Obama Is In Denial On Torture (Justin Frank, M.D.)

[pat_k]

The Daily Beast
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-04-26/why-obama-is-in-denial/full/">Why Obama Is in Denial
by Justin Frank
April 26, 2009

The president is doing the American psyche a great disservice by refusing to aggressively push for the prosecution of those who engineered the Bush torture policy. Justin Frank, author of Bush on the Couch: Inside the Mind of the President, says there’s only way to psychologically move forward on the issue of torture: Prosecute the past...

We must prosecute our own war crimes so we can learn about our own passive complicity—otherwise, like my patient, we will torture again, unknowingly, until we recognize both the pleasure we derive from our cruelty and the pain it causes ourselves and others.

It is not enough to simply acknowledge the sadism of Bush’s motives and leave it at that. This is essentially what Obama proposes when he urges reflection but not retribution. He seems to recommend facing facts without experiencing the emotional impact of them. Obama’s reluctance to further pursue the matter is sort of like turning up at a funeral wearing a red dress: one recognizes the death enough to show up, but denies any pain at the occasion. It is perhaps the subtlest way to evade psychic truth.

...In the Bush years, we let others do our sadistic dirty work, and washed our hands of any responsibility. Now the damn spots won’t come out, but they may serve to help us move ahead—soberly, but with renewed self-respect.