Obamanalysis: The Origins of Neurosis and the Unraveling of an Image

President Obama is a psychological mess, and it’s not his fault. Unfortunately, it is his responsibility, and his lack of corrective introspection has led him to be a prisoner of his ideological trappings. This ideological straightjacket is the very phenomenon decried by liberals in their unrelenting assails of President Bush. So much for intellectual consistency. Regardless of the charges of ineptness and deceit of the former administration (some of which are valid), Obama cannot, or will not, escape his troubled youth, nor the psychogenic effects on his attitude and behavior.

So what is behind Obama’s cool and collected exterior? What belies his sense of self-aggrandizement and narcissism? In order to peel back the layers of the psyche and probe the genesis of our President’s belief system, I will use the psychological theory of Karen Horney. Horneyan Theory, which focuses on the dynamics of neurosis by examining inner conflicts, has its roots in Freudian theory. Although Freud has often been dismissed in modern psychiatric circles, his fundamental proposition that humans are inherently in some type of conflict remains germane. If not, the great canons of literature, ranging from the Bible to Shakespeare, to Steinbeck and even popular modern texts, would not have conflict at the center of their literary substrate. It is undeniable that the human condition is rooted in conflict; growth, prosperity, and peace come only when we attempt to resolve this conflict in mature ways. Thus we have gangs, war, terrorism, and domestic violence, even as we strive to make the world safer and more humane. The dichotomy of this struggle is inescapable.

So what does Horneyan theory have to say about President Obama and his behavior? To understand this we have to understand what Horney believed about the basic nature of human beings. Horney posited that people strive to develop our unique potentials, and that pathological behavior occurs when this innate drive is thwarted by external, social forces. Horney believed that “man has the capacity to as well as the desire to develop his potentials and become a decent human being, and that these deteriorate if his relationship to others, and hence himself is, and continues to be, disturbed.” 1

It is not difficult to see how this fits with Obama’s childhood. Early on, Obama was severed from his father, who abandoned him for intellectual pursuits in the name of perpetuating Marxist ideology. This left Frank Marshal Davis to become his psychological paternal surrogate. Davis was indisputably an adamant and radical supporter of communism throughout his career, as evidenced by his writings and actions. Unfortunately for Obama, his mother was an inconsistent force in his life, providing no mechanism for intellectual or psychological counterbalance, ultimately leaving Obama to be raised by his grandparents and, through a sort of mentorship, Davis. This is key, for a underlying communism is the implicit dynamic that government itself is a surrogate for parents, and an appropriate substitute for spirituality. So early on, Obama was “sold out” by the very people who are supposed to build the psychosocial foundation upon which he was to fashion a positive self-concept. In short, he was discarded to the state, establishing the milieu for his personal and socio-political development. Obama himself wrote of his inner conflict in his struggle to find his cultural identify in his book, “Dreams of My Father,” in which he stated:

"It remained necessary to prove which side you were on, to show your loyalty to the black masses, to strike out and name names." 2

Here, we can see the genesis of Obama’s neurosis, as he is forced to identify who he is while simultaneously rejecting his white heritage. This orphaning, by his biological parents, and his didactical split from his bi-racial origins, left him vulnerable to establish the belief that the State, the all powerful and omnipotent entity, could become the parental force he was so lacking. Davis capitalized and preyed on this vulnerability.

Furthermore, Horney’s premises can explain Obama’s behavior with regard to the causes of his anxiety, which she believed was the central mechanism underlying all neuroses. As Horney expressed: “As a result (of not being loved and accepted as an individual), the child does not develop a feeling of belonging, of “we,” but instead a profound insecurity and vague apprehensiveness…” 3

Again, we see how Obama’s commitment to collectivistic tendencies are driven by his need for self-actualization and acceptance, as the State becomes the stand-in for absent parents. In his own words: “We weren't indifferent or careless or insecure. We were alienated.” 4

But how can one feel alienated and abandoned without a resultant insecurity? There are only tow responses to feelings of alienation; utter withdrawal, or a form of lashing out in order to compensate emotionally. Horney believed that people adopt one of three psychological coping mechanisms in response to this alienation: moving toward people, moving against people, or moving away from people. Obama seems to embrace moving towards people as he grapples to establish identity and security.

According to Horney, moving towards people is characterized by seeking safety, protection and affection of others. In moving towards people, individuals seem to care substantially about the welfare of others, to have an abundance of empathy and solicitude toward those perceived as being weak or maligned by others. However, according Horney, this is a mask, a cover for true feelings which in fact represent a callous lack of interest in others, leading to ‘defiance, unconscious parasitic or exploiting tendencies, {and} propensities to control or manipulate others.” 5

This was exhibited quite clearly in policy coming from the Obama administration. The health-care legislation, which any careful and thoughtful research will show was a massive subsidization of the health-care insurance industry, the very entity derided by Obama, as a prima fascia culprit. Early on, Representative Dennis Kucinich, a bastion of liberalism, pointed out the hypocrisies of the health-care legislation, decrying it as give-away to insurance companies and big Pharma, and that the only true reform was to establish universal health-care through a government-run, single payer system. It was not until very late in the hour that Kucinich relented under the pressure from the Obama administration, selling out by voting for an unprecedented corporate entitlement. After strong-arming, or persuading Kucinich through bribery, Obama and his cronies went on a back-door, arm-twisting manipulation rampage, bringing us the likes of the “Cornhusker” deal and the “Louisiana Purchase.” Psychologically, it was at once a pathetic and grandiose attempt to delude the public about his love for mankind, a masquerade of selflessness covering his need to control in order to resolve his feelings of alienation, rejection, and ineffectiveness.

This psychological dynamic is an indisputable corollary of his sociopolitical view: Collectivism is by nature prone to move toward people, as individuals are submerged in the drive to unify society and give up their uniqueness and self-determination in deference to the needs of the masses and it’s statist apparatus. But it is all a ruse, as the leader enervates society, usurps natural law, and grabs and sustains power at the expense of individualism, making the citizen the puppet of the state, thereby satisfying the need to feel effectual despite the gaping holes of inadequacy.

In the end, Horney believed this neurosis to consume individuals as they seek they develop an idealized image, a flattering, yet hollow self-concept that promises “unattainable standards that either bring about eventual defeat, or cause the sufferer to shrink from the acid test of reality.” 6 This is clearly evident in how Obama has dealt with the oil–leak crises in the Gulf. His grandiose rock-star image, so carefully honed during the campaign season, shed its patina of pretension and exposed Obama for what he really is: weak, unresolved, insensitive, and ultimately, incapable of true leadership. Much like when the Wizard, from the movie The Wizard of Oz, was revealed to be a fraud, so Obama has shown himself for the empty suit he is—empty save for a small child whose protestations are growing fainter, no longer aided by the amplification which was also stripped from the Wizard.

1Horney, K. Our inner conflicts: A constructive theory of neurosis. New York: Norton, 1945.

2 Obama, Barack. Dreams for my father: A Story of Race and Inheritance. New York: Three Rivers Press, 2004.

3 Horney, K. Neurosis and human growth: The struggle towards self-realization. New York: Norton, 1950.

4 Obama, Barack, 2004.

5 Horney, K., 1945

6 Ewen, Robert B. An introduction to theories of personality: Third edition. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. 1988.