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Today's
Stories
February 14/15, 2004
Stan Goff
Beloved Haiti
February 13, 2004
Alan Maass
Kevin
Cooper's Fight to Live
Karyn Strickler
McCarthyism in the Sierra Club
Annie Higgins
On
a Street in America
Adam Federman
Democratic Snipers Target Nader
Mike Whitney
George W. Faces the Nation
Brian Cloughley
Our Imperial Leader Has Spoken
Website of the Day
Lying Action Figure Doll
February 12, 2004
Ray McGovern
George
Tenet's Spin Cycle
Robert Jensen
Bush's
Nuclear Hypocrisy
Saul Landau
Elegy to the Salton Sea
February
11, 2004
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
Hail, Kerry: Senator Facing-Both-Ways
Steve Perry
Bush
v. Bush?
February
10, 2004
Kurt
Nimmo
Inquisition in Iowa
Ron Jacobs
Politics and the Beatles: Don't
You Know You Can Count Me Out (In)
Elizabeth
Schulte
The Many Faces of John Kerry
Mickey
Z
Meet the Oxmans: "The Rich
Shouldn't Sleep at Night Either"
February
9, 2004
Michael
Donnelly
Will Skull and Bones Really Change
CEOs? Inside John Kerry's Closet
Chris Floyd
Smells Like Team Spirit: the Bush
B-Boys Replay Their Greatest Hits
Bill
Christison
What's Wrong with the CIA?
Dr. Susan
Block
Janet Jackson's Mammary Moment:
Boob Tube Super Bowl
February
7/8, 2004
Kathleen
Christison
Offending Valerie: Dealing with
Jewish Self-Absorption
Jeff Ballinger
No Sweat Shopping
Dave
Lindorff
Spray and Pray in Iraq: a Marine
in Transit
Alexander
Cockburn
McNamara: the Sequel
February
6, 2004
Ron
Jacobs
Are the Kurds in the Way?
Joanne
Mariner
Anita Bryant's Legacy
Saul
Landau
Happiness and Botox
Kurt Nimmo
Horror Non-fiction: A How-To Guide
from Perle and Frum
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
The Real Intelligence Failure:
Our Own
February
5, 2004
Benjamin
Shepard
Turning NYC into a Patriot Act Free
Zone
Khury
Petersen-Smith
A Report from Occupied Iraq: "We Don't Want Army USA"
Mokhiber
/ Weissman
The 10 Worst Corporations of 2003
Teresa
Josette
The Exeuctioner's Pslam? Christian Nation? Yeah, Right
David Krieger
Why Dr. King's Message on Vietnam is Relevant to Iraq
Christopher
Brauchli
Monkey Business: Of Recess and Evolution in Georgia Schools
Norman
Solomon
The Deadly Lies of Reliable Sources
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
Presenting President Edwards!
February
4, 2004
Brian
McKinlay
Bush's Australian Deputy: Howard's
Last Round Up?
Mark
Gaffney
Ariel Sharon's Favorite Senator: Ron Wyden and Israel
Judith
Brown
Palestine and the Media
Frederick
B. Hudson
Moseley-Braun and the Butcher: Campaign for Justice or Big Oil's
Junta?
Kurt Nimmo
Bush's Independent Commission: Exonerating
the Spooks
M.
Junaid Alam
Philly School Workers Fight for Fair Contract
Fran Shor
Whose Boob Tube?
Kevin
Cooper
This is Not My Execution and I Will Not Claim It
February
3, 2004
Alan
Maass
The
Dems' New Mantra: What They Really Mean by "Electability"
Nick
Halfinger
How the Other Half Lives: Embedded
in Iraq
Rahul
Mahajan
Our True Intelligence Failure
Neve Gordon
The Only Democracy in the Middle East?
Laura
Carlsen
Mexico: Two Anniversaries; Two Futures
Terry
Lodge
An Open Letter to Michael Powell from the Boobs & Body Parts
Fairness Campaign
Hammond
Guthrie
Investigating the Meaningless
Website
of the Day
Waging Peace
February
2, 2004
Gary
Leupp
The Buddhist Nun in Tom Ridge's Jail
Justin
E.H. Smith
The Manners of Their Deaths: Capital Punishment in a Smoke-Free
Environment
Tom
Wright
The Prosecution of Captain Yee
Winslow
Wheeler
Inside the Bush Defense Budget
Lee Ballinger
Janet Jackson's Naked Truth
Leonard
Pitts, Jr
For Blacks, the Game of Justice is
Rigged
Jeffrey
St. Clair
The Hollow Candidate:
The Trouble with Howard Dean
Website
of the Day
Resistance:
In the Eye of the American Hegemon
Jan. 31 / Feb 1, 2004
Paul
de Rooij
For Whom the Death Tolls: Deliberate
Undercounting of Coalition Fatalities
Bernard
Chazelle
Bush's Desolate Imperium
Jack
Heyman
Bushfires on the Docks
Christopher
Reed
Broken Ballots
Michael
Donnelly
An Urgent Plea to Progressives: Don't Give in to Fear
Rob Eshelman
The Subtle War
Lee
Sustar
Palestine and the Anti-War Movement
George
Bisharat
Right of Return
Ray
McGovern
Nothing to Preempt
Brian Cloughley
Enron's Beady-Eyed Sharks
Conn
Hallinan
Nepal, Bush & Real WMDs
Kurt Nimmo
The Murderous Lies of the Neo-Cons
Phillip
Cryan
Media at the Monterrey Summit
Christopher
Brauchli
A Speech for Those Who Don't Read
John
Holt
War in the Great White North
Mickey
Z.
