A Shrink Asks: What's Wrong with Obama?

American Thinker ^ | June 11, 2010 | Robin of Berkeley

[neverdem]

So what is the matter with Obama? Conservatives have been asking this question for some time. I've written a number of articles trying to solve the mystery.  

Even some liberals are starting to wonder. James Carville railed about Obama's blasé attitude after the catastrophic oil spill. The New York Times' Maureen Dowd revamped Obama's "Yes We Can" motto into "Will We Ever?"

The liberal women of the TV show "The View" have expressed sympathy for Michelle Obama's living with a man so out of touch. Peggy Noonan, hardly a vehement Obama foe,  recently pronounced him disconnected. 

Obama's odd mannerisms intrigue a psychotherapist like me. He also presents a serious diagnostic challenge.  

For one, Obama's teleprompter and the men behind the Blackberry keep him well-scripted. We know so little about the facts of his life.

But it's more than just a lack of information. Obama himself is a strange bird. He doesn't fit easily into any diagnostic category.

Many people attribute Obama's oddness to his narcissism. True, Obama has a gargantuan ego, and he is notoriously thin-skinned.

Yet a personality disorder like narcissism does not explain Obama's strangeness: his giggling while being asked about the economy; his continuing a shout-out rather than announcing the Ft. Hood shootings; or his vacations, golfing, partying and fundraising during the calamitous oil spill.

Take also Obama's declaring on the "Today Show" that he wants to know whose ass to kick. Consummate narcissists would never stoop to this vulgar display of adolescent machismo.

Obama is flat when passion is needed; he's aggressive when savvy is required. What's most worrisome is that Obama doesn't even realize that his behavior is inappropriate.

So if it's not just simple narcissism, what is wrong with Obama? Since I've never evaluated him, I can't say for sure. But I can hazard some educated guesses.

If I saw a client as disconnected as him, the first thing I would wonder: Is something wrong with his brain? And I'd consider the following theoretical diagnostic possibilities. 

--Physical problems: There are a multitude of physiological conditions that can cause people to act strangely. For instance: head injuries, endocrine disturbances, epilepsy, and toxic chemical exposure.

It makes me wonder: Did Obama ever have a head injury? His stepfather in Indonesia was purportedly an alcoholic abuser. Was Obama subject to any physical abuse?

-- Drugs and alcohol: Damage to the brain from drugs and alcohol can also cause significant cognitive impairments. Obama once said that there were 57 states -- and didn't correct himself. Memory problems can be caused by both illicit and prescription drug use.

Obama admits to a history of drug use in his youth. Did his usage cause some damage? Does Obama still use? 

--Asperger's Syndrome: Also known as high-functioning autism, Asperger's causes deficits in social skills. A person with Asperger's can't read social cues. Consequently, he can be insensitive and hurtful without even knowing it. 

Could Obama have Asperger's? He might have some mild traits, but certainly not the full-blown disorder. In contrast to Obama, those with Asperger's get fixated on some behavior, like programming computers. Obama lacks this kind of passion and zeal.

--Mental Illness: Obama's family tree is replete with the unbalanced. His maternal great-grandmother committed suicide. His grandfather, Stanley Dunham, was particularly unhinged: He was expelled from high school for punching his principal; named his daughter Stanley because he wanted a boy; and exposed young Barry to not just drunken trash talk, but unrestricted visits with alleged pedophile Frank Marshall Davis (who might or might not be Obama's biological father). Barack Sr. was an abusive, alcoholic bigamist.

Since mental illness runs in the family, does Obama have any signs? Yes and no. No, he is not a schizophrenic babbling about Martians. But there are red flags for some other conditions.

While Obama doesn't appear to hallucinate, he seems to have delusions. His believing he has a Messiah-like special gift smacks of grandiose delusions. His externalizing all blame to conservatives, George W. Bush, or the "racist" bogeyman hints at persecutory delusions. 

Along with a delusional disorder, Obama may fit for a mild psychotic disorder called schizotypal disorder. It may explain some of Obama's oddness. 

People with schizotypal disorder hold bizarre beliefs, are suspicious and paranoid, and have inappropriate and constricted affect. They have few close friends and are socially awkward. A schizotypal is someone like your strange cousin Becky who is addicted to astrology, believes she is psychic, and is the oddball at social gatherings.

Schizotypal Disorder does ring some bells vis-à-vis Obama. One way the diagnosis doesn't fit, however, is that schizotypals are generally harmless, odd ducks. Not so with Obama.

--Trauma: My gut tells me that Obama was seriously traumatized in childhood. His mother disregarded his basic needs, dragged him all over the place, and ultimately abandoned him.

But I think there may be something even more insidious in his family background. While I can't prove it, the degree of Obama's disconnect reminds me of my sexually abused clients.

With serious sexual abuse, the brain chemistry may change. The child dissociates -- that is, disconnects from his being -- in order to cope. Many adult survivors still dissociate, from occasional trances to the most extreme cases of multiple personality disorder.

Apparently, young Barry was left in the care of Communist Frank Marshall Davis, who admitted to molesting a 13-year-old girl. As a teenager, Obama wrote a disturbing poem, "Pop," that evoked images of sexual abuse -- for instance, describing dual amber stains on both his and "Pop's" shorts.

Would trauma explain Obama's disconnect? In many ways, yes. A damaged and unattached child may develop a "false self." To compensate for the enormous deficits in identity and attachment, the child invents his own personality. For Obama, it may have been as a special, gifted person.

Let's return now to my original question: What is wrong with Obama? My guess is a great deal. The answer is complex and likely includes some combination of the above.

Along with the brain issues are personality disorders: narcissism, paranoia, passive-aggressiveness. There's even the possibility of the most destructive character defect of all, an antisocial personality. Untreated abuse can foster antisocial traits, especially among boys.

If my assessment is accurate, what does this mean? 

It means that liberals need to wake up and spit out the Kool-Aid...and that conservatives should put aside differences, band together, and elect as many Republicans as possible.

Because Obama will not change. He will not learn from his mistakes. He will not grow and mature from on-the-job experience. In fact, over time, Obama will likely become a more ferocious version of who he is today. 

Why? Because this is a damaged person. Obama's fate was sealed years ago growing up in his strange and poisonous family. Later on, his empty vessel was filled with the hateful bile of men like Rev. Wright and Bill Ayers. 

Obama will not evolve; he will not rise to the occasion; he will not become the man he was meant to be. This is for one reason and one reason alone:

He is not capable of it.

A frequent AT contributor, Robin is a psychotherapist in Berkeley and a recovering liberal. You can e-mail Robin at robinofberkeley@hotmail.com. She regrets that she may not be able to acknowledge your e-mail.

[Natural Born 54]

Have you decided which part of that spectrum Obama is in?

[240B]

It is a look or abject loss.
It is a look or failure.
It is a look of divorce.

It is a look of a man who has been questioned.

[Natural Born 54]

“she conceals her capabilities”

Kinda like the glasses/librarian look. She’s one smart, tough cookie.

[Carley]

He has a single minded determination to do as much harm to America, it’s economy, it’s national security and the rest of the free world.

He ignores the will of the people. Nothing gives him more pleasure. He seems to revel in the hatred directed towards him as much as our President Bush revelled in the prayers Americans said for him and America.

The difference between good and evil has never been move clearly delineated.

[Psalm 144]

Exactly.

[ransomnote]

Thank you! The creepiness of that picture was going to gnaw at me until I read your excellent description. Now pardon me while I further recoil from ‘the entity’ otherwise known as Obama.

[FBD]

>”But I think there may be something even more insidious in his family background. While I can’t prove it, the degree of Obama’s disconnect reminds me of my sexually abused clients.”

-Well, that would add validity to the Larry Sinclair story now, wouldn’t it?

---

“...Apparently, young Barry was left in the care of Communist Frank Marshall Davis, who admitted to molesting a 13-year-old girl. As a teenager, Obama wrote a disturbing poem, “Pop,” that evoked images of sexual abuse — for instance, describing dual amber stains on both his and “Pop’s” shorts....”

[backhoe]

Wrong question- the right one is “what was wrong with America for putting this fraudster & con artist in to the White House?”

[Mr. Wright]

You never send a boy to do a man’s job.

[livius]

Because Obama will not change. He will not learn from his mistakes. He will not grow and mature from on-the-job experience. In fact, over time, Obama will likely become a more ferocious version of who he is today.

I think this supports your statements.

Personally, I think that what's wrong with Obama is that he has an entirely manufactured personality. Exactly why or how it was manufactured, I don't know. Based on my experience, he does strike me as someone who may have had a brain injury. Many people who have suffered severe brain injuries really have to reconstruct their lives from the ground up and it is never, in a sense, an authentic life because they are always striving to assemble the fragments of the person they vaguely know they once were into a coherent whole and adapt it to their current circumstances.

I'd say he probably had a terrible upbringing, on top of it: being brought up as a radical leftist in a prosperous family, a Muslim in some circumstances but not so in others, a child whose racial background was considered something vitally important by his family (since they were the sort of liberals who regarded blacks as the vanguard of the revolution and therefore cultivated this "black grudge" mentality in their privileged half-white child), and being exposed to corrupt and evil people such as Davis.

Combine that with a brain injury and you have somebody who is never going to be a whole person. Yet at the same time, all these influences have gone to create a vastly ambitious, ruthless person, since the very fragility of his personality requires that he protect it by any means possible.

[lentulusgracchus]

Now pardon me while I further recoil from ‘the entity’ otherwise known as Obama.

Hmmm, that suggests a new tag for Boss Man: "The Entity in Chief."

If he really starts getting creepy, we could start calling him "The Entity in the Chief."

<P/A voice> "Paging Lord Moloch, please .... Lord Moloch. Please call the front desk using the white courtesy phone. Lord Moloch, please." </voice><click> <resume Getz & Gilberto music, "The Girl from Ipanema">

[RegulatorCountry]

This individual writes like a layperson using the DSM-IV as a reference. Obama is a very odd duck, and there may or may not be serious psychological issues present. But, take this with a grain of salt.

[hoosiermama]

mmm mmm mmm
BO has been outed again!

[ObamaMustGo2012]

First the shrink is asking, “What’s wrong with Obama?” Then, the shrink is suggesting different things that COULD be wrong with Obama. Somehow, almost magically within a sentence or two, the shrink goes right from that to a conclusive diagnosis.

And these people charge $175 an hour for this kind of crap?

[livius]

I think she’s trying to make it intelligible to those of us who aren’t professionals. As she says many times, she has never examined him professionally, and these are just some off-the-top-of-her-head suggestions.

But as you say, regardless of how you look at it, Obama is indeed very strange.

[Doc Savage]

Is that Assburgler with a cumfestish?

[Doc Savage]

OK, so I’m definitely narcissistic. But what about Obama?

[Shane]

He seems a bit like Caligula to me.

[RegulatorCountry]

Maybe so. I’m acquainted with a few people who actually graduated as pscyh majors (just never figured out what was wrong with themselves I guess, lol), and she doesn’t use the jargon in the same way, though. That’s what stood out and prompted the comment.