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The Spectacle Blog
From time to time, you come across articles or studies which argue that conservatism is steeped in mental illness or a byproduct of so-called authoritarian personality. Last summer, this academic drivel was extended to the Tea Party.
Today, Dr. Justin Frank, a clinical professor in the Department of Psychiatry at George Washington University Medical Center in D.C., penned an article in Time arguing the Tea Party fears contamination:
The fear-based purism of the Tea Party brings to mind the developmental phase we see in toddlers who insist on keeping separate the different foods on their dinner plate; in their quest fo certainty, a fleck of green parsley in their plain spaghetti will ruin the entire meal. The extremist drive for political absolutism is driven by a similar fear of contamination.
On a different psychological level we see a fear of being force fed - that the mother or father is going to make the child eat the spaghetti despite that speck of parsley. This perspective equates compromise with surrender, a recent theme in primary races with Tea Party candidates. Recently, Indiana Republicans defeated long-time stalwart senator Richard Lugar in favor of a man who promised never to compromise with any Democrat. Texas Tea Party Senate candidate ran ads portraying his Republican opponent as a “moderate”, meaning he’s someone willing to work across the aisle.
This anxiety is also expressed in adulthood as the fear of having to mix with people who are different from self. A high percentage of Tea Party extremists to whom (Alan) Simpson refers still can’t accept someone as different from them as Obama as their president. And what goes far beyond a simple bit of parsley is that Obama is experienced as a living, breathing contaminant that threatens to force-feed his other-ness down the throat of America.
Fear-based purism? Tea Party extremists? It’s not exactly the kind of detached, sober clincial analysis that one would expect of a psychiatrist. If Dr. Frank likens Indiana Republicans who voted for Dick Mourdock over Dick Lugar to children who refuse to eat spaghetti because of a speck of parsley then what of Democrats in Connecticut who jettisoned Joe Lieberman in favor of Ned Lamont a few years back? Or for that matter Texas Democrats who yesterday dumped longtime Congressman Silvestre Reyes? Indeed, it would seem that Dr. Frank is projecting his own biases and prejudices towards a group of people with whom he disagrees.
Speaking of biases and prejudices, Dr. Frank makes the not so subtle suggestion that Tea Partiers dislike President Obama because of the color of his skin (i.e. “the fear of having to mix with people who are different from self”). That Dr. Frank would make such a statement tells me that he has never met a Tea Partier in his life.
It would be great if a local Tea Party group were to invite Dr. Frank to join them for a spaghetti dinner with all the parsley he wants. That is if he’s willing to break bread. I wouldn’t want Dr. Frank to feel contaminated in the presence of Tea Partiers.
LiveFreeOrDie| 5.30.12 @ 7:19PM
The left has consistently accused others of their own behavior, nothing new here. The hypocrisy is nevertheless astounding.
Occam's Tool| 5.30.12 @ 8:05PM
OK, Dr. Frank:
One should NEVER extrapolate psychiatric diagnosis about PEOPLE YOU HAVEN'T SEEN and evaluated in person or by Telepsychiatry. That's garbage pail work. Note that when I estimated Obama's IQ, I said it was a rough estimate based on my observations of his speech on TV, and to make a true diagnosis one must see the patient in person?
You, Dr. Frank, are the type of meandering academic idiot that give clinicians like myself a bad name. We do not spin fairy tales in Psychiatry, true psychiatry. We examine people, get labs if necessary, and attempt to isolate and explain specific symptoms and syndromes that are incapacitating and require treatment. That's my lifework.
Yours, apparently, is to make a laughing stock of my necessary and useful profession. (Don't believe me? Check out the number of Presidential and Congressional assassins or would be assassins that were mentally ill.) I despise you for it.
And that, folks, is why I did NOT train at GWU, but have a superstar medical center on my Residency certificate: UCLA. Check out where UCLA ranks among American med schools sometime.
LiveFreeOrDie| 5.30.12 @ 8:42PM
I say it's worse Occam. Is he not casting his political 'diagnosis' on an entire group of people versus an individual? Is this not simply bigotry or at the least, stereotyping?
Albert Constantine Jr.| 5.31.12 @ 9:21AM
OT;
Perhaps some day, as LFOD implies, you should write a bit about the phenomenon of projection, and the implications of the stability of those (such as the Left) who habitually indulge in it.
One Mediator 1 Tim. 2:5. | 5.31.12 @ 1:38PM
Occam,
As a Christian (by His Grace and mercy only and utterly undeserving), I know that ultimate healing of the psyche comes only from the Spirit of God that comes to dwell in the hearts of them that receive Him.
But I also know that the good doctors like you that are out there also do the Lord's work in trying to help people, according to what you've been taught about the human psyche, its tendencies and extremes, etc.
It's clear to me that your profession has its good purpose, and that you are one of its best practitioners.
Some docs out there like to give drugs to people for no good purpose, but you don't seem to be one of them.
One Mediator 1 Tim. 2:5. | 5.31.12 @ 2:16PM
And it's me, Margie, Occam. I'm not trying to hide as some have accused, but have chosen a new handle, as some others who accuse me of being false have also done.
God bless.
AllAmericanAmerican| 5.31.12 @ 9:23AM
I ain't a psychiatrist or a psychologist but I think the good doctor is engaging in a little bit of "projection." This is a common trait of your average Americanus Leftus Libtardicus.
Nancy in NC| 5.31.12 @ 9:30AM
Another example of the small minds and small ideas of the liberals, plus a dose of meanness thrown in for good measure.
Principles are lost on the libs for they change as the wind blows. They have rewritten history to suit their narrative, but the truth be told, we would be better served to a strict following of the law of the land, the Constitution. Their liberal ideas if continued will lead to the death of this country. We are in our dying throes already.
One Mediator 1 Tim. 2:5. | 5.31.12 @ 1:40PM
The Left and "liberal" lukewarm so-called Christians do the same thing towards Bible believing Christians.
Accusations of falsehood and mental derangement are par for their course.
Nothing ever changes with the tactics on the Left.
Oldefarte| 5.31.12 @ 3:48PM
This Doctor Frank is entirely correct, since tea party-conservatives revolt at the thought of being force-fed the green parsley of governmental taxiation increases in order to fund the WEALTH-REDISTRIBUTION-PAY-UNFAIR-SHARE-WELFARISM of the Democratic Party and this POTUS; and are forced thereafter to GAG-WITH-A-SPOON-REGURGITATION or the LAXITATION OF CONSERVATISM!!!!!!!!!