# Is Bush going nuts?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-bush-going-nuts/250936
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [June 17, 2004, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-bush-going-nuts/250936 "2004-06-17T22:54:29Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)
#### Post date: [June 17, 2004, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-bush-going-nuts/250936/1 "2004-06-17T22:54:29Z")
From **Capitol Hill Blue:**
> [@](#):
>
> [**New Information Shows Bush Indecisive, Paranoid, Delusional**](http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_4704.shtml)
> The carefully-crafted image of George W. Bush as a bold, decisive leader is cracking under the weight of new revelations that the erratic President is indecisive, moody, paranoid and delusional.
> “More and more this brings back memories of the Nixon White House,” says retired political science professor George Harleigh, who worked for President Nixon during the second presidential term that ended in resignation under fire. “I haven’t heard any reports of President Bush wondering the halls talking to portraits of dead Presidents but what I have been told is disturbing.”
> [@](#):
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> Although supporters of President Bush dismissed the reports as “fantasies from anonymous sources,” a new book by Dr. Justin Frank, director of psychiatry at George Washington University, raises many similar questions about the President’s mental stability.
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> “George W. Bush is a case study in contradiction,” Dr. Frank writes in _Bush On The Couch: Inside the Mind of the President._ “Bush is an untreated ex-alcoholic with paranoid and megalomaniac tendencies.”
>
> …
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> “President Bush has not attended a single funeral - other than that of President Reagan. In my book I explore some possible reasons for that, whether or not it is “presidential”. I am less interested in judging his behavior on political grounds than I am in thinking about its meaning both to him and to the rest of us,” Dr. Frank says. “He has spent a lifetime of avoiding grief, starting with the death of his sister when he was 7 years old. His parents didn’t help him with what must have been confusing and frightening feelings. He also has a history of evading responsibility and perhaps his not attending funerals has to do with not wanting to see the damage his policies have wrought.”
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> In his book, Dr. Frank also suggests Bush resents those in the military.
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> “Bush’s behavior strongly suggests an unconscious resentment toward our own servicemen, whose bravery puts his own (nonexistent) wartime service record to shame,” he wrote.
> [@](#):
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> Dr. Carolyn Williams, a psychoanalyst who specializes in paranoid personalities, is a registered Republican and agrees with most of Dr. Frank’s conclusions.
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> “I find the bulk of his analysis credible,” she said in an interview. “President Bush grew up dealing with an absent but demanding father, a tough mother and an overachieving brother. All left indelible impressions on him along with a desire to prove himself at all cost because he feels surrounded by disapproval. He behavior suggests a classic paranoid personality. Additionally, his stated belief that certain actions are ‘God’s Will’ are symptomatic of delusional behavior.”
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> Ryan Reynolds, a childhood friend of Bush, concurs.
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> “George wanted to please his father but never felt he measured up, especially when compared to Jeb,” Reynolds said.
I don’t know what this **Capitol Hill Blue** group is, though I suspect it’s best to give them as much skepticism as NewsMax or Democratic Underground. On the other hand (assuming this article isn’t just a big whoosh), hasving Drs. Frank and Williams diagnose Bush as nutsy-cuckoo from both sides of the aisle is not something to brush off lightly.
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### Author:  [@Airblairxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airblairxxx)
#### Post date: [June 17, 2004, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-bush-going-nuts/250936/2 "2004-06-17T22:59:02Z")
I dunno, man, I’m fairly aligned with you politically and hoping desperately for a Kerry win, but unless the White House has been hiding things really really well, I have to be dubious about this stuff.
But hey, stranger things have happened.
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### Author:  [@Metacom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Metacom)
#### Post date: [June 17, 2004, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-bush-going-nuts/250936/3 "2004-06-17T23:03:49Z")
I put psychiatrists who diagnose and analyze people they’ve never actually met or spoken to somewhere near homeopaths and crystal therapists on my “credibility scale.”
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### Author:  [@Dead\_Badger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dead_Badger)
#### Post date: [June 17, 2004, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-bush-going-nuts/250936/4 "2004-06-17T23:31:15Z")
> [@rjung](#):
>
> On the other hand (assuming this article isn’t just a big whoosh), hasving Drs. Frank and Williams diagnose Bush as nutsy-cuckoo from both sides of the aisle is not something to brush off lightly.
