than My Country’s Flag waving, with a handsome man urging me to defeat the enemy to protect our freedoms, freedoms that bring markets and prosperity. The blinding intelligence behind a plan that will solve terrorism and the drug pandemic once we actually “rout” the terrorists and the traffickers makes me tremble. I demand to know why this hasn’t been tried before now!

There’s not much that could stir me more.

Well , OK . . . . unless that man’s in a flight suit, and he’s telling me “Mission Accomplished”.

than My Country’s Flag waving, with a handsome man urging me to defeat the enemy to protect our freedoms, freedoms that bring markets and prosperity. The blinding intelligence behind a plan that will solve terrorism and the drug pandemic once we “rout” the terrorists and the traffickers makes me tremble. I demand to know why this hasn’t been tried before now!

There’s not much that could stir me more.

Well , OK . . . . unless that man’s in a flight suit, and he’s telling me “Mission Accomplished”.

“His growing organization has 3,500 members so far, and its glittering honorary committee includes such celebrities . . .”

The author seems, quite unselfconsciously, to tip us immediately to the type of audience the article is intended for, and the type of audience that might be stimulated by a charismatic political candidate.

but is about a culture, a collective conscious, that could astoundingly construct an over-achieving, fibbing, church-going boy and a cognitively impaired, criminally disordered adolescent male as “candidates” or potential “leader”, then distract itself from that pathology by arguing over which of them engaged first in name-calling.

The oppressive power of Doxa lies in the co-opted entitlement to construct and control the very terms of discourse and created meanings - in this case, so that sexual intimacy that may be experienced by someone like Ms. Clark-Flory as vital, rewarding, pleasurable, comforting, integrative, non-controlling, actualizing, creative of social relatedness and support, etc. is framed purposefully and negatively as “casual”, i.e. without seriousness, not having important roles or value. The very (constructed, shame-serving) idea that these relational connections would need a “defense” is the power of Matrix to deny what we experience as real.

Sex, on the other hand, that serves development-arresting and behavior-controlling social structures like marriage, blood ties, family honor and loyalty, legacy, biological lineage and entitlement - and their pathological correlates of shame, enmeshment, failed differentiation, mood and other disorders, aggression, etc. - is constructed as normative and sanctioned. Everything’s a little upside down, as the poet said. As with any issue of import, language and meaning, itself constructed to enforce and maintain the maladaptive, symptom-producing and sanctioned forms of intimacy, largely fails. But art and its evocation of felt archetypes, as usual, provide some guidance, as in the recent film “The Other Boleyn Girl” and more powerfully yet, “Never Forever”.

Ms. Clark-Flory seems torn between authentically and bravely asserting her intimacies as positive, integrative experiences and yet ultimately framing her narrative within sanctioned orthodoxy, reconstructing her partners with labels lowering their value, framing them as means to the sanctioned end of commitment and possessed, contractual intimacy, lessons for ultimately becoming a good girl.

"I pledge allegiance

to the flag of the United States of America,

and to the republic for which it stands,

one nation under God,

indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

and the socially enforced, contractual control of intimacy and behavior of another are, of course, mutually exclusive.

The understanding sought is to be found not in the human history of entrapment by the construct “marriage”, but in its deconstruction, in the evolutionary history of mating systems and parental care, and in transference of insecure childhood attachment to adult relationships.

What in this is more pathetic? That Mr. Edward’s behavior - rather than the construct “marital infidelity” - could ever become newsworthy and scandalous? Or that Mr. Edwards has accurately gauged that the way back to public esteem necessarily involves shaming and pathologizing himself, and is willing to go there?

Discuss!

In competent clinical settings, PTSD is treated using a variety of interventions, primarily cognitive-behavioral therapy, progressive desensitization, narrative work, sometimes EMDR or psychopharmacologically, generally with positive outcomes. It seems notable that an intelligent, well-read person would claim there is no relief available, especially if he or she had not engaged in treatment.

There are cases in which claims of symptoms of PTSD or other disorders are made disingenuously. If the motivation for making such false claims is simply assuming the sick role, it is Factitious Disorder. If there are other secondary gains driving the behavior, such as attention or help seeking, to gain benefits, or as a defense mechanism, it would be diagnosed as Malingering.

Suggest that our vital Political Process is somehow . . . . . less than real?

I’m not convinced either way regarding Mr. Ivins’ agency in the anthrax attacks. Certainly the behavior of our FBI, MSM and Ms. Duley (that’s another subject) don’t credibly support his involvement.

On the question of what may have led to an apparent suicide, there are some things we can note, as there is significant understanding of risk factors and protective factors related to suicide. Factors contributing to high risk include:

- being white, male and middle-aged

- recent illness

- substance abuse problems

- hospitalization

- symptoms of mental illness like major depression, obsessions, persecutory thoughts, etc.

- side effects of some medications

and the big ones:

- perceived loss of social supports

- job loss

- humiliation or loss of status

- sense of hopelessness

One potential factor protecting against suicide is a supportive relationship with a mental health professional. It’s not clear that Mr. Ivins had such a relationship, certainly not with Ms. Duley.

In short, Ivins appears to have fit a profile for high risk of suicide (about as high as it gets without an apparent history of attempts) due to factors that are independent of any possible agency in the attacks.