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Field Guide to the Hypomanic: Hothead of State (Rahm Emanuel)
PsychologyToday.com ^ | July, 2009 | John Gartner

Posted on 08/16/2009 8:11:09 PM PDT by khnyny

As Barack Obama's chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel is arguably the second most powerful man in America. It's a job tailor-made for the unflappable—but that's not a description anyone would ever apply to Emanuel, not even when he was a political rookie raising money for Chicago Mayor Richard Daley. If donors didn't agree to quintuple their normal contributions, Emanuel scolded them for their stinginess and hung up the phone. Obama senior adviser David Axelrod, who has known Emanuel for decades, contends the method displayed a level of chutzpah that "redefined the term." And it worked. Emanuel broke all fund-raising records.

Two things are absolutely clear about Rahm Emanuel. He is effective and he is extreme.

Emanuel says f*ck more frequently than "if, and, or but," insists political scientist Larry Sabato. Obama himself regularly jokes about Emanuel's profanity: "For Rahm, every day is a swearing-in ceremony." These days, Emanuel is making deliberate efforts to tone himself down. "I'm not yelling at people; I'm not jumping on tables [anymore]," he told Mark Leibovich of The New York Times.

Still, Emanuel displays many characteristics of a hypomanic temperament. This mildly manic disposition—which is not a mental illness—comes with assets that could propel someone to the top of his field: immense energy, drive, confidence, creativity, and infectious enthusiasm. I have found through interviews and historical accounts that hypomania has animated many leaders, from Alexander Hamilton and Andrew Carnegie to Emanuel's former boss Bill Clinton.

But it also carries a cluster of liabilities: overconfidence, irritability, and especially impulsivity that often pitches the hypomanic into hostility. Drives are heightened and impulse control is weakened, making the hypomanic brain like a Porsche with no brakes. In keeping with his hypomanic temperament, Emanuel doesn't need much sleep and he can't stay still.

(Excerpt) Read more at psychologytoday.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Front Page News; Government; Politics/Elections; US: Illinois
KEYWORDS: emanuel; illinois; meanballerina; obama; rahm; rahmemanuel; tutoots
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To: elcid1970
Not to play Grammar Police, but “hypo” means under, and “hyper” means over.

Rahm Emmanuel is “hypermanic”, or is a “hypermaniac”.

Actually, the term here is used correctly.

It means less than fully manic or bipolar. A hypomanic person has many of the characteristics of bipolar but does not become so manic as to have a psychotic episode.

41 posted on 08/17/2009 5:01:16 AM PDT by SonOfDarkSkies ("Wherever politics tries...to do the work of God, it becomes...demonic." — Pope Benedict XVI)
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To: khnyny

Small man complex. To think that we have this guy in the wings orchestrating things. He and Axelrod. Shows how utterly rudderless the democratic party is.

Term Limits. I’d love to see a referendum on this. Didn’t our original constitution have term limits for Congress?


42 posted on 08/17/2009 5:11:11 AM PDT by nikos1121 (praying for -13)
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To: SonOfDarkSkies

So then, Rahm E. is not fully manic or bipolar.

It would therefore appear that the bar for what constitutes a psychotic episode has been set extremely high in this instance.

I suppose that dropping F-bombs so frequently that they have to be counted by the minute does not evince true bipolarity.

Sure would hate to be around a real bipolar maniac.


43 posted on 08/17/2009 5:27:19 AM PDT by elcid1970 ("O Muslim! My bullets are dipped in pig grease!")
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To: khnyny

Rahm Emanuel is working hard to make certain obuma attains one of Lincoln’s most dubious titles: The most hated man of his time.

Rahm Emanuel and obuma are motivated by psychopathic political fanaticism. Seventy years ago they would’ve been standing on a street corner shouting “Seig heil!”

Wouldn’t surprise me to see both Emanuel and obuma publicly blow a blood vessel and end up in the vegetable bin at a long-term care home.


44 posted on 08/17/2009 5:30:07 AM PDT by sergeantdave (obuma is the anti-Lincoln, trying to re-establish slavery)
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To: elcid1970
Bipolars exhibit that crash and burn thing periodically. They become so manic that they blast off the planet (go on a wild spending spree or lose $100K in Las Vegas, etc.), then fall into a really painful often suicidal depression.

Bipolar disorder can be successfully treated medically...but hypomanics usually get by without medication.

I know this because I am a hypomanic. My only medication is a vast amount of daily exercise (to burn off the excess energy).

45 posted on 08/17/2009 5:36:36 AM PDT by SonOfDarkSkies ("Wherever politics tries...to do the work of God, it becomes...demonic." — Pope Benedict XVI)
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To: SonOfDarkSkies

I wish I had that kind of energy.

Anyway, you don’t seem to be a Rahm Emmanuel kind of hypomanic.

Are there Type A and Type B hypomanics? If so, R.E. is surely among the former.


46 posted on 08/17/2009 5:58:19 AM PDT by elcid1970 ("O Muslim! My bullets are dipped in pig grease!")
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To: khnyny
There is a lot more reading to do about the Emmanuel family, which was called Auerbach until 1936.