Clueless in America: When Mikey Met Wesley
Mark
Scaramella
The High Cost of Throwing Away the Key
Tariq Ali
Farewell, Munif
Ben
Tripp
Waiter! The Reality Check, Please
Poets'
Basement
LaMorticella, Guthrie, Thomas and Albert
January 30, 2004
Saul
Landau
Cuba High on Neo-Con Hit List
Michael
Donnelly
Bush's Second Front: The War in
the Woods
Elaine
Cassel
Worse Than Jacko: Child Abuse at Gitmo
David Vest
More Halliburton News, Brought to You by Halliburton
Mike
Whitney
The Kay Report: Still Defending Aggression
David
Miller
The Hutton Whitewash
Sam
Husseini
How Many People Must Die Because of This "Mistake",
Senator Kerry?
January 29, 2004
Patricia
Nelson Limerick
John Ehrlichman, Environmentalist
Ron
Jacobs
Homeland Security and "Legalized"
Immigration
Rahul Mahajan
New Hampshire v. Iraq
Greg
Weiher
Bush Calls for Preemptive Strike on
Moon and Mars
Norman
Solomon
The State of the Media Union
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
Does NH Mean Anything?
January
28, 2004
Kathy
Kelly
Bearing Witness Against Teachers of
Torture and Assassination
Hot Stories
Alexander Cockburn
Behold,
the Head of a Neo-Con!
Subcomandante Marcos
The
Death Train of the WTO
Norman Finkelstein
Hitchens
as Model Apostate
Steve Niva
Israel's
Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings?
Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians
Steve
J.B.
Prison Bitch
Sheldon
Rampton and John Stauber
True Lies: the Use of Propaganda
in the Iraq War
Wendell
Berry
Small Destructions Add Up
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
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Weekend
Edition
February 14/15, 2004
The Politics of Narcissism
America's
Grandiose Persona Under Bush
By PETER WOLSON, Ph.D
As the death toll of American soldiers rises daily
in Iraq, Democratic presidential contenders are attacking President
Bush's policy of unilateral preemption and urging him to share
post-war responsibilities with the international community. But
the Bush administration appears reluctant to relinquish control.
Instead, while aggrandizing American superiority and pursuing
a policy of global intimidation, it has been displaying contempt
for international collaboration and trumpeting its isolationism.
Under the Bush presidency, could it be that the face of America
has begun to look like a narcissistic personality disorder?
What are the traits of this syndrome?
How have they been reflected in the Bush administration, and
what are their implications for the 2004 presidential election?
A display of grandiosity
and superiority
A narcissistic display of grandiosity
usually compensates for a sense of vulnerability and helplessness.
Clearly, 9/11 made Americans feel extremely vulnerable and, consequently,
perhaps, willing to accept President Bush's grandiose policy
of unilateral preemption without much protest. As outlined by
neocons Richard Perl and Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz
years before 9/11, this strategy expresses the superior attitude
that the United States, as the most powerful country on earth,
has the right to forcibly remove the leaders of other nations
who are judged to pose a threat to American security, and impose
its democratic form of government upon them. As President Bush
recently told Tim Russert on Meet the Press, he reserves the
right to wage war to achieve these goals without having to consult
with the international community.
Arrogantly, President Bush railed against
the slow pace at which the United Nations conducted its search
for Saddam's weapons of mass destruction (WMD), ignored protests
from the international community and proceeded to attack Iraq.
Since the war, he has been accused by domestic and international
critics alike of engaging in American imperialism, and the rationale
for the war is now under intense scrutiny.
Grandiosity was also reflected in the
Bush administration's mistaken belief that the Iraqis, after
thousands of years of living under authoritarian governance,
would heartily welcome the American liberators and the chance
to establish a democracy. Instead, American soldiers were generally
greeted with resentment and daily, homicidal terrorist attacks.
The anticipation of a joyous welcome was a narcissistic projection
of the Bush administration's idealized, egocentric belief system
and reflected a lack of empathy for a different culture.
A profound distrust
and avoidance of dependency often accompanied by contempt for
others
A narcissistic personality fears that
dependency poses the threat of feeling weak, humiliated and dominated
by the other. In an increasingly interdependent socioeconomic
world, the Bush administration seems to fear that involvement
with other countries places the United States in a position to
be controlled and exploited by them. Its contempt for participation
in the United Nations and even NATO is used to defend America
against this vulnerable, dependent position.
A conviction that
it is "a dog eat dog world," one can only trust one's
self, and a predilection for "splendid isolation".
Since dependency is psychologically dangerous,
the only one the narcissist can trust is himself. The Bush administration
seems to believe that the United States can only rely upon itself.
The guiding principle of unilateral preemption is: "Do unto
others before they can do unto you." Thus, the rationale
for President Bush's preemptive attack against an "imminently
threatening" Saddam Hussein.
Ironically, after 9/11 there was an outpouring
of empathy for the United States from France, Germany and the
world community at large. But instead of capitalizing on this
international support, the Bush Administration's distrust of
others has led to a detachment from other nations.
The grandiose idealization of "going
it alone," certainly appeals to the masculine Western tradition
of America's rugged individualism. But when taken to the extreme
of a lone gunslinger, fighting the "evildoers" who
are "wanted dead or alive," it smacks of defensive
grandiosity. As a result of its isolationism, the Bush administration
now has to face the responsibility of American soldiers dying
daily from terrorist attacks with few international troops to
relieve this tragic burden.
A dominating, exploitative use of
others, and an inclination to use or ignore the law as it suits
one's own purposes
It appears that the Bush administration
will engage with other nations only when it is dominant and able
to use them for self-serving needs. Thus, it is willing to ask
other countries for soldiers and equipment, as long as it can
retain control of Iraq rather than share decision-making power
in Iraq's rebuilding. This is in contrast to a more mature form
of international collaboration in which giving and taking among
nations is on an egalitarian, mutually respectful basis. Recently
asking the United Nations for help with Iraq's elections is far
too little, too late.
As for observing the law, the Bush administration
ignored the UN's mandate to continue looking for weapons of mass
destruction before using force, by preemptively attacking Iraq.
Yet it was critical of leaders, like Saddam Hussein, who defied
UN mandates.
Moreover, it justified the war as necessary
to safeguard the United States against Saddam's alleged WMDs,
although these have not been found. Increasingly, it appears
that the President deceptively used this rationale to attack
Iraq for other reasons, as suggested by former Bush Treasury
Secretary Paul O'Neill who also accused the Administration of
lying. In addition, awarding lucrative contracts to firms, like
Halliburton, with which both the Bush family and Vice-President
Cheney have been intimately involved, raises questions of self-serving
exploitation.
A reliance upon revenge
in retaliation for injuries to self-esteem.
Various pundits have speculated that
that the Administration's leak of the CIA identity of Ambassador
Joseph Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, as well as the Treasury
Department's investigation of Paul O'Neill immediately following
his "60 Minutes" interview, were acts of revenge for
their embarrassing disclosures against the Bush administration.
Others have conjectured that the war
against Iraq was mainly an act of revenge for Saddam's assassination
attempt against the first President Bush.
Thus, President Bush's administration,
with its America uber alles superiority, has increasingly
insulted and alienated America's allies. This has fostered a
hostile international climate that has made these countries reluctant
to help us and may eventually breed more terrorism. With so many
issues at stake in the 2004 Presidential election, the one that
influences all the rest is whether we want the face of America
to look like a bully masking vulnerability through exploitative
domination. In light of the United States' sense of vulnerability
since 9/11 and President Bush's popularity, could this intimidating,
grandiose persona be America's new ideal?
Peter Wolson, Ph. D., is a Training and Supervising Psychoanalyst
and former President and Riector of Training at The Los Angeles
Institute and Society for Psychoanalytic Studies. He has a private
practice in Beverly Hills. He can be reached at: peterwolson@earthlink.net
Weekend
Edition Features for February 1, 2004
Paul
de Rooij
For Whom the Death Tolls: Deliberate
Undercounting of Coalition Fatalities
Bernard
Chazelle
Bush's Desolate Imperium
Jack
Heyman
Bushfires on the Docks
Christopher
Reed
Broken Ballots
Michael
Donnelly
An Urgent Plea to Progressives: Don't Give in to Fear
Rob Eshelman
The Subtle War
Lee
Sustar
Palestine and the Anti-War Movement
George
Bisharat
Right of Return
Ray
McGovern
Nothing to Preempt
Brian Cloughley
Enron's Beady-Eyed Sharks
Conn
Hallinan
Nepal, Bush & Real WMDs
Kurt Nimmo
The Murderous Lies of the Neo-Cons
Phillip
Cryan
Media at the Monterrey Summit
Christopher
Brauchli
A Speech for Those Who Don't Read
John
Holt
War in the Great White North
Mickey
Z.
Clueless in America: When Mikey Met Wesley
Mark
Scaramella
The High Cost of Throwing Away the Key
Tariq Ali
Farewell, Munif
Ben
Tripp
Waiter! The Reality Check, Please
Poets'
Basement
LaMorticella, Guthrie, Thomas and Albert
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