Enough of the political analysis, it's time for the psychoanalysis...
It’s not that political analysis does not have a place in the deliberations and discourse of current issues and events. For me, political analysis is simply not a comprehensive discussion of the actual micro and macro behavioral phenomena we spend so much time and energy brooding over. It leaves me and most others wanting. It’s like the proverbial 800 pound gorilla, everybody knows there is more to it, but no one is sure how to discuss it. For me, a modest young psychoanalyst who is used to thinking about gorilla’s, it’s difficult to let these observations stand without compulsively blurting them out. Lets take as an example, the sorry story of my hero Hillary Clinton.
For some time now I have been struck by what I see as outright disparity in the coverage of Senator Clinton as compared to her opponents. Even before this recent run, I have noticed in the past years a vitriolic hatred toward her by some that was hard to understand. Has Hillary Clinton done anything so horrible as to deserve this passionate display? I used to ask people... “what is it about Hillary you object to? Why don’t you like her?” There were various answers but few appeared substantive. Most answers I encountered were vague and weird like, “I can’t believe she went back with Bill” or “she’s too cold, she has no heart.” For some, these attributes may be basis enough to disqualify her from considering her for public office. I find these explanations lacking. That may simply be a preference issue however, it does not explain the passionate hatred I observe in these Hillary haters. I get the feeling there is something more to this story.
One of the first things we notice as psychoanalysts are distortions. When a reaction appears in congruent to an incident or event, and there is a certain amount of subjectivity involved in this obviously, when it appears to be bigger than you would expect, it’s usually fueled or enhanced by something deep in the subconscious.
I plan to spend some time analyzing, what I am going to tentatively call, the dominant female effect. This effect I propose, is a common reaction people have to a strong woman figure. In my view, it’s etiology is well explained using a Freudian and neo-Freudian psychoanalytic theoretical framework.
Stay tuned for further explorations of the Dominant Female Effect.
Comments and feed back welcomed.
8 comments:
ok here's just the latest example of a Clinton move that I consider to be too low to vote for. Her camp is trying to say obama has ties to domestic terrorists, because he received a donation 6 years ago and has met once with bill ayers (one of the members of the weather underground). My problem with this is the members of the w.u. have apologized for their mistakes long long ago, and more importantly, bill Clinton himself pardoned members of the w.u.
yet still the Clinton camp will try anything to full the public into believing obama is tied to terrorism. Maybe even a little racist?! (about his Muslim sounding name that is)
-Scott
Obama is a great speaker. Unfortunatelly, his work in the Illinois legislature and in the US Congress doesn't show much effort. He appears to be a man who would rather talk than work.We have all worked with people like that. We need to elect a person who is willing to work, and work hard, to clean up the mess in Washington.
Im interested in hearing your full explanation but so far I agree with u. Her Nomination is very much a question of Peoples Mental Reaction to her. But so is every President. Playing to a national Crowd is very difficult.
mtrebilcock,
i'd question how you get the impression that Obama is a man that would rather talk than work? Just because he is a good speaker does not mean that he doesn't have a history of action as well. he certainly has passed important legislation as a senator and state senator (videotaping interrogations, collecting loose nukes, and ethics reform to name just a few). and i assume we all know that there is more there as well. a laundry list of every bill that a candidate passes never sells in a speech or on the news, so that's why you'd have to look for that info (for either candidate, it's not like clinton's senate achievements are at the top of most voters minds). Also Obama's whole history is one of action. to go from a single parent/biracial upbringing to an ivy league education. and then to take that golden ticket and move on to community organizing, and being a law professor at Harvard (with a specialization in International Law, Constitutional Law, and Setting Public Policy), then to go on to state and national Senate is not exactly a lasy all-talk life.
hopefully i'm not an irritant on this blog. i'm just trying to give a balanced view. my opinion is let's steer clear of the cartoons of these candidates. Hillary's not a cold calculating b*tch, and obama's not a no-experienced fast talker.
-scott
I welcome your comments Mr S and hope that we can all have a civilized debate of the issues. However I would like to clarify... my point in analyzing these current phenomena is not to convince you or anyone else to change their minds about their choices. I am only interested in how we can understand what is happening and why. And by the way, the muslim picture was not concretly connected to Hillary's camp. But it's interesting that you immediately ascribe nepharious intentions on her part... Hmm. Fodder for my next blog??
umm...did i say anything about the muslim picture?
maybe YOU should look into how you halucinated that i mentioned that photo.
Scott, I never said Obama was lazy. He is a talented, ambitious man who has worked hard to get to where he is. When he first appeared on the scene, I thought he had a great future as soon as he became more experienced in the way of national politics. His ambition overtook him, though.
Scott. I stand corrected. My own exuberance had overtaken me. For the record, I am corrected. I can not speak on this w.u. thing because i didn't hear about it. I did however hear about that photo thing and how Hill was taking heat for it. She denies having anything to do with it though.
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