Fwd.: BARAK ON THE COUCH

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BARAK ON THE COUCH

By Gary Quinn, M.D.
Director, Jerusalem Stress and Trauma Institute
Member, American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology


Recently, the Israeli media was filled with talk about the secret IDF
psychiatric profile of Saddaam Hussein which was written on the eve of the
Gulf War in order to aid Israeli decision makers in formulating a reaction
to Iraqi threats. Among those interviewed, Moshe Arens suggested that a
similar psychiatric work-up be written on Yasser Arafat. This has surely
been done. The use of psychiatric profiles by governments and their
military intelligence services is not a new thing.

In light of the seemingly incomprehensible policy of the current government
in Israel, which, for the first time in history,  has expressed a
willingness to divide Jerusalem, surrender the Temple Mount, and negotiate
with an enemy while its citizens are under constant fire, I feel compelled
to offer a psychiatric understanding of another political leader, the
Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Barak.

I am a psychiatrist with 24 years of experience, and direct the Jerusalem
Stress and Trauma Institute. I worked for Hadassah Hospital and directed a
Crisis Intervention Team at Hebrew University.  I specialize in the
treatment of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) utilizing Hypnosis and
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing).   Following the
earthquakes in Turkey, I co-led an international team in teaching Turkish
psychologists the treatment of PTSD. My work in this field has led me to
treat numerous survivors of terrorist bombings and shootings.

Many times this year, I have heard victims say, in one form or another,
"Why doesn't Barak do something? How can he let this continue?"

 >From a psychiatric point of view, Prime Minister Barak's  behavior very
much resembles a syndrome known as the Adult Child of Alcoholic Parent
(ACOAP.) The syndrome develops when a child grows up in a household where a
parent is alcoholic and abusive. When the child is home playing one day,
the father comes in and beats him. The child concludes his father beat him
because he was not a good enough son. So he strives to be a better child.
One day, the father returns home drunk and beats the child again, blaming
the child for being at fault. Again, the child concludes that he is not
good enough and tries even harder to be better. This pattern continues, but
the beatings never stop. As the child matures, his instincts of
self-preservation grow stronger and he finally moves out of the house. But
later in life, he replays the tragic script that he's learned, finding a
boss, or a spouse, or a life situation where he can never be good enough.
Programmed by his past, he always believes that he is at fault and he
justifies the beatings rained down upon him.

I am not suggesting that Ehud Barak had parents who beat him. First, we
must understand that in the ACOAP Syndrome, the parent need not be an
actual alcoholic, nor inflict physical beatings. Any over-authoritative
behavior can trigger this tragic script.  And because these people have
powerful drives to excel, they very often reach the top echelons of their
chosen fields of endeavor.

In the psychiatric profile before us, Ehud Barak, the Adult Child of an
Alcoholic Parent, keeps giving his abusing parent, Yasser Arafat, another
chance. He keeps accepting the argument of the abuser that Israel is at
fault. Despite having the adult power to stop Arafat's violence, Barak does
not stop it. Like the ACOAP, he accepts that he (Israel) is the cause of
the violence and therefore does not fight back. This in turn encourages
Arafat to continue his abusive behavior. To attain the "good child" image
he so desperately needs, Barak must keep giving in to Arafat's terrorism,
surrendering more and more to the abuser's demands in hope that the child,
Barak, will one day win the approval he craves.

Interestingly, a person with ACOAP Syndrome can have several parent figures
at once. Studying Barak's relationship with America's former President
Clinton, one can see the same pattern. To win Clinton's approval, the
Israeli Prime Minister is willing to jeopardize his country's most
strategic and cherished possessions.

Barak's insistence in compulsively pursuing his policy of weakness and
surrender in opposition to the will of the Israeli people, the Knesset, the
President of Israel, the Attorney General, and top military and
intelligence chiefs, forces us to explain his behavior as stemming from a
pathological source.

  As a psychiatrist, I can hospitalize a suicidal patient. But what can I do
when my country's Prime Minister adopts a suicidal course for the nation?
Of course, to be fair, the root of the blame lies not with the Prime
Minister alone. After all, at least in theory, the Prime Minister
represents the whole nation. In a very real way, the Jewish people as a
collective suffers from the Adult Child of Alcoholic Parent Syndrome. In
the Holocaust, and in all of our exiles, we were cast in the role of the
abused child who eternally strove to win the love of his oppressor. It is a
self-image which large segments of the Jewish nation have internalized and
made into a creed. Politically, this abused child has grown into the
Israeli Left, including Shimon Peres. Thus, Prime Minister Barak is only a
symptom of a broader malaise.

In psychiatric terms, the first step in curing the problem is the
recognition that the  abuser is to blame, not the child. We have to stop
blaming ourselves. Arafat is at fault for the violence, not us. We have to
stop justifying the Palestinian cause, and recognize that our own cause is
righteous and just. The violence will stop only when Israel's leaders will
discard the pathological view that Israel is to blame. As long as we see
ourselves as an undeserving child, negotiations will always fail. For the
Jewish people, the time has come to grow up.


Gary Quinn, M.D.
Jerusalem Stress and Trauma Institute
9 Harav Berlin Street, Jerusalem, 92501
02-5633928