Is George Bush Mentally Ill?

The as-yet unspoken, but pivotal issue to be taken up in the upcoming Presidential campaign debates between George W. Bush and John Kerry is the mental illnesses from which President Bush suffers. The most concise and frank, yet compassionate account of George W. Bush's multiple mental disorders can be found in the 2004 book-length study by Dr. Justin Frank, Bush on the Couch: Inside the Mind of the President (New York: HarperCollins, 2004). Dr. Frank is a leading psychoanalyst who teaches at George Washington University Medical Center. His professional credentials are impressive, and his in-depth study of the President, based on massive amounts of public documentation—autobiographical and biographical accounts, countless hours of video footage of the President, statements by close associates and relatives, spanning nearly the entirety of George W. Bush's lifetime—presents a compelling case that Mr. Bush is in need of medical assistance.

As Dr. Frank summarized the case in his opening chapter, "If one of my patients frequently said one thing and did another, I would want to know why. If I found that he often used words that hid their true meaning and affected a persona that obscured the nature of his actions, I would grow more concerned. If he presented an inflexible worldview characterized by an oversimplified distinction between right and wrong, good and evil, allies and enemies, I would question his ability to grasp reality. And if his actions revealed an unacknowledged—even sadistic—indifference to human suffering, wrapped in pious claims of compassion, I would worry about the safety of the people whose lives he touched. For the past three years, I have observed with increasing alarm the inconsistencies and denials of such an individual. But he is not one of my patients. He is our President."

In his 219-page clinical diagnosis of the President's mental condition, Dr. Frank concluded that Mr. Bush suffers from a range of serious, albeit curable conditions. These include: Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD); untreated and uncured alcoholism (what is frequently referred to in lay terms as "dry drunk"); an omnipotence complex; paranoia; an Oedipal Complex; sadism; a mild form of Tourette's Syndrome; and a diminished capacity to distinguish between reality and fantasy.

These diagnosed mental disorders cannot be swept under the rug. The future of the United States and the world is going to be determined by the outcome of the Nov. 2, 2004 U.S. Presidential elections. I urge all Americans to read Dr. Frank's alarming findings. I also call on those responsible for the upcoming Presidential debates, including the candidates themselves, to accept the fact that no serious policy dialogue can take place, until this issue has been addressed, squarely and publicly. The American people have the right to know that the incumbent President, seeking re-election, is plagued by a number of debilitating mental disorders that have already impacted, gravely, on American national security, and have severely damaged some of our most important international partnerships.

In their wisdom, the Members of the U.S. Congress proposed and ratified the Twenty-Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which established the procedures for the President to be removed from office if it is determined that "he is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office." In the case of the current President, George W. Bush, we have the advantage of a Presidential election, just weeks away. It would be a grave crime of omission to cover over this admittedly sensitive Constitutional issue, and leave the matter in the hands of a Vice President Dick Cheney, were there to be a Bush-Cheney re-election and a subsequent, inevitable mental breakdown crisis.


September 27, 2004

Lyndon LaRouche

telling that to a repub

I remember some of his supporters coming to my door in 76 and telling me that Jimmy Carter was running for president because he wanted to start a nuclear war.

You have some amount of right to channel LaRouche but I wish you wouldn't.

to diagnose someone who you haven't examined personally. Any such book is garbage, even if it is obvious to the average person that something isn't quite right upstairs with the President.

jim