This would be true if mental health were a purely partisan matter. However as **Metacom** points out, the fact that both of these people are basing their diagnoses on third-hand accounts makes their testimony eminently brushable, particularly since psychiatry isn’t exactly a precise science even under ideal conditions. They know about as much about Bush’s mental state as I do about their bowels, which is to say they’re full of shit.
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### Author:  [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)
#### Post date: [June 17, 2004, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-bush-going-nuts/250936/5 "2004-06-17T23:55:15Z")
An earlier thread, now locked, on the very article in the OP:
[Is Bush going over the edge?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=259984&highlight=blue)
I haven’t seen any outside confirmation of details in the CHB article since that thread was locked. I _have_ been looking.
On the other hand, today’s video statement by the president is problematic
> [@](#):
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> THE PRESIDENT: The reason I keep insisting that there was a relationship between Iraq and Saddam and al Qaeda, because there was a relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda. This administration never said that the 9/11 attacks were orchestrated between Saddam and al Qaeda. We did say there were numerous contacts between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda. For example, Iraqi intelligence officers met with bin Laden, the head of al Qaeda, in the Sudan. There’s numerous contacts between the two.
[President Bush: ‘Administration never said that the 9/11 attacks were orchestrated between Saddam and al Qaeda.’](http://michnews.com/artman/publish/article_4037.shtml)
Mr. Bush looked whacked out as he spouted this unbelievable drivel. Does he actually believe anyone will be taken in by such a weak defense?
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### Author:  [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)
#### Post date: [June 17, 2004, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-bush-going-nuts/250936/6 "2004-06-17T23:58:43Z")
Aww crap, that’s a new article in today’s Capitol Hill Blue.
Just take the first part of my post as a bit of history on Blues views of the president.
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### Author:  [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2004, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-bush-going-nuts/250936/7 "2004-06-18T00:02:05Z")
> [@Airblairxxx](#):
>
> I dunno, man, I’m fairly aligned with you politically and hoping desperately for a Kerry win, but unless the White House has been hiding things really really well, I have to be dubious about this stuff.
Well, if it helps you any, _I_ ain’t taking it too seriously. Just wanted to get a little chatter on the topic from the SDMB news wonks. It sure as heck ain’t Great Debates material…
(It’s Thursday, I’m just biding time until the Vogons arrive 😉 )
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### Author:  [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2004, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-bush-going-nuts/250936/8 "2004-06-18T00:06:00Z")
Well I’m a dyedinthewool Dubya hater, and even I think this doesn’t rise much above plain silliness.
You can find a psychoanalyst who’ll say anything about anybody if you look hard enough.
Still, armchair psychoanalysis is a sometime hobby of my own, so I certainly recognize the urge to try figure out \*why \* another person behaves as they do. But, non-doctor that I am, I’d’ve pegged him as a borderline personality before I’d dig as deep and wide as _delusional_.
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### Author:  [@Reeder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeder)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2004, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-bush-going-nuts/250936/9 "2004-06-18T00:31:45Z")
An earlier thread on what looks like an earlier artcle on the same lines.
[http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=259984&highlight=bush+capitol](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=259984&highlight=bush+capitol)
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### Author:  [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2004, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-bush-going-nuts/250936/10 "2004-06-18T01:00:28Z")
> [@rjung](#):
>
> Well, if it helps you any, _I_ ain’t taking it too seriously.
> [@rjung](#):
>
> ha(s)ving Drs. Frank and Williams diagnose Bush as nutsy-cuckoo from both sides of the aisle is not something to brush off lightly.
Nice straddle there, bro. :rolleyes:
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### Author:  [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2004, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-bush-going-nuts/250936/11 "2004-06-18T01:16:23Z")
What do you mean “going…”?
(Sorry, someone had to say it.)
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### Author:  [@Thaumaturge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thaumaturge)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2004, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-bush-going-nuts/250936/12 "2004-06-18T01:27:48Z")
Bah…I opened this thread to say one thing and **commasense** beat me to it.
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### Author:  [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2004, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-bush-going-nuts/250936/13 "2004-06-18T02:21:13Z")
> [@Metacom](#):
>
> I put psychiatrists who diagnose and analyze people they’ve never actually met or spoken to somewhere near homeopaths and crystal therapists on my “credibility scale.”
