Psychiatrists shouldn’t practice amateur psychology from a distance or use their perceived authority to make points driven by their politics. But that seems precisely what psychiatry professor Justin Frank has done twice now, once writing a book declaring W to have been “disturbed,” (meaning he disagreed with Bush’s policies), and now proclaiming that Obama suffers from “father hunger” (meaning he is disappointed that O turned out not to be a liberal messiah). From the US News and World Report story:
The abandonment by his father when he was an infant and by his stepfather at age 10 has left President Obama with a “father hunger” that influences everything from why he distances himself from pushy supporters, to his strong desire to compromise and bring people together, to his aggressive campaign to kill Osama bin Laden, says a psychoanalytic book out next week. In Obama on the Couch, George Washington University professor Justin Frank also reveals that Obama has spent much of his life seeking out father figures, but most, like Rev. Jeremiah Wright and Vice President Biden, have disappointed him. “Obama searched for a father, for someone to relate to who could help him—a strong man who knew what to do,” Frank writes.
Frank appears to have channeled his inner Maureen Dowd:
As for bin Laden, Frank writes that Obama’s inner anger emerged: “He was able to pursue his action against bin Laden in part because bin Laden offered a displacement figure for Obama’s rage toward his own parents.”
Or maybe, he was properly carrying out his solemn duty as president to protect the country by eliminating an implacable enemy that actively sought to attack us again.
Let me make a “diagnosis:” Frank suffers from I should be POTUS instead of a Huffington Post columnist personality disorder, known in the literature as presidentius envius. Ridiculous, I know, but about as valid as his books. Besides, Obama actually suffers from a nasty case of “chronic bad policy promotion syndrome.” But that has nothing to do with his mental health.
