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EXAMINING THE MIND OF GEORGE
W. BUSH
By Katherine van Wormer
18 10 02
Katherine van Wormer is a Friend
(Quaker) and a Professor of Social Work at the University of
Northern Iowa, and is co-author of the recent'Addiction Treatment:
A Strengths Perspective (2002)'. A longtime member of the CERJ
colloquium, Katherine can be reached at: Katherine.VanWormer@uni.edu.
This article also appears on web site
of Counterpunch: http://www.counterpunch.com/wormer1011.html
Ordinarily I would not use this term.
But when I came across the article '"Dry Drunk" --
Is Bush Making a Cry for Help?' in 'American Politics Journal'
by Alan Bisbort, I was ready to concede ... in the case of
George W. Bush, the phrase may be quite apt.
Dry drunk is a slang term used by members and supporters of Alcoholics
Anonymous and substance abuse counselors to describe the recovering
alcoholic who is no longer drinking -- one who is dry, but whose
thinking is clouded. Such an individual is said to be 'dry' but
not truly sober. Such an individual tends to go to extremes.
It was when I started noticing the extreme language that colored
President Bush's speeches that I began to wonder. First there
were the terms --"crusade" and "infinite justice"
that were later withdrawn. Next came"evil-doers", "axis
of evil", and "regime change", terms that have
almost become cliches in the mass media. Something about the
polarized thinking and the obsessive repetition reminded me of
many of the recovering alcoholics/addicts I had treated (a point
worth noting is that because of the connection between addiction
and "stinking thinking", relapse prevention usually
consists of work in the cognitive area).
Having worked with recovering alcoholics for years, I flinched
at the single-mindedness and ego- and ethno-centricity in the
President's speeches (my husband likened his phraseology to the
gardener
character played by Peter Sellers in the movie, Being There).
Since words are the tools -- the representations -- of thought,
I wondered what Bush's choice of words said about where he was
coming from. Or where we would be going.
First, in this essay, we will look at the characteristics of
the so-called "dry drunk" -- then we will see if they
apply to this individual, our president -- and then we will review
his drinking history for the record.
What is the dry drunk syndrome? "Dry drunk" traits
consist of:
Exaggerated self-importance and pomposity
Grandiose behavior
A rigid, judgmental outlook
Impatience
Childish behavior
Irresponsible behavior
Irrational rationalization
Projection
Overreaction
Clearly, George W. Bush has all these
traits except exaggerated self-importance. He may be pompous,
especially with regard to international dealings, but his actual
importance hardly can be exaggerated. His power, in fact, is
such that if he collapses into paranoia, a large part of the
world will collapse with him.
Unfortunately, there are some indications of paranoia in statements
such as the following:
"We must be prepared to stop rogue states and their terrorist
clients before they are able to threaten or use weapons of mass
destruction against the United States and our allies and friends."
The trait of projection is evidenced here as well, projection
of the fact that we are ready to attack onto another nation which
may not be so inclined.
Bush's rigid, judgmental outlook comes across in virtually all
his speeches. To fight evil, Bush is ready to take on the world,
in almost a Biblical sense. Consider his statement with reference
to Israel: "Look
my job isn't to try to nuance. I think moral clarity is important
...this is evil versus good."
Bush's tendency to dichotomize reality is not on the Internet
list above, but it should be, as this tendency to polarize is
symptomatic of the classic addictive thinking pattern. I describe
this thinking distortion in 'Addiction Treatment: A Strengths
Perspective' as either/or reasoning--"either you are with
us or against us". Oddly, Bush used those very words in
his dealings with other nations. All-or-nothing thinking is a
related mode of thinking commonly found in newly-recovering alcoholics/addicts.
Such a worldview traps people in a pattern of destructive behavior.
Obsessive thought patterns are also pronounced in persons prone
to addiction. There are organic reasons for this due to brain
chemistry irregularities; messages in one part of the brain become
stuck there. This leads to maddening repetition of thoughts.
President Bush seems unduly focused upon getting revenge on Saddam
Hussein ("he tried to kill my Dad"), leading the country
and the world into war, accordingly.
Grandiosity enters the picture as well. What Bush is proposing
to Congress is not the right to attack on one country but a total
shift in military policy: America would now have the right to
take military action before the adversary even has the capacity
to attack. This is in violation, of course, of international
law as well as national precedent. How to explain this grandiose
request? Jane Bryant Quinn provides the most commonly offered
explanation in a recent Newsweek editorial, "Iraq: It's
the Oil, Stupid". Many other opponents of the Bush doctrine
similarly seek a rational motive behind the obsession over first,
the war on terror and now, Iraq. I believe the explanation goes
deeper than oil, that Bush's logic is being given too much credit;
I believe his obsession is far more visceral. On this very day,
a peace protestor in Portland held up the sign, "Drunk on
Power". This, I believe, is closer to the truth. The drive
for power
can be an unquenchable thirst, addictive in itself. Senator William
Fulbright, in his popular bestseller of the 1960s, 'The Arrogance
of Power', masterfully described the essence of power-hungry
politics as the
pursuit of power; this he conceived as an end in itself. "The
causes and consequences of war may have more to do with pathology
than with politics", he wrote, "more to do with irrational
pressures of pride
and pain than with rational calculation of advantage and profit."
