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Assessing mental health of political leaders

  • 26-11-2010 3:34pm
    #1
    Dannyboy83
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,236 ✭✭✭


    Do we have some kind of system in Ireland for assessing the mental health of political leaders?

    I saw a program on Discovery before about politicians who were under the influence of drugs when making decisions, such as JFK who was on a cocktail of painkillers during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Same for Reagan in later years.

    I recently heard a radio program, where the topic of discussion was wheter Brian Cowen had had a mental breakdown of some sort, or possible bunker mentality.

    I was just reading this article on Bertie Ahern:
    http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2009/1130/1224259709843.html
    CRITICS WHO blame the Government for the economic crisis should “dig the garden or grow bluebells or do something useful”, former taoiseach Bertie Ahern has said.

    In an interview, Mr Ahern attacked “cynics and knockers, people who always see the glass as half empty. I can’t understand people who are always bitching, saying ‘It’s the Government’s fault, it’s the doctor’s fault, it’s the cat’s fault.’ It’s everybody’s fault except their own.

    “I don’t know why they wouldn’t go out and dig the garden or grow bluebells or do something useful!

    He later went on to display signs of extreme paranoia:
    In another interview, which is to be broadcast on TV3 this week and which was reported in yesterday’s Sunday Times, Mr Ahern says an unnamed political colleague had worked “night and day” to bring him down.

    “One person working night and day to screw me up and I think I know why and I think I know how. Maybe, along the way, they got things wrong, and maybe they had to be punished a bit for that, and maybe they set about then trying to screw up.

    “I know who the person is. But libel laws are dangerous and if you can’t prove it, you can’t say it. But you can still know it,” the former taoiseach says.

    Now, I'm no psychologist, but these are not the words of a mentally sound individual to me.

    It's reasonable to assume that under the colossal strain of the current catastrophe, especially when it is a self-inflicted catastrophe, Brian Cowen may have actually had some type of breakdown, which could go a long way toward explaining why he was unable to communicate the arrival of the IMF to his own cabinet, not to mind the electorate.

    Is he being assessed?


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