Liberalism is a mental disorder

[_bcspace]

WASHINGTON – Just when liberals thought it was safe to start identifying themselves as such, an acclaimed, veteran psychiatrist is making the case that the ideology motivating them is actually a mental disorder.

"Based on strikingly irrational beliefs and emotions, modern liberals relentlessly undermine the most important principles on which our freedoms were founded," says Dr. Lyle Rossiter, author of the new book, "The Liberal Mind: The Psychological Causes of Political Madness." "Like spoiled, angry children, they rebel against the normal responsibilities of adulthood and demand that a parental government meet their needs from cradle to grave."

While political activists on the other side of the spectrum have made similar observations, Rossiter boasts professional credentials and a life virtually free of activism and links to "the vast right-wing conspiracy."

For more than 35 years 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.

Rossiter says the kind of liberalism being displayed by the two major candidates for the Democratic Party presidential nomination can only be understood as a psychological disorder.

"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."

DR. LYLE ROSSITER:
Board-certified in general and forensic psychiatry

http://forthegrandchildren.blogspot.com/2008/02/noted-psychiatrist-says-liberalism.html

[_EAllusion]

At first, I thought this was intended to be parody, albeit poorly written, of the liberal genre of pathologizing conservatism. Turns out, no, Dr. Rossiter is totally serious. And he's a forensic psychiatrist who provides "expert" testimony to prosecutors. Makes you feel great about our criminal justice system, doesn't it?

BSCspace quotes it for the wonderful troll opportunity, imagining himself to be clever, but somewhere there's a dude rotting in jail because this scumbag testified against him. Great Poe's law candidate, though.

[_EAllusion]

On a humorous note, this guy is defcon 4 on a closeted, self-hating gay-dar. That he thinks liberal society would collapse because everyone would be gay-marrying one another and there would be no procreation unless it is forced is stunningly obtuse and suggestive of where his mind goes. If gay marriage is legal, what's to stop me from making sweet, sweet love to only men like I'm sure we all want to do? Huh guys?

[_MeDotOrg]

One of the fascinating contradictions of EITHER far side of the political spectrum who demonize the opposition is how on the one hand they say "This is the Greatest Country On Earth" but on the other hand they say "But half the people are either evil or crazy."

How did half the people become evil or crazy if this country is so great?

And I hate to tell Dr. Rossiter, but by your definition, the rest of the world is a lot crazier.

How does our 'conservative' sanity manifest itself? Is it in our freedom to bear arms? We are 5% of the world's population and we have 60% of the world's privately owned firearms, the highest murder rate of any Western Democracy, the highest rate of imprisonment of any country in the WORLD, and the problem is that the rest of the world, and most of America, is too liberal?

I've only been on this sight for a month or two, but brspace, it seems that the vast majority of your posts are simply 'cut and paste'. Just because someone finds a publisher doesn't mean their argument has validity.

[_EAllusion]

Remember Rev. Wright's "God Bless America? No, God Damn America!" sermon? Religious right evangelicals give their variation of it all the time. It's a standard evangelical trope. America is a pit of sin that they either hope/fear God will punish or they attribute various disasters to God's disfavor with our nation. The only difference with Wright's speech is that his complaints centered around left-wing causes like civil rights as opposed to abortion. Yet, right wing evangelicals more or less get away with that rhetoric whereas Wright, uncle nutball that he is, became politically toxic in a heartbeat. Only certain groups are allowed to say America has horrible problems. Otherwise, "HOW DARE YOU CRITICIZE AMERICA?!"

I think that's an example of what you are talking about MeDotOrg. David Cross makes fun of this in this famous, great bit:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MX1evRf4uh4

[_moksha]

Bc, is it possible to lead liberals back to conservatism with a pre-frontal lobotomy? Seems like they would look and act like conservatives and even find the shows on Fox News to be reliable. The true question is whether they could be trusted to not drive the golf cart onto the greens.

[_beastie]

Bc, is it possible to lead liberals back to conservatism with a pre-frontal lobotomy? Seems like they would look and act like conservatives and even find the shows on Fox News to be reliable. The true question is whether they could be trusted to not drive the golf cart onto the greens.

Kudos, my penguin, kudos.

[_aussieguy55]

BSpace is it your life goal to belittle, smear anyoone who disagrees with your political and religious beliefs. - you need to get a life. Both you and Whyme. Hugh B Brown was a Democrat. Morris Udall was. Do they also suffer from mental disorders?

[_ldsfaqs]

BSpace is it your life goal to belittle, smear anyoone who disagrees with your political and religious beliefs. - you need to get a life. Both you and Whyme. Hugh B Brown was a Democrat. Morris Udall was. Do they also suffer from mental disorders?

Strawman.....

They were "conservatives", when most of both parties still had traditional American values.
Today JFK would be called a Bush right winger for example..... Democrat's of the past had only "some" liberal leanings, not even close to the extreme left they are today. Even today "most" Democrat's aren't even full leftists, but still more conservative, but they are blind sheep to the leftists that now run the party.

Apostles of the Church have NEVER that I'm aware of been "liberals/progressives".
That ideology is completely anathema to LDS Theology.

[_MeDotOrg]

BSpace is it your life goal to belittle, smear anyoone who disagrees with your political and religious beliefs. - you need to get a life. Both you and Whyme. Hugh B Brown was a Democrat. Morris Udall was. Do they also suffer from mental disorders?

Strawman.....

They were "conservatives", when most of both parties still had traditional American values.
Today JFK would be called a Bush right winger for example..... Democrat's of the past had only "some" liberal leanings, not even close to the extreme left they are today. Even today "most" Democrat's aren't even full leftists, but still more conservative, but they are blind sheep to the leftists that now run the party.

Apostles of the Church have NEVER that I'm aware of been "liberals/progressives".
That ideology is completely anathema to LDS Theology.

Abraham Lincoln instituted progessive income tax.

John Sherman authored the Sherman Anti-trust act.

Theodore Roosevelt established a Bureau of Corporations to regulate big businesses, and brought Anti-Trust suits, His "square deal" was founded on 3 principles: Conservation of natural resources, control of corporations and Consumer Protection. Sounds more like Elizabeth Warren than Scott Brown. He denounced “the representatives of predatory wealth” as guilty of “all forms of iniquity from the oppression of wage workers to defrauding the public." Somehow I don't think the 2012 GOP platform will contain the same language.

Prescott Bush was the Treasurer of Planned Parenthood.

Richard Nixon took us off the Gold Standard and introduced Wage and Price Controls (talk about interfering with a free market!). He also started the E.P.A., which is about as popular with Republicans as a Lady GaGa concert at a Gay Pride Parade.

George H.W. Bush fathered the Americans with Disabilities Act, which I doubt would make it against today's anti-regulatory mindset.

Both parties have become less heterogeneous, more ideologically pure and less inclusive. You certainly aren't hearing a lot of Lee Atwater's "Big Tent" rhetoric nowadays. But to say both parties were 'conservative' because they both had 'traditional American values' is to be so vague as to define nothing. Do child labor laws, the EPA and the FDA reflect 'traditional American Values?'