Another "dry drunk" trait is impatience. Bush is far
from a patient man: "If we wait for threats to fully materialize",
he said in a speech he gave at West Point, "we will have
waited too long". Significantly, Bush only waited for the
United Nations and for Congress to take up the matter of Iraq's
disarmament with extreme reluctance.
Alan Bisbort argues that Bush possesses the characteristics of
the "dry drunk" in terms of: his incoherence while
speaking away from the script; his irritability with anyone (for
example, Germany's Schroeder) who dares disagree with him; and
his dangerous obsessing about only one thing (Iraq) to the exclusion
of all other things.
In short, George W. Bush seems to possess the traits characteristic
of addictive persons who still have the thought patterns that
accompany substance abuse. If we consult the latest scientific
findings, we will
discover that scientists can now observe changes that occur in
the brain as a result of heavy alcohol and other drug abuse.
Some of these changes may be permanent. Except in extreme cases,
however, these cognitive impairments would not be obvious to
most observers. To reach any conclusions we need of course to
know Bush's personal history relevant to drinking/drug use. To
this end I consulted several
biographies. Yes, there was much drunkenness -- years of binge
drinking starting in college, at least one conviction for DUI
in 1976 in Maine, and one arrest before that for a drunken episode
involving theft of a Christmas wreath. According to J.D. Hatfield's
book, 'Fortunate Son', Bush later explained:
"[A]lcohol began to compete with my energies ... I'd lose
focus". Although he once said he couldn't remember a day
he hadn't had a drink, he added that he didn't believe he was
"clinically alcoholic". Even his father, who had known
for years that his son had a serious drinking problem, publicly
proclaimed: "He was never an alcoholic. It's just he knows
he can't hold his liquor".
Bush drank heavily for over 20 years until he made the decision
to abstain at age 40. About this time he became a "born
again Christian", going as usual from one extreme to the
other. During an Oprah interview, Bush acknowledged that his
wife had told him he needed to think about what he was doing.
When asked in another interview about his reported drug use,
he answered honestly, "I'm not going to talk about what
I did 20 to 30 years ago."
That there might be a tendency toward addiction in Bush's family
is indicated in the recent arrests or criticism of his daughters
for underage drinking and his niece for cocaine possession. Bush,
of course,
deserves credit for his realization that he can't drink moderately,
and his decision today to abstain. The fact that he doesn't drink
moderately may be suggestive of an inability to handle alcohol.
In any case, Bush has clearly gotten his life in order and is
in good physical condition, careful to exercise and rest when
he needs to do so. The fact that some residual effects from his
earlier substance abuse -- however slight -- might cloud the
U.S. President's thinking and judgment is frightening, however,
in the context of the current global crisis.
One final consideration that might come into play in the foreign
policy realm relates to Bush's history relevant to his father.
The Bush biography reveals the story of a boy named for his father,
sent to
the exclusive private school in the East where his father's reputation
as star athlete and later war hero were still remembered. The
younger George's achievements were dwarfed in the school's memory
of his
father. Athletically he could not achieve his father's laurels,
being smaller and perhaps less strong.
His drinking bouts and lack of intellectual gifts held him back
as well. He was popular and well
liked, however. His military record was mediocre as compared
to his father's as well. Bush entered the Texas National Guard.
What he did there remains largely a mystery. There are reports
of a lot of barhopping during this period. It would be only natural
that Bush would want to prove himself today, that he would feel
somewhat uncomfortable following, as before, in his father's
footsteps. I mention these things because when you follow his
speeches, Bush seems bent on a personal crusade. One motive is
to
avenge his father. Another seems to be to prove himself to his
father. In fact, Bush seems to be trying somehow to achieve what
his father failed to do -- to finish the job of the Gulf War,
to get the "evildoer" Saddam.
To summarize, George W. Bush manifests all the classic patterns
of what alcoholics in recovery call "the dry drunk".
His behavior is consistent with barely noticeable but meaningful
brain damage brought
on by years of heavy drinking and possible cocaine use. All the
classic patterns of addictive thinking that are spelled out in
my book are here:
The tendency to go to extremes (leading America into a massive
100 billion dollar strike-first war);
a "kill or be killed mentality;" the tunnel vision;
"I" as opposed to "we" thinking; the black
and white polarized thought processes (good versus evil, all
or nothing thinking).
His drive to finish his father's battles is of no small significance,
psychologically.
If the public (and politicians) could only see what Fulbright
noted as 'the pathology in the politics'. One day, sadly, they
will. |
