Dr. Pierce teeters on the edge of making a diagnosis, but his remarks
"Bush should immediately be given the advantage of a considered
professional diagnosis,..." suggest that he means to offer a
professional opinion, rather than a diagnosis.
Elliot
On 08 Sep 2004, at 12:53, John Ellingsworth wrote:
It seems terribly unprofessional for a doctor to make a diagnosis
through
a letter to the editor, even with the disclaimer of accountability.
A more plausible theory is that Carl Rove said "George, THINK BEFORE
YOU
SPEAK!"
[
http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF
-8&tab=wn&scoring=d&q=%22carl+rove%22&btnG=Search+News
]
On Wed, 8 Sep 2004, Suzanne Minnis wrote:
These letters were in the current (October) issue of the Atlantic.
sue
When George Meets John
ames Fallows's description of John Kerry's debating skills ("When
George Meets John," July/August Atlantic) was interesting, but what
was most remarkable was Fallows's documentation of President Bush's
mostly overlooked changes over the past decade-specifically, "the
striking decline in his sentence-by-sentence speaking skills."
Fallows points to "speculations that there must be some organic
basis for the President's peculiar mode of speech-a learning
disability, a reading problem, dyslexia or some other disorder," but
correctly concludes, "The main problem with these theories is that
through his forties Bush was perfectly articulate."
I, too, felt that something organic was wrong with President Bush,
most probably dyslexia. But I was unaware of what Fallows pointed
out so clearly: that Bush's problems have been developing slowly,
and that just a decade ago he was an articulate debater, "artful
indeed in steering questions and challenges to his desired
subjects," who "did not pause before forcing out big words, as he so
often does now, or invent mangled new ones." Consider, in contrast,
the present: "the informal Q&As he has tried to avoid," "Bush's
recent faltering performances," "his unfortunate puzzled-chimp
expression when trying to answer questions," "his stalling,
defensive pose when put on the spot," "speaking more slowly and less
gracefully."
Not being a professional medical researcher and clinician, Fallows
cannot be faulted for not putting two and two together. But he was
100 percent correct in suggesting that Bush's problem cannot be "a
learning disability, a reading problem, [or] dyslexia," because
patients with those problems have always had them. Slowly developing
cognitive deficits, as demonstrated so clearly by the President, can
represent only one diagnosis, and that is "presenile dementia"!
Presenile dementia is best described to nonmedical persons as a
fairly typical Alzheimer's situation that develops significantly
earlier in life, well before what is usually considered old age. It
runs about the same course as typical senile dementias, such as
classical Alzheimer's-to incapacitation and, eventually, death, as
with President Ronald Reagan, but at a relatively earlier age.
President Bush's "mangled" words are a demonstration of what
physicians call "confabulation," and are almost specific to the dia!
gnosis of a true dementia. Bush should immediately be given the
advantage of a considered professional diagnosis, and started on drugs
that offer the possibility of retarding the slow but inexorable course
of the disease.
Joseph M. Price, M.D.
Carsonville, Mich.
he whole of James Fallows's article on Bush and Kerry's debate
styles was interesting, but one comment jumped out at me: "[Bush]
has rarely been interested in the details of any policy matter,
believing that he 'has people' who can master the subject for him."
What further proof is needed that Bush's policy decisions are based
on whatever his "people" choose to tell him? Naturally they will
tell him whatever (and only whatever) supports their own agendas.
Although, as Mary Beth Rogers says in the Fallows article, his
"ability to stick to his message and repeat it" might be
"remarkable," it implies to me that he doesn't know enough to answer
questions that go beyond the text he has been given by his "people."
I suspect that his "widely noted lack of eloquence" is due to his
understandable insecurity. If the ideas he is expressing are not his
ideas, based on his own knowledge and decision-making, then he can
only repeat by rote what he has rehearsed.
Bush's lack of interest in details gives unprecedented power to his
advisers (read "puppeteers")-in this case the extremists of the
military/industrial/religious-right coalition who are currently
running the White House, the country, and, if they have their way,
the world. We need an independent thinker in the Oval Office.
Anne Carpenter
Fair Haven, N.J.
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