Did you know Rahmbo’s father Benjamin (Auerbach) was a member of the zionist terrorist group Irgun? A “simple soldier” he says. And maybe even a member of an even more extreme zionist splinter group that carried out other political assassinations.

And here we've all been assuming the White House shipped back Churchill's bust back to the Brits and dissed Gordon Brown bigtime because of the Kenya-obama clan's distaste for Brit colonialism. Maybe the new US seeming inexplicable disdain for our closest allies in the Free World- has some of RAHMBO’s influence.

There is a lot more in the blogosphere- rumor and innuendo unfortunately instead of solid journalism - about the families of both of Rahm “Emmanuel's parents being involved in collaboration with the Third Reich.

This, if it led to truth, starts to make sense of why the Jewish cabal in the WH is so hostile to...Jews...and to the modern free Jewish State of Israel. It must be fascinating to know what the Israelis actually know about this shadowy angry little despot and his family). Especially since it seems that “Rahmbo” the dual citizen is de facto running the USA by slipping briefings onto the clueless tool obama’s teleprompter, slipping legislation and proclamations and orders in front of obama to sign before the cameras.

So- Rahmbo’s father (and maybe more ancestors) was a terrorist. Should we be surprised.
I swear it seems “radicalism” is a genetic trait, the cause may change but the anger and ruthlessness- pass on. Now, off to read more about Axelrod's parents and family history...

47 posted on 08/17/2009 6:15:48 AM PDT by silverleaf (If we are astroturf, why are the democrats trying to mow us?)
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To: khnyny

Rahmbo wants public attention to his personal life and family history- like fungus wants bleach.

Still waiting for some photos to emerge from the “Emmanuel Family African Vacation” - the Dec 2008 safari to Kenya..


48 posted on 08/17/2009 6:19:03 AM PDT by silverleaf (If we are astroturf, why are the democrats trying to mow us?)
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To: snuffy smiff

These guys may LOOK omnipotent, but their days of evil manipulation are numbered. Old Joe Kennedy (JFK’s father) was the Rahm of his day, manipulating elections and governments. Yeah, he had the world by the tail for a few years, but one day he had a stroke and was an invalid the rest of his life, able to mutter only the word “No.” Then, it was “Joe who?”


49 posted on 08/17/2009 6:23:53 AM PDT by 1951Boomer
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To: khnyny

Unelected and unaccountable with a wild temper and running the show from behind the scenes. Sounds like a male version of shillery.


50 posted on 08/17/2009 6:28:04 AM PDT by Texas resident ( Boys and Girls, it's us against them.)
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To: khnyny

Bambi’s ‘kneebreaker’ in chief.


51 posted on 08/17/2009 6:36:07 AM PDT by Don Corleone ("Oil the gun..eat the cannolis. Take it to the Mattress.")
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To: khnyny

The stuff’s not that bad coming out about him - besides for some it’s only a question of “if they spell the name right”...


52 posted on 08/17/2009 6:55:01 AM PDT by GOPJ ("Fishy rumors posters" Check 'em out:http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2311664/posts)
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To: khnyny
The stuff's not that bad coming out about him - besides for some it's only a question of "if they spell the name right"...

I like Obama a whole lot more than Rahm. Which is why Obama ran rather than Rahm.. Obama needs to dump him. He'll always be pushing to take over - Obama's instincts are better.

53 posted on 08/17/2009 6:56:37 AM PDT by GOPJ ("Fishy rumors posters" Check 'em out:http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2311664/posts)
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To: GOPJ
Obama needs to dump him. [Rahm will] always be pushing to take over - Obama's instincts are better.

Are we sure that Obama has any instincts -- other than Rahm's?

54 posted on 08/17/2009 7:04:44 AM PDT by okie01 (THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA: Ignorance on Parade)
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To: bioqubit
...some say “hypomaniac”, I say coke freak.

Worth thinking about...

55 posted on 08/17/2009 7:29:28 AM PDT by GOPJ ("Fishy rumors posters" Check 'em out:http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2311664/posts)
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To: khnyny
Unless, of course, Rahm is such an egomaniac that he just wants to see his name in print as often as possible - there’s always that.:)

As long as they spell his name right...

56 posted on 08/17/2009 7:30:28 AM PDT by GOPJ ("Fishy rumors posters" Check 'em out:http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2311664/posts)
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To: khnyny
As Barack Obama's chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel is arguably the second most powerful man in America.

LOL. What happened to Joe?
57 posted on 08/17/2009 7:37:54 AM PDT by Girlene (Condolances)
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To: GOPJ
“That takes a good PR firm to pull off -”

No it doesn't. All you have to do is act like a spoiled little *itch and you get all the publicity you want. Just ask Lindsey Lohan, or Paris Hilton, or Britney Spears. He is a spoiled little *itch too.

58 posted on 08/17/2009 8:55:11 AM PDT by monday
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To: MissDairyGoodnessVT

Bunch of crap I thought. All soap suds.


59 posted on 08/17/2009 11:39:13 AM PDT by Luke21
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To: SonOfDarkSkies
Perhaps Rahm is a closet hyper-hypo........


60 posted on 08/17/2009 11:58:44 AM PDT by OB1kNOb (Extreme right-winged mob terrorist astroturfing bitter clinging racist birther evilmongering wingnut)
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