The Psychosis of a Candidate

[tomnbeverly]

It seems to me that it is in the public’s interest that the presidential candidates should undergo a Psychiatric evaluation. The public has a right to be relatively assured that the person who becomes president does not have a psychosis or mental disorder. I mean this is only the most powerful position in the world.

This perspective has become more apparent in light of the way that Senator John Kerry has given answers, in retrospect, to statements that he has made in the past. Even when presented with exact quotes he either doesn't remember making the statement, claims he could have been mistaken, or changes his position about the statement entirely. Most people have started calling this a flip-flop or a waffle changing positions on specific issues. However, the spin that he puts to his past statements and actions could be cause for serious concern. If he had said that he made a mistake or that he embellished the truth that would be one thing but the press and his campaign claim nuance as the reason for his changing positions and embellishment of events.

There is also his glaring attempts to imitate the late President John F Kennedy, his tour in the navy and political campaigns, (which fall way short I might add), but call the mental state of the senator into question. Is this all coincidence? His comments about being destined to be in the White House because he was born in the west wing of the hospital take on a new light when you question his mental capacity.

Multiple personality disorder is a condition in which two or more distinct identities or personalities alternately take control in the same person. Each personality is unaware of any others

What are the signs and symptoms of the condition?

The following symptoms may indicate multiple personality disorder: · two or more distinct personalities exist within one person. · each personality has its own way of thinking about things and relating to others. · At least two of the identities take control of the person's behavior. · The person is unable to recall important personal information.

IMHO John Kerry has displayed the above symptoms on many recent occasions. I think that is about time for someone to suggest a trip to the psychiatrist.

[Rodm]

Kerry would be a "deer in the headlights" president. In the first crisis he would freeze in the indecision mode. Should I go for a purple heart or a silver star, purple heart or silver star, purple heart or silver star. . . . . . .

[Damagro]

He'll have plenty of time for phsychiatric care beginning November 3, 2004.

[jnarcus]

First of all this belongs on the blog section or some toher discussion area since it is NOT breaking news or a latest article...Second you have NO understanding of Dissociative Idnetity Disorder ( which in fact the designation that has been used since at least 1989 for what you call MPD or multiple ersonality disorder). SInce you do not appear to be a psychiatrist or a psychologist with ANY training in the the aforementioned mental disorder you would be better off not showing your ingnorance....And for the record I think it is highly unlikely that ANYONE can perform analysis of one's psyche from a distance though lots of people try and one loon MD has even published a book about Bush claiming to do just that....

[RightthinkinAmerican]

I jusy stumbled on this great pro-Bush/anti-Kerry page that deals with Kerry's psyche. Here's a link:

http://www.sparkpage.com/.

The main page this links from sells the anti-radiation pills, if you want to patronize a pro-Bushie.

www.kio3.com

I am not promoting this site except that he has put up such a nice Kerry rant, that someone looking for the pills may want to buy them from him. In fact, he is my competitor.

[tomnbeverly]

Sorry, It was only my opinion based on the facts that I have been reading and listening to on the news and No I am not an MD. Dissociative Idnetity Disorder sounds about right then.

Thanks.

[NEBO]

Well I know Terayza wouldn't pass a mental exam!!!!

[Wally_Kalbacken]

My armchair psychiatrist's evaluation of this is that there is definite and overrepresented psychiatric disorder among politicians, and for lack of a better term I'll call it Charismatic Narcissistic Personality Disorder. Look at Kerry, sure - he feels he is entitled to a leadership position, and from his actions as a young man you can see he has felt entitled for a long time. But also look at people like McGreevy and Clinton. You see a satisfaction drawn from adulatory crowds that resembles an arsonist's sexual excitement at viewing his work. I really think that a guy like Clinton is turned on at the notion of fooling a large throng. McGreevy felt there was nothing wrong with presenting the tableau of the supportive family while he understood himself to be a a gay man. (The dutiful wife's in a nice position isn't she?) Remember Gary Hart as he announced his run for the presidency in 1987? He had his family standing behind him in the foothills of the Rockies - shivering as he rambled through a long statement. The could have been wallpaper, because  he was using them as a backdrop like the mountains, furthering his political career by using them as a superficial prop, while maintaining a sexual relationship with Donna Rice. 

Bad behavior, bad judgment and  bad character are distributed widely throughout the general population. But they seem to appear with abnormally high frequency in politicians - so I think there is an adverse selection problem here, aided and abetted by modern campaign marketing techniques and a very biased media which can make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.

 

[TheCrusader]

"It seems to me that it is in the public’s interest that the presidential candidates should undergo a Psychiatric evaluation."

In this perverted generation the guy who flunked the evaluation would probably would probably win in a landslide.

[upchuck]

MPD is a very strange illness. "When Rabbit Howls" is a book I found that does an excellent job of explaining the illness to a layman. It's long but well worth it:

Truddi Chase began therapy to discover why she suffered from blackouts. What surfaced was terrifying: she was inhabited by 'the Troops'-92 individual personalities. This groundbreaking true story is made all the more extraordinary in that it was written by the Troops themselves. What they reveal is a spellbinding descent into a personal hell-and an ultimate deliverance for the woman they became.

[ApplegateRanch]

Isn't ANYONE who wilfully seeks high office insane one way or another?

Like, by carrying movie cameras into battle, purposely seeking medals, and using youthful pandering & demagoguery, all to build an early power-base.

Padding, lying, and outright faking a "biography", to make one more "electable".

Sucking up to the powerful.

Marrying money so you don't have to waste precious time earning it....

Oh, no! I think I just described John Kerry!

Sirely, he couldn't be...NUTS?

Or, is he definitely insane???

[Samwise]

Kerry is a finger-pointing, self-deluded, indecisive, thin-skinned, lying, girly man.

[45Auto]

I have long considered liberalism itself to be a mental disorder. The basic premises of left-wingers seem to be right out of a classic textbook on insanity: Magical thinking, self-fulling desires, paranoid sensibilities about a "vast right-wing conspiracy", persecution complexes, inability to accept personal responsibility for one's actions, blaming others for failures to achieve 'success' in life. The list goes on.

Much of it is the result, in my opinion, of 30 years or so of massive assorted drug experimentation and in many cases outright addiction/serious abuse. Kerry is just another billionaire socialist who would like to think he can solve every bodies' problems if he can set up just the right "government program." And he feels bewildered that not everyone shares his "vision" of the perfect Utopian world in which we all galdly "contribute" to his grandiose schemes.

This crap is nothing new; its been around for a long time, since that deadbeat, Karl Marx (and probably before) thought up that cute slogan, "To each according to his needs, from each according to his ability." It started in earnest with the Great Depression and FDR's New Deal, and it came nearly full circle with LBJ and the Great Society. The US has been going to hell ever since, and we all have been forced to pay for it.

[TheCrusader]

"Second you have NO understanding of Dissociative Idnetity Disorder ( which in fact the designation that has been used since at least 1989 for what you call MPD or multiple ersonality disorder)."

Psychiatric terms and definitions come and go. For example Freud's term 'anxiety neurosis' is now obsolete and is reclassified as 'panic disorder', 'generalized anxiety disorder', etc.

Since Kerry's lack of mental balance makes him prone to such diverse and bizarre personality charateristics like confusing the public with conflicting and contradictory political positions, attacking fellow veterans with obscene gestures, exibiting public outbursts of rage and profanity, making shameless misrepresentations of his military record for personal gain, and dressing up as a grinning Tele-Tubby, 'multiple personality disorder' works just fine for me.