A study funded by the US government has concluded that conservatism can be explained psychologically as a set of neuroses rooted in "fear and aggression, dogmatism and the intolerance of ambiguity".

...the report's four authors linked Hitler, Mussolini, Ronald Reagan and the rightwing talkshow host, Rush Limbaugh, arguing they all suffered from the same affliction...

The authors also peer into the psyche of President George Bush, who turns out to be a textbook case..."This intolerance of ambiguity can lead people to cling to the familiar, to arrive at premature conclusions, and to impose simplistic cliches and stereotypes," the authors argue in the Psychological Bulletin."

Full story:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1017546,00.html