RE: ETHICAL ISSUE? "Bush on the Couch" by Justin Frank, M.D.

[Rick Froman]

I would put Dr. Frank’s psychoanalytic interpretation right up there with any astrologer to the stars who tells us about Bush’s horoscope or a psychic who tells us about Bush’s future. It has about as much scientific credibility. Unfortunately, the public may not be able to make such fine distinctions between pseudoscience and scientific psychology. I don’t have a problem with Dr. Frank’s free speech rights. He clearly has a constitutional right to write this (unless it is libelous or slanderous) but I think the major professional ramification is the impression it gives of the field (the public also doesn’t distinguish between psychiatrists and psychologists). Is there any doubt that this is pseudoscience? The giveaway is that this could easily cut both ways if Dr. Frank’s political predilections led him to put John Kerry (or anyone else) in his psychoanalytic sights.   Rick Dr. Rick Froman Associate Professor of Psychology John Brown University Siloam Springs, AR 72761 (479) 524-7295 e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] web: http://www.jbu.edu/academics/sbs/rfroman.asp -----Original Message----- From: Patricia Spiegel [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, July 15, 2004 4:08 PM To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences Subject: ETHICAL ISSUE? "Bush on the Couch" by Justin Frank, M.D.   I just purchased this book, partly out of curiosity but mostly because I think it may make an interesting discussion in the third edition, in progress, of my ethics textbook (with Gerry Koocher).    Should such a book be written (diagnoses and all) by a professional (psychiatrist at George Washington--so it's not one of our own)?  Is this exploiting one's professional expertise for a potboiler that will generate fast cash or is it a fascinating analysis based on publicly available documents and therefore free speech and  beyond criticism?    Has anyone read it?   The colleagues I talke to are not of one mind as to whether such a book was ethical to write.  I would be interested to see what Tipsters think.    If you haven't read it, the company's blurb apears below.  It gives you a good idea.   Tricia Keith-Spiegel   Bush On the Couch Inside the Mind of the President by Justin A. Frank, M.D "I don't spend a lot of time trying to figure me out. ... I'm just not into psychobabble." -- George W. Bush For all his simplicity and affability, George W. Bush has remained, to paraphrase Sir Winston Churchill, "a mystery wrapped in an enigma." In Bush on the Couch, Dr. Justin A. Frank, a well-respected Washington, D.C.­based psychoanalyst and professor of psychiatry, unwraps that mystery, assembling 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 fearlessly builds his case ... and reaches conclusions that are at once highly persuasive and deeply disturbing. Through a close analysis of Bush's public statements and behavior, 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 -- especially Barbara Bush, an acknowledged disciplinarian whose own insecurities may have prevented her from adequately nurturing her son -- Frank 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. Among the other subjects Frank explores: *    Bush's false sense of omnipotence, instilled within him during childhood and emboldened by his deep investment in fundamentalist religion *    The president's history of untreated alcohol abuse, and the questions it raises about denial, impairment, and the enabling streak in our culture *    The growing anecdotal evidence that Bush may suffer from dyslexia,ADHD, and other thought disorders *    His comfort living outside the law, defying international law in his presidency as boldly as he once defied DUI statutes and military reporting requirements *    His love-hate relationship with his father, and how it triggered a complex and dangerous mix of feelings including yearning, rivalry, anger,] and sadism *    Bush's rigid and simplistic thought patterns, paranoia, and megalomania-- and how they have driven him to invent adversaries so that he can destroy them At once a compelling portrait of George W. Bush and a damning indictment of his policies, Bush on the Couch sheds startling new light on an administration whose record of violence and cruelty seems increasingly dependent on the unstable psyche of the man at its center. Insightful and accessible, courageous and controversial, Bush on the Couch tackles the question no one seems willing to ask: Is our president psychologically fit to run the country? --------------------------------------------------- Imprint: ReganBooks; ISBN: 0060736704; On Sale: 06/15/2004; Format: Hardcover; Subformat: ; Length: ; Trimsize: 6 x 9; Pages: 272; $24.95; $34.95(CAN) --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]