Psychobamanalysis

By Dr. Brian Russell

When I’m conducting a forensic psychological examination, I ask specific questions, but I’m not just trying to learn what the examinee thinks about specific things.  I’m also trying to get at the foundations of what he/she thinks – his/her beliefs about him/herself and others, about how the world works, how it should work, etc.  I’m also trying to figure out how he/she thinks – for example, whether he/she bases his/her actions more on emotion or on logic.  While I’ve not met President Barack Obama in person, I’ve nevertheless drawn some conclusions based on an examination of his life, particularly his formative experiences, and analysis of his words and behavior on the campaign trail and during his first few months in office.

First, there are aspects of President Obama’s psychology that I think are very admirable.  I wouldn’t go so far as to call him the “First Shrink” as columnist Maureen Dowd recently did, but in general, President Obama seems to me to be highly emotionally-intelligent – to know how to be persuasive by recognizing and appealing to the motivations of others. Unlike many politicians and Americans, I think that Obama knows exactly what he believes and that he thinks about public policy within well-developed philosophical constructs of how societies should be governed. I think he’s principled and that he sincerely believes his policies are right for America.

When it comes to economics, perhaps in part because of the circumstances of his upbringing, I think Obama believes that historical racial and economic inequalities in this country make it incorrect to hold people mostly-personally-responsible for their outcomes in life, either on the upside or the downside. I think he believes that successful Americans owe their success in large part to historical inequalities and that unsuccessful Americans can rightly blame their lack of success in large part on those same historical inequalities. I believe I saw him put those beliefs into practice when he felt unfairly pressured during the campaign, a rare crack in an otherwise well-disciplined public presentation. In a sit-down interview, Bill O’Reilly pressed then-candidate Obama to admit that he was wrong in predicting the failure of the troop surge in Iraq, but instead of taking personal responsibility for that error in judgment, Obama’s first reaction was to state that those who were right about it (e.g. Sen. McCain and President Bush) really couldn’t take any credit because they had essentially just gotten lucky (i.e. that they hadn’t expected the surge to succeed either). Obama of course had no way to know what McCain and Bush had really expected, so that reaction, I think, revealed an underlying tendency in how Obama thinks. I suspect that very strong emotions underlie his beliefs and give rise to a powerful motivation within him to affect what he sees as “justice” – to level what he sees as a historically-skewed playing field. That quest for “social justice” is again a central theme of “Black Liberation Theology,” as preached in often-vituperative fashion by Rev. Jeremiah Wright at Chicago’s Trinity United Church of Christ, which Obama chose to attend for many years. I believe that Obama sympathizes with the reverend’s ideology far more than he let on during the campaign.

When it comes to the role of government in people’s lives, I don’t think that Obama believes there’s any real distinction between society and government. I think he believes they’re one and the same.  In that aforementioned interview with Bill O’Reilly during the campaign, then-candidate Obama actually said that it was “neighborly” for successful people to allow more of their wealth to be redistributed by government. I think that Obama’s real belief is probably an even stronger, broader belief in collective rather than personal responsibility. I don’t just mean a belief in collective responsibility for meeting the needs of each individual citizen. I also mean a belief in collective responsibility for individual behavior. I mean that Obama, I think, is likely to see crime, for example, more as a manifestation of systemic, societal failings rather than personal failings. I think he demonstrated such a belief when he removed the “drug czar” post from his cabinet and announced that his drug policy would focus on “treatment” rather than punishment.

When it comes to the role of the U.S. in the world, I don’t think Obama believes in ”American exceptionalism.” I think he sees the U.S. as one member of an international community in which no member is superior, fundamentally or morally, to any other. In fact, I think he believes that the world would be better off if the U.S. were actually somewhat weaker. I think he believes that it’s time for the U.S. to go the way of Great Britain, once the superpower of the world, still a secure power but no longer in as strong a position to act – other than collectively – to impose its will beyond its borders. In contrast to President Ronald Reagan, who believed in “peace through strength,” I think Obama essentially believes in “peace through weakness.” I even believe that, deep down, Obama sympathizes with the ideals, though importantly NOT the actions, of 60’s radical Bill Ayers more than he let on during the campaign.

While I don’t doubt that President Obama is principled, I believe he’s also somewhat disingenuous. I think he’s smart enough to know that his true philosophies about the role of government vis a vis society and about the role of the U.S. vis a vis the world are not shared by a majority of Americans – not yet at least. Therefore, I think he works hard to sound like a centrist and a pragmatist when, in fact, his thinking is very far left. While I have nothing against the man personally, as an expert in human behavior and how human behavior is regulated and channeled into productivity, I believe that Obama’s honestly-held core beliefs reflect fundamental misunderstandings of human nature and of how to maximize human potential, both individually and collectively (if you’re a regular reader, you know why I think we’re here on this planet and what I think the role of government should be vis a vis the individual). That’s why I think it’s critically important, now more than ever, to understand our president’s core beliefs — if we ever embrace them fully, I believe the U.S.A. will be well on its way to becoming the U.S.S.A.

Dr. Brian Russell is a licensed psychologist, attorney at law and familiar national television pundit on psychological, legal and cultural issues