Bush's Daddy Made Him the Man He Is Today

Destined for Greatness?

So George w. Bush is a "paranoid megalomaniac," so what? It's not his fault. Blame his dad.

A neat Fathers' Day article in the Toronto Star says that a lot of the most notable leaders in the world were either orphans or children of single-parent families.

"According to Dr. Justin Frank, a prominent Washington psychoanalyst and author of Bush on the Couch, the younger Bush is a 'paranoid megalomaniac,' partly because his father was emotionally and physically absent during his childhood, which 'triggered feelings of both adoration and revenge in George W.'

"Frank's analysis seems at least partly in line with research I did, showing that a majority of the 500 most influential people in history came from what society would term a dysfunctional home. More than 300 major historical figures were orphans or rejected by their parents, including Adolf Hitler, Mao Zedong, Fidel Castro, Yasser Arafat, Mikhail Gorbachev, Gamal Nasser, Alexander the Great, Caesar, Napoleon, Queen Victoria, Golda Meier, North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and the "father" of the United States, George Washington.

"Some 40 per cent of U.S. presidents lost a parent when they were young, four times the national average. "A serious loss in childhood is a real motivator,' says professor Robert Albert of Pitzer College in Claremont, Calif., who studies high achievers.

"'People go into politics, especially, to overcome loneliness and early deprivation of love.'
In fact, some psychologists believe the so-called "daddy hole" is an integral part of American culture, where people often seek to fill emotional needs with achievement."