McWounded: John McCain and PTSD

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alison-rose-levy/mcwounded-john-mccain-and_b_129905.html

Alison Rose Levy
Posted September 27, 2008 | 04:01 PM (EST)

McWounded: John McCain and PTSD


In the first Presidential debate, Senator John McCain exhibited an emotionally flat "shutdown" response when he did not appear irritable and cross. He refused to make eye contact with Obama, favored grandstanding over dialogue, and stated that he would refuse to come to the table with world leaders who don't agree with him. If in place of the Paris Peace Talks, Henry Kissinger, McCain's hero, had displayed similar attitudes back in the 1970's, we might still be in Vietnam.

McCain's posturing has a mothball whiff, like the contents of a time capsule from the 1950's. But before we renew our subscription to that particular brand of leadership and heroism, let's take a closer look.

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In other words, making brash decisions may (or may not) be the sign of a maverick, but it sure is a sign of PTSD.

Over the last weeks, many have noted McCain's tendency to impulse buy mismatched stances and strategies, which when put together look like the ensemble from hell. His selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate, like many an overnight infatuation with a stranger, seems different in the morning. The flexibility needed for true leadership would dictate admitting that mistake.

In our complex world we need leaders who tolerate ambiguities without rushing to judgment driven by neurological and brain chemical imbalances etched deeply by traumatic experiences. It's also well established that PTSD sufferers can feel triggered or endangered by slight occurrences which they perceive as a threat.

Even when a person with PTSD came by their wounds honestly--as most do, is such a person the steadiest hand on the red button during a nuclear age?



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