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It’s
All In The Mind - A Psychiatrist’s Take On The
‘08 Presidential Race
Submitted By:
Russell Razzaque
McCain’s anger is well
known, but it’s understanding what led to it
that really helps you predict where it might
take him. Similarly, we are all familiar with
Hillary’s do-anything-to-win persona, but only
when we learn what fuels it can we understand
its power and, therefore, her ultimate fate.
This is an understanding that I have gained
through a year of study, and that’s what my book
is all about.
Clinton’s recent fanning of the flames around
Obama’s pastor controversy is, I believe, a good
example of an increasingly prominent aspect of
her psyche: her self destruct button. The media
strung the story out for all it was worth, and
Clinton was benefiting nicely by sitting on the
sidelines, but she couldn’t resist wading in,
thereby deflecting a swathe of the unfavorable
attention back on herself, and the increasingly
evident scorched earth policy of her campaign.
I
predict that the heat on Obama from both sides
will get a lot worse before it gets better, but
the “plague on both your houses” nature of these
drives spouting forth from both Clinton and
McCain (more Clinton at the moment), will
ultimately undermine their own candidacies.
Nothing, of course, is guaranteed in politics
but Obama’s position is certainly stronger – not
just politically or statistically, but
psychologically. Obama’s uncertainty around his
background and fractured identity seems to have
practically forced him to undergo a journey of
inner reconciliation and exploration during his
formative years. This has left him with a degree
of self awareness that is rare in a politician,
and that’s why so many people who have not been
involved in politics before have been drawn to
him. We may well be in store for a profound
renewal on many levels, the likes of which
global politics rarely sees.
The
words “watch this space” have never been more
apt.
Please note: These, and other conclusions I
write about, have arisen out of extensive
research that I carried out into the backgrounds
of the main Presidential contenders. As a
practicing psychiatrist I do recognize of course
that, given these people are not my patients and
I have never sat them on my couch, a full
therapeutic analysis may not be possible.
Nevertheless, with these public figures (as with
others whose analysis I have published), I have
a wealth of material that a clinician might
otherwise lack. The volume of information –
current and past – available on each candidate
in the public domain, given the nature of
today’s hungry 24 hour news media, is vast. I am
also able to do something I can’t do with my own
patients, and that is to observe them in the
outside world; in a variety of settings.
Studying all of these windows has lead me to
some very firm conclusions about how each
candidate’s mind works, and from that I have
started making predictions about how their
campaigns (and, one day, their Presidency) might
pan out.
That’s what my latest book, and the website
www.shrinkingpolitics.com is all about. It’s not
a new concept – in fact the CIA have utilised
these methods for years to analyse foreign
leaders – but bringing it out into the political
punditocracy in this way, is. It’s for anyone to
contribute, and hopefully it’ll act as a
dialogue between interested people so that
together we can gain a better understanding of
those who would be our leaders.
Worth
doing, don’t you think?
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