Dr. Justin Frank has written one of the most fascinating books that in my opinion is not getting to a large enough audience. Dr. Frank as a psychoanalyst has offered an in-depth profile of President George W. Bush in his book Bush on the couch.
Psychoanalysis is a relatively new field of investigation, in which teams of skilled psychiatrists utilize the vast clinical data on world leaders to do in-depth personality profiles. The ClA established an applied psychoanalysis unit, under Dr. Jerrold M. Post, a colleague of Dr.
Frank at the George Washington University Medical Center. The CIA confines its efforts to foreign leaders. Dr. Frank has chosen to apply the same rigorous techniques to the sitting President. Dr.
Frank makes no secret of the fact that he has never treated George W. Bush. Yet, he had access to massive amounts of video footage of the President, autobiographical and biographical data on Mr. Bush and many of his most intimate associates, including virtually every member of his family, and other clinical data not often available on his patients. He rarely has the opportunity to observe the patient in his everyday life.
With President Bush, Dr. Frank had access to hundreds of hours of unedited video footage of him going about the business. Dr. Frank leaves the reader to think that it is Dick Cheney who is really running the country, not George. Dr.
Frank said in Bush on the couch “if President Bush is the puppet of Cheney, he is a puppet who chooses his puppeteers, and who carries out his Presidential decisions with a clear inner conviction that he is the true power, the ultimate decision-maker. Whatever the truth is about the decision-making process inside the Bush White House, Bush has a megalomaniac al conviction that he is the king of the roost.” .
The Essay on President George V.Bush
1. How would you rate President George V.Bush on the four characteristics outlined at the beginning of the case? How would you contrast his reaction to Hurricane Katrina with his reaction to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001? What do you think his handling of these two events says about his leadership? Behind Bush’s strong, proud appearance, there is a much tender, sensitive, ...
