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Related
Group: TV Torture Influencing Real Life
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"The president's persistence in the face of reality represents a disturbing state of mind."
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"But denial is just the tip of the Freudian iceberg. Psychologically, Bush has been in a more serious state: dissociation from reality."
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Bush is dreaming and won't wake up
The president's persistence in the face of reality represents a disturbing state of mind
BY PAUL SIEGEL
Paul Siegel is assistant professor of clinical psychology at the State University of New York, Westchester.
February 11, 2007
Critics are charging almost daily that President George W. Bush is in "denial" about Iraq. A recent Newsweek poll found that "67 percent of Americans believe that the president's decisions are more influenced by personal beliefs than by the facts." But denial is just the tip of the Freudian iceberg. Psychologically, Bush has been in a more serious state: dissociation from reality.
Dissociation is a more complicated defense mechanism than denial. It doesn't just pretend that reality isn't there. It replaces reality with a fantasy world. We dissociate when we daydream. But when we repeatedly live in our own world, we do so at our peril. A gambling addict buried in debt is sure that next time he is going to win, but he almost never does. Despite his wife's expressions of unhappiness, a husband believes he is in a good marriage, and is shocked when she announces she wants a divorce. A patient avoiding childhood memories of sexual abuse tells her therapist she had a happy childhood when it couldn't possibly have been.
We see evidence of the president's dissociation in his assessments of Iraq. Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, he still maintains that Iraq is not in a civil war, but "in a difficult struggle against the insurgents." Long after his generals concluded that we are not succeeding there, he repeatedly declared "we are winning."
Last week, some Iraqi officials blamed the new U.S. strategy in Baghdad for the worst single suicide bombing in the war, at a Shia market in Baghdad. The Mahdi Army, the Shia militia, which had been deterring sectarian reprisals, was scattering before new U.S. troops arrived. Bush's response: "It's a good sign that there's a sense of concern and anxiety" about Baghdad security.
Such statements are not just political spin. Political spin is crafted to frame specific situations. Dissociation reveals itself in a persistent pattern of behavior. Present-day Iraq is hardly the only situation in which the president has dissociated. Lacking evidence of any link between Iraq and al-Qaida, the president insisted for years that the two were intimately connected.
He uttered perhaps his most famous dissociated line - "You're doing a heck of a job, Brownie" - as New Orleans was subjected to destruction on a biblical scale and the federal government responded incompetently. More recently, his new Iraq policy ignored the results of the midterm congressional elections and the recommendations of the Baker-Hamilton Commission. We see a clear pattern of avoiding reality.
Behind every dissociation is a fantasy - such as the husband's belief that he's in "a good marriage," or the sexual abuse victim's that she had a "happy childhood." In Bush's case, the fantasy is a grand vision of a free, democratic Iraq, a wish that seems difficult for him to relinquish. He has staked his presidency on it.
Imagine for a moment that you are he, and the possibility of failure is dawning in your consciousness. How would you cope? Acknowledging the possibility of failure could be tantamount to committing psychological suicide - unleashing enough guilt and shame to demolish your identity as commander-in-chief. Dissociation, however, would allow you to absorb the blows that reality has dealt to your dream of a new Iraq, and to devise a plan to rescue it. Hence the troop surge.
Were he not dissociated, the president could acknowledge, as most military experts have suggested, that a far larger presence of U.S. troops is necessary in Iraq. Or he might face up to the full degree of ethnic conflict and begin to withdraw our troops. I believe the president is being genuine when he says that sending 21,500 additional troops will make a real difference. Psychological magic tricks work when people believe them.
A psychotherapist, were Bush willing to see one, or a wise counselor might be able to help the president to understand his deepest wishes and see how he dissociates on behalf of them. Bush might then arrive at the conclusion that too many Shia, Sunnis and Kurds seem more interested in killing one another than in building a democracy, and that democracy is his dream, not theirs. For this president, what a frightening thought that would be.
Copyright 2007 Newsday Inc.
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Heather just mailed this to me. It will be up at her site soon.
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Sun, 11 Feb 2007
Let’s Go Crazy: The Decline in US Mental Health under Bush
By Heather Wokusch
heather@heatherwokusch.com
Factors linked with mental illness (including poverty, homelessness,
violence and social uncertainty) have run rampant during the Bush years
while psychiatric treatment options have disappeared.
Nowhere has this trend been more prevalent – and more heartbreaking -
than with Katrina survivors and veterans of Bush’s wars.
Suicide levels in the Big Easy soared 300% in the four months following
Katrina, and hurricane-related mental disorders remain widespread
today. Yet with hospitals still shuttered and psychiatric clinics closed,
those suffering from chronic mental illnesses or post-Katrina depression
and post-traumatic stress disorder have few options. A Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention survey found that while 26% of respondents
reported at least one family member needing mental health support
following Katrina, less than 2% was receiving any.
New Orleans’ mental health crisis exacerbates its already debilitating
crime rate, with police reporting a 15% higher incidence of
psychiatric-related emergency calls than before Katrina. But instead of receiving
treatment, many of the mentally ill end up in local prisons – a trend
repeated across the country.
In Florida, for example, over 250 prisoners who should have been
transferred to state mental hospitals languish in prisons unequipped to
handle their special needs. As The St. Petersburg Times reported last month,
mentally-ill inmates "play poker with ghosts, climb the bars like bats
or dump their lunch trays into the toilet and eat the food like soup.
They will slam their heads against the wall, slice themselves with
razors or plunge head-first off their bunks onto the concrete floor." With
no psychiatric beds available due to funding cutbacks, inmates charged
with only misdemeanors end up deteriorating in jails one Floridian
official called "a dumping ground for the mentally ill."
Veterans face a similar lack of support. An estimated one out of every
five service members returning from Iraq suffers from psychiatric
problems and, with a backlog of 400,000 cases, the Department of Veterans
Affairs has proven incapable of handling the deluge. Veterans
subsequently have to wait an average of five and a half months for an initial
decision on disability benefits and an appeal can take years.
That’s not supporting our troops.
The number of veterans trying to get mental health support doubled to
9,103 between October 2005 and June 2006. The Government Accountability
Office recently found, however, that most who show symptoms of
post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are not referred for treatment, no doubt
due to the VA’s lack of capacity to meet demand.
Considering that combat PTSD can take years to surface and that over a
million troops have been deployed, it’s safe to say the US will soon be
facing a mental health crisis of ominous proportions.
After the Vietnam War, tens of thousands of veterans either committed
suicide, became drug addicts or ended up on the streets. Today, the
National Coalition for Homeless Veterans reports that almost 200,000
veterans are homeless each night, roughly one in three adult homeless males.
Half of today’s homeless vets suffer from substance abuse problems and
45% from mental illness. Yet the administration continues to fund
military escalation instead of providing them with shelter and treatment.
The psychiatric needs of active-duty service members have also been
ignored. A tragic example is Steven Green, the former Army private charged
in the March 2006 murder of an Iraqi family and the rape/murder of
their 14-year-old daughter. In December 2005, Green had tried to get help
from an Army Combat Stress Team in Iraq, claiming that he was enraged
and wanted to kill Iraqi citizens. Doctors diagnosed Green with
"homicidal ideations," gave him a psychoactive drug, told him to rest – and sent
him back to fight. It took Army mental health officials a full three
months to contact Green again (over a week after the family had been
murdered) due to reports he had thrown a puppy off a roof and set its body
on fire.
It’s safe to say that many other US service members are like Green,
walking time bombs in desperate need of psychiatric care they may never
receive.
Bush has, unfortunately, been pro-active in one mental health area: the
push for mandatory screening of US citizens. In April 2002, Bush set
up the New Freedom Commission on Mental Health, ostensibly to "eliminate
inequality for Americans with disabilities" but whose recommendations
include broad-based mental health screening for US adults/children and
the prescription of psychoactive medication. Civil rights advocates fear
the disturbing implications of comprehensive mandatory psychological
testing and therapists question the Commission’s emphasis on psychiatric
drugs over other forms of therapy.
Put bluntly, big-donor pharmaceutical companies are slated to profit at
the expense of US citizens’ rights.
David Oaks, Director of the advocacy group MindFreedom International,
had this to say about the administration’s screening plans: "President
Bush wants to test all Americans for 'mental illness.' We demand that
President Bush start with himself first. We will provide the mental
health professional to do the screening." Virginia-based physician Patch
Adams even volunteered to screen Bush, adding, "He needs a lot of help.
I'll see him for free."
The National Alliance on Mental Illness recently conducted an analysis
of mental health care systems across the US, incorporating factors such
as infrastructure and information access. The national average grade
was D, a shameful record for such a wealthy nation. Factoring in the
long-term psychiatric implications of Bush’s ongoing military adventurism,
the future looks even worse. That is for everyone but pharmaceutical
companies.
Action ideas:
1. Visit the National Alliance on Mental Illness site (www.nami.org)
for information on everything from "Public Education and Information
Activities" to "Advocacy on Behalf of People Living with Mental Illness."
Find out how your state ranks on mental health care and consider signing
up for their fundraising walks. Also check out the terrific MindFreedom
International site (www.mindfreedom.org) dedicated to "defending human
rights and promoting humane alternatives in mental health."
2. Urge your congressmembers to provide more mental-health support to
those hit by Katrina.
3. Learn about the plight of homeless veterans at the National
Coalition of Homeless Veterans site (www.nchv.org), which offers legislation
information, support for homeless veterans and service providers and
opportunities to get involved.
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Take a good look at who you are collectively.
EXPORTING DEATH AND VIOLENCE TO THE FOUR CORNERS OF THE EARTH
And at what you will allow to be done in your names:
Gates prepares for a large-scale war with Iran, North Korea, China and Russia
U.S. Enrages RussiaTonkin-Era Legislators Size Up Lessons for Iraq Conflict
This morning I posted a piece on the political media celebrity of the moment:
Stop Him Before He Gets More Experience: FRANK RICH - Obama Got It Right
This is my added comment to the article above:The shitstorm you are about to bring down on yourselves and the world is undeniable. You had better get off you ass and do something quickly, as most of your leadership, and many of you, are out of your fucking minds.
Editor's note:
I question Senator Obama's judgement.
He calls for missile strikes on Iran's nuclear power facilities. Tens of thousands of people work in these facilities. Tens of thousands of other civilians live nearby.
Senator Obama is Dick Cheney in black skin. He talks nice, but is as power mad, vicious and cruel, as McCain, Guiliani, Clinton, and Edwards. You would almost think the U.S. presidential 2008 election is fixed.
I have more than enough evidence to support these claims. Drop me a line here if you are interested. No comment registration is required. Simply select the anonymous box.
Obama would consider missile strikes on Iran | Chicago Tribune
http://tinyurl.com/7hle7
Gates prepares for a large-scale war with Iran, North Korea, China and Russia
http://tinyurl.com/342clu
Best,
Marc
CCNWON