There is lots of research quickly available on Google Scholar (I’m not sure if I should spend the time linking - do you have access to the databases?). Longitudinal studies of POWs show that ~70% suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. ~30% show a full recovery, ~10% no recovery. There is a very significant dose-effect relationship (more torture leads to more effect - clearly relevant here). Those who were tortured the most show a 90% prevalence of PTSD with arousal/anger/hypervigilance being the most amplified symptoms.
My wife refuses to support McCain for precisely the same reasons outlined in the OP. She was a Navy nurse, and met many former POWs. In particular, she always mentions this one officer she met who had such a haunted look in his eyes (decades after being released) that she could never forget it. McCain’s traits, for whatever reason, remind her of this POW. She feels strongly that former POWs are just too unstable to be considered for President.
While I supported McCain back in 2000 (before I read his book), I’m not so much in favor now. Do we really need another President who graduated near the bottom of his class?
It says things like “extreme trauma such as torture does not always produce psychological problems” and talks about the importance of a detailed interview before diagnosis of PTSD, or that torture has produced permanent personality change.
Since no such detailed interview is available, nor sufficient documentation, ISTM that the burden of proof remains unmet.
He’s a voter and his opinion on this matter counts about as much as yours.
Is McCain unstable? I think he is. Why do I say this? In part because what one Senate colleague said about him: “The thought of his being president sends a cold chill down my spine. He is erratic. He is hotheaded. He loses his temper and he worries me.”
That’s Senator Thad Cochran, Republican of Mississippi who has known McCain since the 1970s. Link. I think those comments are more illuminating than any diagnosis made by what we read in the newspaper.
This is the sum total of your response against every criticism in this thread? Incredibly unimpressive.
Let’s look at your link.
If you think this procedure would actually be followed through to the end in the situation I described above, I’ve got a nice bridge and a few acres of swampland to sell you.
I have heard the term used by persons in AA as a recognized pattern: by no means universal, but not uncommon. I have every reason to trust their judgment on the subject. It can mark the transition from someone who isn’t drinking to someone who is sober. But it is transitory in nature, it passes. A character type that persists with such diligencve and determination is more likely a garden variety asshole.
That’s certainly possible too. I think it’s pretty clear that W possesses the above mentioned traits. Perhaps I give him too much credit by attributing it to a recovery stage. I was trying to give him the benefit of the doubt. If others believe that his condition is natural, I will not argue with them.
There was another war hero by the name Sir Winston Churchill, who suffered a recurring mental illness that he described as a “black dog”. Turned out to be one of Britain’s most revered prime ministers.
Fair enough to those calling “swiftboat.” We don’t yet issue psychiatric evaluations to presidential nominees. But don’t you think that if he didn’t have PTSD he would have let his doctor present that fact to the public? People who are saying swiftboat are going under the assumption that he’s not insane and it’s slanderous to say he is. I don’t hate his policies and I have no motive to slander him. The reality of the situation is that people don’t usually come out of this situation mentally healthy. It would be shady to raise this suspicion if he had a 50/50 chance of having PTSD. That’s not the case. Survivors are usually unstable.