[Paleopsych] Bush's real motive

[Hannes Eisler]

I don't have any statistics, but my guess is that boys quite often  
compete with their fathers, not nedessarily with such a miserable  
result as in this case.
However, what I find so fascinating is the privatizing of a task. In  
Mailer's "The naked and the death" a general is asking for support   
by destroyers with the thought of what impact this operation would  
make on the military staff ratgher than that it would be a successful  
attempt to defeat the Japanese on the island in question. Another— 
real life—example. An American collegue and good friend of mine,  
unfortunately dead by now, decided not to continue with his sttudies  
in math because he realized he would not become famous and remembered  
this way.  so he switched to psychology (which proved to be the right  
thing to do from this particular perspective).


17 jan 2006 kl. 00.37 skrev Steve Hovland:

> If true, he has failed miserably.
>
> Is that often true?  Boys wanting to show
> their father how smart they are and making
> a mess instead?
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: paleopsych-bounces at paleopsych.org [mailto:paleopsych- 
> bounces at paleopsych.org]On Behalf Of Hannes Eisler
> Sent: Monday, January 16, 2006 9:15 AM
> To: The new improved paleopsych list
> Cc: Anna Eisler
> Subject: [Paleopsych] Bush's real motive
>
> There has been quite a discussion about Bush's true incentives to  
> start the war in Iraq. I am surprised that what I consider his real  
> main motive has never been mentioned, as far as I know. It is that  
> he wanted to surpass his father who did not dare to invade Iraq. As  
> a European I have sometimes wondered about US motives being family  
> reasons, intending to please parents or wives or boost the pride of  
> children, rather than the objective ones. In American literature I  
> remember my astonishment about two examples : the policeman or  
> superintendent trying to stop the fight between the two groups of  
> hooligans in "West side story," stating some private motive, and an  
> officer at the landing in Normandy at the end of WW2 in Irwin  
> Shaw*s " The young lions" who, armed with a private gun with ivory  
> handle, bragged about which impression he will make on his wife (or  
> was it his parents?).
> -------------------------------------
> Prof. Hannes Eisler
> Department of Psychology
> Stockholm University
> S-106 91 Stockholm
> Sweden
>
> e-mail: he at psychology.su.se
> fax : +46-8-15 93 42
> phone : +46-8-163967 (university)
> +46-8-6409982 (home)
> internet: http://www.psychology.su.se/staff/he
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-------------------------------------
Prof. Hannes Eisler
Department of Psychology
Stockholm University
S-106 91 Stockholm
Sweden

e-mail:   he at psychology.su.se
fax   :   +46-8-15 93 42
phone :   +46-8-163967 (university)
           +46-8-6409982 (home)
internet: http://www.psychology.su.se/staff/he

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