I guess it is true what they say - you have to be crazy to want that job! I wonder how many of these presidents became depressed after becoming president. I just finished John Adams. The description of Jefferson is of a frigging nutcase.
That said, Freud and William Bullitt wrote quite the fascinating psychoanalysis of Wilson: Thomas Woodrow Wilson which was distinctly unfavorable to Professor Wilson. Since I dislike Wilson intensely, I've always enjoyed it. Erik Ericson also did an interesting psychobiography of Luther: Young Man Luther that was very popular back in the '60s and '70s.
My guess is the percentage of professors of psychiatry who qualify as mentally ill is much higher.
Another reason to cast a suspicious eye at this "study". From the accounts of those who knew and observed Nixon privately, he a social drinker not the drunk that his haters like to portray him as.
I think this is kind of like asking what percentage of the American population is criminal. The answer is that most all of us are, because our stuped lawmakers have written so many laws that nobody can move without breaking one. Same thing with mental illness, academics will attribute so many types of behavior to it, that no one can move without being accused of mental illness. For instance, I note that shyness is now categorized as "social phobia."
That being said, I have always thought that the desire to be president indicated a certain degree of mental illness in itself. And if you told me that half the population was mentally ill, I wouldn't be surprised. How else to explain all those people who vote for Democrats?
Didn't read this, but let me guess the party of those they said were mentally ill.
Studies are biased. Forget academia - its all politcal. The agenda is shrouded and hidden. But the results are always the same - dispirited public is driven to believe anything it is told by "experts" and "researchers".
This article is retarded.
There is no way to clinically evaluate someone dead 150 years agao to detemrine if they had a mental illness...and frankly some of the things they describe as mental illness are just absurd. Sleep Apnia? Shyness? Give me a break.
>>>>The study noted among its implications that no national calamities seem to have been a result of presidential mental illness. >>>>
I don't think they can say this. Clinton's insatiable need to be liked and admired casued him to sidestep many important issues and decisions during his time in office, laying the ground work for 9/11 and the continually growing mess in the Middle East.
We still don't know what chaotic situation his prediliction for Chinese flattery (not to mention bribery $$$) will appear to our detriment.
I agree this is all prep work to start their future salvos that Bush is mentally ill and may well lead to a drumbeat that he needs to be impeached and sent away for treatment. For his own good, dontcha know... Gulag anyone????
Pinz
I don't think this is correct. Surely, fewer than 49% of Presidents have been Democrats...?
Since they counted Cleveland twice, does that mean he was diagnosed with schizophrenia? And would that count only once or twice?
If such diagnoses were reliable, there aren't enough psychologists in all of Durham to come up with an explanation for the 42nd President.
When you get right down to it, we're all crazy by some definition. Most of us just keep it to ourselves.
Gotta run, I need to go count the blossoms on my violas. If there's an odd number, I'll have to go to the store and rearrange the shopping carts. Somebody has to do it.
He was an alcoholic, not insane. The doggrel of the time referred to him as The "Hero of a Well Fought Bottle".
Regards, Ivan
Does this suggest that you almost have to be crazy to want the job?
But I thought Nixon was a Quaker and didn't drink!!
(I think the study is nuts!!)
Very common in overweight men, and President Taft was HUGE!
JFK was a sexual deviant. Somehow they failed to mention that in this article too.
I think you have to be nuts to want that job in the first place.