Courtesy of Paul

Subject: [DN] Psychoanalysis: Why Bush Must Conduct This War





Psychoanalysis: Why Bush Must Conduct This War



Der Spiegel 11 February 2003



Interview with Eugen Drewermann



Posted on 02/11/2003 8:57 AM PST by tictoc



Driven by fear of failure, strengthened by fundamentalist religious
delusion: George Bush is obsessed with conducting an even better war than
his father, according to psychoanalyst and theologian Eugen Drewermann. In
his interview with SPIEGEL ONLINE, Germany's most controversial critic of
the church takes apart the US president's psyche.



SPIEGEL ONLINE: Mr. Drewermann, US president George W. Bush frequently
employs religious terminology: He speaks of an axis of "Evil", of a
"crusade" against terror. Following the crash of space shuttle "Columbia"

he quoted the Prophet Isaia, and frequently he ends speeches with the phrase
"G-d bless America". Is Bush a convincing Christian?



Drewermann: His rhetoric betrays his attempts to win over the public to his
ideas of how to exercise power, in particular the monumental possibilities
of a crusade against evil.



SPIEGEL ONLINE: What are the consequences of separating mankind into Good
and Evil?



Drewermann: Such a bipolar view of history is extraordinarily dangerous, and
psychologically practically blind. The myths of Persian dualism are used to
justify absolute unscrupulousness. Doesn't he realize that everything he
calls evil has long since been incorporated into his own actions?



SPIEGEL ONLINE: Do you really intend to equate Saddam Hussein and George W.

Bush?



Drewermann: If, like Bush, you fight terrorism, you only multiply misery.

Americans should set an example of effective disarmament for the world, and
they should use the vast sums of money that they are investing in war to
fight the causes of war. The United States has just reduced its spending to
reduce poverty in the world to 1.7 billion dollars. That is less than what
they spend on the military in two days.



SPIEGEL ONLINE: Apparently you consider Bush as a criminal rather than an
adherent of Jesus of Nazareth.



Drewermann: He who reads the New Testament to mandate a preventive war, and
he who uses the sermon on the mount to legitimize gratuitously killing
hundreds of thousands, either has not understood Christianity or is running
away from it by leaps and bounds. You cannot have corpses littering your
path if you want to follow in the footsteps of Christ.



SPIEGEL ONLINE: If that is so, why is Bush using religious language?



Drewermann: It is being done in order to win the votes from America's Bible
Belt. They are religious and hold the balance of power. It has become
commonplace for presidents to affect an aura of having been chosen by G-d.

This is related to the portrayal of the U.S. as "G-d's own country".

People there live in the delusion that they, as a magnificent nation, were
specially appointed by G-d to direct the course of world events.



SPIEGEL ONLINE: Does this explain the intolerance of the American
administration for the German stance in the Iraq conflict?



Drewermann: Bush transfers the religious claim of totality to goals having
to do with power politics, geostrategy, and economics. That explains his
stance: You are with us or against us. It also explains the incredible
hubris with which Bush refuses to shake hands with a chancellor who does not
respond like a dog to his every beck and call. One can only be frightened at
such a chauvinistic, pseudo-religious claim to total beatitude.



SPIEGEL ONLINE: Is Bush alone responsible for this stance of the U.S.

administration?



Drewermann: In a certain sense Bush is a victim of a mental attitude that
runs extraordinarily deep among Protestants, the political right, and
fundamentalists with a Christian background. Moreover, he has surrounded
himself with cabinet ministers dating back to his father's Gulf war. [...]



SPIEGEL ONLINE: If indeed fundamentalist positions fall on fertile ground
with Bush, what is his psychological makeup?



Drewermann: From a psychoanalytical point of view we can assume that the
basis religious attitude follows the internalized values of the parents.

[...]



SPIEGEL ONLINE: Are you really telling us that Bush's policy on Iraq is a
synthesis of a "father complex" and religious fundamentalism?



Drewermann: The religious component may be connected with the termination of
his alcoholism problem



[...]



SPIEGEL ONLINE: Is there any hope that the president can free himself of
this psychological mess?



Drewermann: You would have to talk to the potential opponent -- Iraq --

and together look for ways out of the crisis. The Europeans are trying to do
that. However, Bush feels that he alone possesses wisdom and power, and he
defies the world. He is a well-trained puppet of the Pentagon and the oil
industry.



[...] SPIEGEL ONLINE: Do you see any difference in the fact that the U.S.

has a democratic constution, while Iraq is ruled by a dictator?



Drewermann: This difference is becoming ever more irrelevant. In the U.S.

you can buy power. The result is that now Bush has to pay homage to the
interests of the arms industry and oil industry, who financed him. In the
United States there is no democracy, only a plutocracy (plutocracy: rule of
the richest - tictoc). Campaigns are a content-free propaganda show. A large
part of the American electorate does not even vote in presidential
elections.



[...]



Excerpted - click for full article ^ Source:

http://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/0,1518,234547,00.html



unofficial translatiopn by "tic-toc"