Bush On The Couch: Inside The Mind Of The President - Softcover

Frank, Justin A.

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9780060736712: Bush On The Couch: Inside The Mind Of The President

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0060736712 ISBN 13: 9780060736712

Publisher: Perennial, 2005

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With the Bush administration in permanent crisis, a renowned Washington psychoanalyst updates his portrait of George W.'s public persona and how it has damaged the presidency.

Insightful and accessible, courageous and controversial, Bush on the Couch sheds startling new light on George W. Bush's psyche and its impact on the way he governs, tackling head-on the question few seem willing to ask: Is our president psychologically fit to run the country? With an eye for the subtleties of human behavior sharpened by thirty years of clinical practice, Dr. Justin A. Frank traces the development of Bush's character from childhood through his presidency, identifying and analyzing his patterns of thought, action, and communication. The result is a troubling portrait filled with important revelations about our nation's leader including disturbing new insights into: How Bush reacted to the 2006 Democratic sweep in Congress with a new surge of troops into IraqHis telling habits and coping strategies from his persistent mangling of English to his tendency to "go blank" in the midst of crisisThe tearful public breakdown of his father, George H. W. Bush, and what it says about the former president's relationship to his prominent sonsThe debacle of Katrina the moment when Bush's arrogance finally failed him

With a new introduction and afterword, Bush on the Couch offers the most thorough and candid portrait to date of arguably the most psychologically damaged president since Nixon."

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Synopsis:

In Bush on the Couch, Dr. Justin A. Frank, a Washington, D.C.?based psychoanalyst and professor of psychiatry, assembles a comprehensive psychological profile of President Bush. Using the principles of applied psychoanalysis - the discipline of psychoanalyzing public and historical figures pioneered by Freud -- Frank builds his case, reaching controversial conclusions. Through a close analysis of Bush's public statements and behaviour, as well as the historical record provided by journalists, biographers, and those who have known the president well, Frank traces the development of Bush's character from childhood to the present day. Examining closely the role of the president's parents, he finds in Bush's childhood the roots of a dramatic psychic split that remains a dominant influence on his adult worldview. Frank argues that this split has inevitably hampered Bush's ability to manage his emotions, charging his psyche with restless anxiety, and conditioning him to view the world in the black-and-white terms that have so evidently shaped his administration.

About the Author:

Justin A. Frank, M.D., is a clinical professor in the Department of Psychiatry at George Washington University Medical Center. Since 1980 he has been a teaching analyst at the Washington Psychoanalytic Institute. He is past president of the Greater Washington Chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility. Dr. Frank lives and practices psychoanalysis in Washington, D.C.

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