Political Mental Disorder

By Douglas V. Gibbs

Michael Savage has now made famous the statement (and the title of his book), "Liberalism is a Mental Disorder."  To many it seems that way.  After an extensive study, one psychiatrist has come to that conclusion.

However, the liberal left also claims that their opposition suffers from a disorder, but theirs is, for lack of a better term, comical.

First, let's go to the 2008 book by Dr. Lyle Rossiter, “The Liberal Mind: The Psychological Causes of Political Madness.”

According to Dr. Rossiter, liberalism is indeed a mental disorder.  The ideology is plagued with irrational beliefs and emotions, and modern liberals relentlessly undermine the most important principles on which our freedoms were founded.  They throw temper tantrums like spoiled, angry children, rebelling against the normal responsibilities of adulthood and demand that a parental government meet their needs from cradle to grave.

Rossiter's observations follow more than 35 years of work, during which time he has diagnosed and treated more than 1,500 patients as a board-certified clinical psychiatrist and examined more than 2,700 civil and criminal cases as a board-certified forensic psychiatrist. He received his medical and psychiatric training at the University of Chicago.

“A social scientist who understands human nature will not dismiss the vital roles of free choice, voluntary cooperation and moral integrity – as liberals do,” he says. “A political leader who understands human nature will not ignore individual differences in talent, drive, personal appeal and work ethic, and then try to impose economic and social equality on the population – as liberals do. And a legislator who understands human nature will not create an environment of rules which over-regulates and over-taxes the nation’s citizens, corrupts their character and reduces them to wards of the state – as liberals do.”

Dr. Rossiter says the liberal agenda preys on weakness and feelings of inferiority in the population by:

- creating and reinforcing perceptions of victimization;
- satisfying infantile claims to entitlement, indulgence and compensation;

- augmenting primitive feelings of envy;
- rejecting the sovereignty of the individual, subordinating him to the will of the government.

“The roots of liberalism – and its associated madness – can be clearly identified by understanding how children develop from infancy to adulthood and how distorted development produces the irrational beliefs of the liberal mind,” he says. “When the modern liberal mind whines about imaginary victims, rages against imaginary villains and seeks above all else to run the lives of persons competent to run their own lives, the neurosis of the liberal mind becomes painfully obvious.”

The liberal left has come to their own conclusion regarding the mental disorder that the conservative right suffers from, but their idea of a mental disorder for their opposition actually confirms everything we think about them.

The other day a person threw this at me, accusing the "right wing conspiracy" of, in addition to being racist, bigoted, phobic haters, afflicted with Oppositional Defiant Disorder.

That's right, we dare to be defiant to their liberalism.  That's is our disorder.

Really?

Oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) is a childhood disorder, but the liberal leftist I talked to talked about it as if it was a normally adult problem.  The symptoms include a pattern of hostile, disobedient, and defiant behaviors directed certain authority figures.  The sufferers dare to be angrily in disagreement with liberal leadership, displaying irritability, and are argumentative and vindictive against their liberal left masters.  While all people sometimes display some type of defiant behavior in their lifetimes, the right-wingers with ODD are especially so with governmental leadership that is trying to do what is best for society, and for the lives of the citizens they rule over.

Though the cause is unknown, because a wide range of people are afflicted with ODD, the primary target group seems to be white, racists - mostly males.  Conservatives suffering from ODD are liable to be at risk for being disobedient, violent, and hateful.

When I looked up ODD, much of what the liberal was saying to me matched.  However, many of the traits of sufferers sounds more like those of a liberal leftist, than of a conservative constitutionalist.

Easily losing one’s temper / throwing repeated temper tantrums

Arguing
Fighting
Refusing to follow rules
Deliberately acting in a way that will annoy others
Blaming others
Blatant hostility towards others
Being unwilling to compromise or negotiate
Willingly destroying friendships
Being spiteful and seeking revenge
Blatant and repeated disobedience

Cognitive symptoms:
Frequent frustration
Difficulty concentrating
Failure to “think before speaking”

Psychosocial symptoms:
Difficulty making friends
Loss of self-esteem
Persistent negativity
Consistent feelings of annoyance

Uh, that doesn't sound like a right-winger.  It sounds like Hillary, and Barack, and Pelosi, and Reid, and .............

So, now the liberal left may wind up suffering, as a result, from:

Social isolation
Lack of friendships
An inability to develop meaningful relationships
Difficulty in educational settings

And ultimately, they will have:

Ongoing patterns of relationship conflicts
Trying to control others
Unable to “let go” of grudges / having difficulty forgiving
Arguing with authority figures that can result in negative consequences, such as being fired from a job
Co-Occurring Disorders

Uh.  Yeah.  The proof is in the pudding.

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary