Peering Inside Bush's Head

"It's risky to put a politician on the couch, but that has not kept President Bush's critics from charging that he is 'in a state of denial' about the situation in Iraq, as Sen. Harry Reid said last month. The phrase was the title of Bob Woodward's latest book on the war, and in January, USA Today editorialized that Bush is 'in denial about the insurgency that has plunged [Iraq] into civil war.'

"This could all be dismissed as psychobabble, except for one thing. Psychology researchers, including some who advise politicians, have reached the same conclusion. 'I do think there is denial on Bush's part in his running of the war,' says Kerry Sulkowicz, clinical professor of psychiatry at New York University Medical Center. 'He seems unmoved by the extent of the evidence that things are far worse than he believes. The tip-off for denial is perpetual optimism, a pathological certainty that things are going well.'

"Bush could, of course, know full well that the United States cannot achieve its goals in Iraq. If so, then he is lying not to himself but to us (for reasons scientists would have a field day with, but that's another story). But while it's always risky to psychoanalyze a politician from afar, a few things in his past are consistent with the capacity for denial. When he was 7, his baby sister died of leukemia. Bush, while certainly not denying her death, tried to cheer up his grieving mother, saying everything would be OK. Also, those who abuse alcohol, as Bush has admitted doing, typically need to see the world in black and white in order to stay on the wagon. 'It's how they control their addiction,' says Sulkowicz. 'It reflects an inability or refusal to see shades of gray.' . . .

"One thing we all struggle to protect is a positive self-image. 'The more important the aspect of your self-image that's challenged by the truth, the more likely you are to go into denial,' says [psychologist Peter Ditto of the University of California, Irvine.] If you have a strong sense of self-worth and competence, your self-image can take hits but remain largely intact; if you're beset by self-doubt, however, any acknowledgment of failure can be devastating and any admission of error painful to the point of being unthinkable."

It's all very reminiscent of Washington psychoanalyst Justin Frank's 2004 book, Bush on the Couch.

Maureen Dowd, writing in her subscription-required New York Times column, imagines Bush refusing to come out of his Kennebunkport bedroom: "'I miss Albania!' W. wails. 'They know how to treat a president there. Women were kissing me and men rubbed my hair. The crowd kept yelling, "Bushie!," and they almost grabbed the watch right off my wrist trying to get at me.'"

Andrew Ward writes in the Financial Times: "As President George W. Bush told the story of Cory Endlich, a 23-year-old from Ohio, who died in Iraq this month, his voice cracked and his chin quivered.

"'Cory was an Ohio boy who wanted to join the army so badly that his dad let him start training his senior year of high school,' he told an audience in Rhode Island on Thursday.

"As he struggled to maintain his composure, there was no doubting Mr Bush's anguish about the soldier's death. But the show of emotion may also have reflected the strain of what has been one of the worst weeks of his presidency."

Ken Herman writes for Cox News Service: "He's still a healthy guy and his blood pressure, weight, vision and cholesterol levels have remained consistently good since he came to Washington from the governor's office in Austin (though he somehow has lost a half-inch in height). But despite the rosy annual medical reports, photos (at least undoctored ones) don't lie. President Bush, as presidents do, has aged in office. Gone, a victim of the passage of time and the worries of war, is the boyish-faced, dark-haired new kid in town. In his place is a president, turning 61 on Friday, with the signs of age that no amount of mountain biking can prevent."

Losing His Mojo

Sheryl Gay Stolberg writes in the New York Times: "After a string of Republican defections this week -- on Iraq, immigration and domestic eavesdropping -- President Bush enters the final 18 months of his presidency in danger of losing control over a party that once marched in lockstep with him. . . .

"After years of demanding that Republicans work in service of his agenda, the president has 'very little good will stored up,' said Calvin C. Jillson, a political scientist at Southern Methodist University in Texas, Mr. Bush's home state.