Bush on the Couch

In the interest of full disclosure, I should mention that Dr. Frank is a friend. Even if he weren’t, however, I would be recommending his book, now out in paperback after a successful run in hardcover. The book is persuasive in offering a clinical diagnosis of the man who has been “the decider” for almost six full years. Dr. Frank employs his skills as a psychotherapist evenhandedly, speculating on the motivations playing themselves out because of the psychological makeup of George W. Bush. Denied emotional support from a cold and distant mother, much of the president’s personality seems to have been shaped as a young boy when he lost his sister and was unable to find a way to vent the resulting grief. Dr. Frank also finds motivation for much of Bush’s behavior in his alcoholic personality. Though the drinking stopped, the growth that often comes with recovery never seems to have taken place. I know Dr. Frank to be a man at odds with most of the policies of the Bush administration, but his book nonetheless reads like the work of a doctor who has, at base, compassion for the patient on the couch.