Well put.
Judging from the recent, well, flip-flopping would be the right term but is a little too loaded, so I’ll say “position adjustments”, I would buy Amnesiac over a paranoid megalomaniac. At least the evidence is stronger.
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### Author:  [@manhattan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manhattan)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2004, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-bush-going-nuts/250936/14 "2004-06-18T03:05:09Z")
> [@Metacom](#):
>
> I put psychiatrists who diagnose and analyze people they’ve never actually met or spoken to somewhere near homeopaths and crystal therapists on my “credibility scale.”
I’ll go one better and put them somewhere near “soon to be former psychiatrists.” According to the [The Principles of Medical Ethics With Annotations Especially Applicable to Psychiatry of the American Psychiatry Association](http://www.psych.org/psych_pract/ethics/ppaethics.cfm):
> [@](#):
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> On occasion psychiatrists are asked for an opinion about an individual who is in the light of public attention or who has disclosed information about himself/herself through public media. In such circumstances, a psychiatrist may share with the public his or her expertise about psychiatric issues in general. However, it is unethical for a psychiatrist to offer a professional opinion unless he or she has conducted an examination and has been granted proper authorization for such a statement.
Despite not having read the book (which came out two days ago, BTW, just in case anyone is under the illusion that this whole thing is anything other than staged publicity for the book), I have complete confidence that “Dr.” Frank was careful to say things like, “while this is not a medical diagnosis, my expertise leads me to suspect…”. But I have equally complete confidence that the APA will see through his subterfuge, especially since his opinion was not solicited and is a transparent attempt to leverage his professional credentials into an attack on someone with whom he disagrees politically, and boot him from the profession. At least, they will if they are indeed a professional organization with any ethics.
In other news, contrary to the claim of the article, “Dr.” Frank is not “director of psychiatry at George Washington University” but rather a “Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences” at GWU Medical Center. At least he was at the time I wrote this ([cite](http://www.gwupsychiatry.org/faculty.html)).
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### Author:  [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2004, 9:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-bush-going-nuts/250936/15 "2004-06-18T09:55:12Z")
> [@](#):
>
> But, non-doctor that I am, I’d’ve pegged him as a borderline personality before I’d dig as deep and wide as delusional.
I think anyone who believes that God has called him to become President of the USA is more than slightly delusional, although I am certainly not a doctor.
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### Author:  [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2004, 10:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-bush-going-nuts/250936/16 "2004-06-18T10:02:53Z")
> [@Squink](#):
>
> Mr. Bush looked whacked out as he spouted this unbelievable drivel. Does he actually believe anyone will be taken in by such a weak defense?
I’ll be examining press photos of Bush and Cheney every in the coming weeks to see if their noses are growing. 😉
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### Author:  [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2004, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-bush-going-nuts/250936/17 "2004-06-18T13:39:18Z")
> [@manhattan](#):
>
> I’ll go one better and put them somewhere near “soon to be former psychiatrists.”
I’ll go you one worse. My girlfriend and her collegues are asked to “analyse” public figures all the time. And the results are usually published. And they are in no danger of losing their jobs.
Granted, they don’t ususally come back with diagnoses of “paranoid schitzophrenic” or “dry drunk”, but it’s fair to make observations on speech patterns, speech content, and body language.
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### Author:  [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2004, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-bush-going-nuts/250936/18 "2004-06-18T18:57:56Z")
I’m just prompted to remind y’all that non-psychologists like Ann Coulter and Bill O’Reilly have called Al Gore and John Kerry “insane” and “nuts.” Surely, then, getting _real_ mental-health experts to give their takes on Bush and Cheney would be an improvement, ainnit? 😉
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### Author:  [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2004, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-bush-going-nuts/250936/19 "2004-06-18T19:13:51Z")
So has Krauthammer, who \*is \* a psychiatrist by training.
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### Author:  [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)
#### Post date: [June 18, 2004, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-bush-going-nuts/250936/20 "2004-06-18T20:23:21Z")
> [@LouisB](#):
>
> I think anyone who believes that God has called him to become President of the USA is more than slightly delusional, although I am certainly not a doctor.
I’d have to disagree. That seems like a pretty common figure of speech among certain sects of devout Christians. They’re not all delusional.
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