Reply #8: "Bush On The Couch" is a new book about this

[doctorbombeigh]

At least I think it's new. It's applied psychology, a technique shrinks can (and do) use to analyze world leaders for us from a distance. So I saw the guy who wrote it on (of all things) Topic A with Tina Brown, last night. They had him on with Gail Sheehy and Christopher Hitchens.

The shrink focussed on Bush's childhood, his cold, critical mother and absent father. His alcoholism, fanatical religious conversion and extreme exercise regime are (the shrink and Sheehy say) his attempts to deal with a chaotic mind.

A strength he noted was Bush's ability to work with older, stronger men (also noted by Hitchens). He's aware of his inadequacies, to some extent. However, it was also noted (by Sheehy) that he cannot admit to a mistake because he can never be wrong and the "Bush on the Couch" author backed up that analysis. A tendency towards sadism was noted as well.

Anyway, the whole conversation was fascinating, they talked about all kinds of other stuff. I think I'm going to have to order this book.