In fact, Facebook is very close to an intel tool for creating profiles, except whereas in the past people had to use the secret police or interrogations to gain data for such profiles, now people just fill it in on their own.

I was going to say that we know from declassified sources that the KGB employed mental health professionals to identify potential agents (lost in the gays in the military debate was the fact that the KGB didn’t primarily look for people they could blackmail but rather enthusiastic turncoats they wouldn’t have to blackmail) and to figure out what makes foreign leaders tick. What buttons they can push; how to get inside their heads.

I know from historical sources the USN did much the same thing during WWII; the results of these studies can be seen in the works of naval historians. For instance, the USN compiled a dossier on VADM Tamon Yamaguchi, commander of the IJN’s 2nd Carrier Division consisting of Hiryu and Soryu at Pearl Harbor and Midway where he essentially killed himself. He had attended Princeton between 1921 and 1923 and the Navy had officers and other alumni give their impressions and evaluations of him. Which is why I didn’t say he studied at Princeton because he was widely described as was much more interested in drinking, womanizing, gambling, horses, and playing polo.

I do not know if the USN (or the government at large) employed psychiatrists or psychologists to evaluate these people, or if they do so to evaluate leaders now since my job was to analyze the operational capabilities of foreign forces. But I do see indications in Putin’s actions, statements, writings, etc. that the Russians have not given up on the practice.

And I strongly suspect that Putin believes he could drive Obama to the breaking point. Not that he would do it. He’d much rather have Obama over a barrel. Part of that, as I see it, is to give Obama hints that he knows how take Obama apart.

I think we mostly agree in our evaluations of Obama; you see a bit more knave in him than I do, I see a bit more fool than you do. My assessment is that he’s closer to a psychotic break than you do, certainly closer than he was a year ago, although I readily admit he may never get to that point. I also don’t think his personal defenses, his own emotional control is as strong as you seem to believe. I think he’s always been protected by people, so that he’s never had to develop those internal defenses to the degree he needs now as President. That’s one of the drawbacks of rising rapidly through the Democratic party ranks. He’s not exactly seasoned. His defensive ring of sycophantic worshipers are his primary defense, not his own ability to control his emotions.

They act like a pressure regulator; they automatically reduce the amount of reality that intrudes into Obama’s bubble to a level he can deal with. Nobody would have to tell anyone in his inner circle to order CENTCOM to doctor the intel, for instance. They’d know to do it on their own.

It appears to me, though, that too many things are coming to a head at this point in time. Events have long been out of hand, but not to this degree. Not even his inner circle may be able to protect Obama from sufficient amounts of reality to the point where Obama’s internal defenses won’t be overwhelmed.

“…The article goes on to describe what can happen if these mechanisms fail to adequately protect the narcissist. What can follow is not pretty, and can include severe depression leading to self-destructive behaviors such as drug addiction and suicide, and/or psychotic breaks. Short of that, though (and I don’t think Obama is even close to reaching that point) , the other defenses work, albeit shakily.

Doesn’t this explain a lot? The last paragraph of the quote in particular certainly explains why Obama wouldn’t even do something as simple as a border photo-op during his trip to Texas, something that on balance probably would have scored political points, even though it would have put him on the spot in other ways. Obama would much rather surround himself with rich admirers, smiling and patting him on the back and getting out their checkbooks to give him vast sums of money.

Right now, to the rest of the world he is saying a big FU. At this point, his very equanimity may depend on shielding himself from too much exposure to reality, and the sycophantic worshipers who advise him agree.”

I know that psychologists and psychiatrists will usually say that it’s a form of malpractice to conduct long-distance analysis, but I was a naval intelligence officer for 20 years and I do know from declassified sources that foreign intelligence services such as the KGB employed psychiatrists to do exactly that.

“”

“ As someone with a degree in family therapy you’re far closer to being a psychoanalyst then I’ll ever be.

She didn’t do much psychoanalysis from the talks we’ve had before…”

I never claimed she did any psychoanalysis at all. I said that as a family therapist she is closer to being a psychoanalyst than I’ll ever be. Not that she is a psychoanalyst.

