Posted on 12/10/2004 6:23:04 AM PST by Happy Valley Dude
Fifteen John Kerry supporters met Thursday for a second group therapy session in South Florida, ranting at President Bush as they vented their self-described “emotional helplessness” to mental health counselors. Participants in the American Health Association-sponsored support session, designed to treat what psychotherapists call Post Election Selection Trauma (PEST), allowed the general press to cover them for the first time on condition of anonymity.
“I haven’t been able to sleep since the election,” Sharon, a retiree from Delray Beach, told the group. “There is no sense of fairness. There is hypocrisy and a feeling of impotence. I feel hopeless, powerless.” “I feel like I live in a dictatorship,” added an elderly woman from West Palm Beach, making gagging sounds as she described the reasons people voted for Bush. “The election was rigged and it was rigged in a lot of ways. It’s scary.”
“Bush is a moron!” shouted a gray-haired man from Boca during one of several lengthy verbal melees. Although the support group shouted just as vehemently at the president as last week, when the Boca Raton News reported on their first PEST meeting, mental health counselors from the non-profit AHA said their patients were making progress.
“We’re a step closer,” Rob Gordon, group facilitator and AHA executive director, said afterwards. “Now that we’ve had two weeks to vent, we’ll move to the actuality stage next Thursday. We’ll introduce some meditation techniques and psychiatric theories which may help them.” The predominantly Jewish support group members, almost all of them Palm Beach County Democrats who are older than 50, frequently shouted as Gordon led their discussion Thursday.
“Do you feel Bush was elected?” Gordon asked, prompting a collective shout of “No!” followed by conspiracy theories.
“What happened to compassionate conservatism?” Gordon asked. “It’s a lie!” said one participant. Another said, “It’s an oxymoron!” “Oh, my goodness!” added a third, gasping for breath.
Participants also ranted against what they called the “corporate right-wing takeover” of the news media.
“Howard Dean made that shout and look what the press did to him,” said one woman from Boynton Beach. “They made him look like he was crazy.” “People are being brainwashed,” said another. “We get better information from the European press than from our own newspapers.”
“This war is ridiculous,” said a man named Bernie. “It should never happen. There’s certainly going to be a draft and the media won’t even report how many people have been killed.”
“I’m scared for our young people,” said Alfred, a retired professor who called the Nov. 2 presidential election a “triumph of Madison Avenue advertising” during one of several red-faced rants.
On the issue of religion, the elderly PEST sufferers were especially animated.
“The Republicans have gotten away with phony spirituality,” said Alfred. “The Jeffersonian ideal of separation between church and state is going to hell.”
“There’s more of them than us,” said a woman named Joyce, referring to “red state” voters. “That’s scary.”
“The Supreme Court terrifies me,” said Sharon, the Delray retiree who can’t sleep. “Bush has the ability to stack that court.”
Gordon said, “I hear the suffering. I hear the pain. But what do we do about it? You all feel so powerless. But there are elections in 2006 and 2008.” “We don’t have an advocate,” said one participant. “We’re missing an advocate for our cause.”
“Kerry had no clear policy or path,” added Toby, a woman. “I didn’t see it.” “I have no faith in Hillary Clinton for 2008,” said a third woman. “I don’t think she can make it. She isn’t the answer.”
Gordon, who coined PEST, said he thought the group was getting closer to accepting the reality of losing the election.
“I guide and lead, but I don’t cure,” Gordon said. “They cure themselves. They’re bonding through the therapeutic process and they’re making the psychodynamic relationships that will guide them to a cure.”
The Boca-based AHA is treating a total of 60 Palm Beach County Kerry supporters in three weekly support groups. Only the group that meets Thursdays has agreed to allow reporters to attend — provided they do not publish any names, photos or locations.
“This nation has accepted George Bush’s re-election, but not the stress it has created,” Gordon said. “I don’t mind Republicans making fun of us. This isn’t about converting Democrats and independents to Republicans with the wave of a magic wand. It’s about helping otherwise normal people who were thrown into chronic depression or shock by Bush’s re-election.”
The Boca News first reported on Nov. 9 that depressed Florida Kerry supporters were seeking trauma therapy after refusing to accept the result of the Nov. 2 presidential election.
The AHA’s support group approach to curing the depressed Kerry partisans — which its therapists call “peer-based eclectic psychotherapy” — differs from some local psychologists who have used hypnosis to treat PEST. One Boca psychologist alone, Douglas Schooler, treated 20 Kerry voters last month with intense hypnotherapy for a sliding fee. Schooler later said he had treated many of these patients — including a 44-year old Boca divorcee named Karen, who gave an exclusive interview to the Boca News — for mental problems prior to the election. When Schooler’s business finally dried up in late November, he cited the Ohio recount, telling the Boca News he believed the recount had soothed the souls of wounded Democrats by providing an outlet for their emotions.
Sean Salai can be reached at ssalai@bocanews.com or 561-893-6427.
BWahahahahaa!!!!
Sounds more like they need an exorcism from the demons they've built up in their minds.
Hating Bush is like hating white bread.
Six million Jews died under a real dictatorship not all that long ago - this kind of talk is just disgusting and disrespectful.
i do not think that DENYING reality is going to in any way assist them in coming to grips with it.
Wow...sanity, in the midst of insanity!
Somebody's crank and needs a nap.
"There is hypocrisy and a feeling of impotence. I feel hopeless, powerless.”
Perhaps a Viagra prescription for your mate?
“There’s more of them than us,” said a woman named Joyce
Well which is it? So we stole the election because there are more of us? I never thought of that.
Yep, in the south we don't hide our lunatic relatives in the attic we bring them down to the parlor for entertainment purposes. LOL
PS I know that PB is not truly the south, but those living have adopted some of our customs.
I don't think these people are getting any better.
Maybe we should sneak into one of their meetings and suggest that Bush has a plan to change the Constitution allowing him to run for a third term.
I understand the concept of group therapy and why it works in certain situations but this is not one of them. These people just reinforce their own anger and paranoia.
Their problem comes down to this, they want to be loved. They think that if you give everyone what they want, don't confront, "think" happy thoughts everyone would love them.
But like the homely girl who drops her panties for the football team, all they do is get viewed with even more contempt and disdain. They cannot handle rejection and this is what what is driving them mad. Instead of accepting that maybe their own actions are at fault and moving toward the center, like the homely girl they go in the other direction and become even bigger whores.
What everyone seems to forget is that therapy is designed for people with symptoms of mental illness. Ergo, these people are indeed crazy. If you lived in Boca, as I do, you would know of what I speak.
It's almost criminal what these "therapists" are doing. Behind their "patients" backs they're laughing all the way to the bank.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.