She didn’t do much psychoanalysis from the talks we’ve had before.

The best analysts for humans and what makes them tick, from what my experience tells me, are con men and interrogators. The latter would be human lie detectors and the former would be con artists and propagandists.

As for whether Hussein will cook off or not, I suspect that is why Valerie Jarret and his czars exist. He plays golf so many times. Why? Because he might explode if he had to do an actual job with actual stress on it. So he delegates it to his henchmen, like a villain would. Then when the henchie fails, he castigates and punishes the henchie, as a villain would, and makes himself feel superior to the other monkey that poo poo flows downhill on.

It’s not all that rare at higher corporate circles for incompetent bosses to act like that, and that’s for ‘normal’ narcissists, not malignant ones.

The field of psychoanalysis is dominated by the Leftist alliance and its 1000 Hydra head membership. People like Neo Neo or Dr Sanity, are rarities in the field. What that means is that for people like me who sought out the forbidden knowledge of “what makes people tick”, the answers could only be truly found in independent sources. Independent of the Left at least.

I think they’re just noticing what was always in evidence.

Obama has always been detached from reality, going all the way back to lots of things he said during his 2008 campaign. It has always been jarring to listen to him (at least, since I’ve been listening to him, which started in 2007), and his behavior has long been odd. Remember his giving the finger, as well as the brush off? And all those things about knowing more about foreign policy because he visited Pakistan as a college student? Or that he’s a better everything than anybody working for him?

Some of those are crass, and the rest are deluded (that is, if you don’t see that there is also strategy behind them). The thing is, lots of people used to think nothing of it. They thought him cool, competent, composed, and agreed about his superior brain and abilities. Some people are alarmed at what’s been happening lately in the world—the obvious chaos and disorder and loss of US influence—and that’s why they’ve suddenly noticed Obama’s rambling, his denial, his failure to take responsibility, his out-of-touchness with reality. But none of those things are the least bit new. There has been no change.

I do believe that Obama is not only a very controlled person, but that he’s a very consistent one. It’s the world around him that sees him differently now (at least, some people do).

I respect your judgement on this. As someone with a degree in family therapy you’re far closer to being a psychoanalyst then I’ll ever be.

Still, it may well be true that an EU diplomat approached John Schindler and let it slip that his government has concerns over Obama’s mental health.

And I’ve been hearing various people react with concern to what they saw in that 60 minutes interview. The WaPo’s Ingnatious called it weird. Others have had reactions to it ranging from disturbing to alarming.

Obama came across as detached from reality (Eli Lake, former senior national security correspondent for Newsweek and the Daily Beast and currently a columnist for Bloomberg View as well as a contributor to several other news outlets, said the same about Obama’s recent UN speech as well), testy, rambling, and irrational.

So perhaps words like meltdown or crack up or going over the edge are overly dramatic. But Obama hasn’t acquitted himself well in his recent public appearances. And it does have some people wondering, “Is this man OK, or was he just having a really bad day?”

It he was having a bad day, he’s been stringing quite a few of them together. I think the answer is he’s not OK. Maybe nothing dramatic will happen, but if he continues to have “bad days” more people may start questioning his executive and managerial competence but his mental competence as well.

Seems like this debate was softball and the GOP debate was baseball.

That was my initial reaction to that, as well. But there might be something in this different take on it over at Vox:

One of Sanders’s most important moments in the debate – his defense of Clinton and criticism of the media over the email issue – was generally scored by pundits as a victory for Clinton. My colleague Ezra Klein, for instance, suggested it showed Sanders didn’t have the instinct for the jugular that will be necessary to take down the frontrunner.

But to Democratic voters, it could also speak to Sanders’s character, and mark him as a different kind of politician, who’s not interested in negative campaigning. Indeed, Fox News’s focus group wildly praised Sanders for this – it was their favorite moment in the entire debate.

Obama is a profound narcissist and an angry man. However—and it’s a big however—he has developed his emotional control to a fine art. I see the chances of his cracking up as near zero. His ability to distance himself from his own failures (that is, what others see as failures) is strong and protective as well as effective. In this post I explained how it works, and I believe his protective systems are very much intact and will remain so.