Hasan with PTSD? Or media with Factitious Disorder By Proxy?

posted at 11:57 am on November 6, 2009 by Laura
[ Terrorist Attacks ]    printer-friendly

It turns out that Major Malik Nadal Hasan, the Fort Hood killer

“was mortified by the idea of having to deploy,” Mr. Hasan said. “He had people telling him on a daily basis the horrors they saw over there.”

… He had also more recently expressed deep concerns about being sent to Iraq or Afghanistan. Having counseled scores of returning soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder, first at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington and more recently at Fort Hood, he knew all too well the terrifying realities of war, said a cousin, Nader Hasan.

So then, in order to avoid the terrifying realities of war, he unleashes the terrifying realities of war on a bunch of people.  Lovely.  Since that article was published yesterday, there are dozens more that seem to be trying to diagnose PTSD once removed, suggesting that the trauma he heard about while engaging in patient care “infected” him as well.  We can’t know that right now, though anything is possible.  But I will return the favor (with equally invalid medical credentials) and diagnose the media with Factitous Disorder by Proxy.

Factitious disorder by proxy is a condition in which a person deliberately produces, feigns, or exaggerates symptoms in a person who is in their care.

Symptoms include:

• life stressors – it’s certainly got to be stressful to watch the dead tree media go bankrupt before their eyes and an ever greater percentage of society distrust and despise them.
• pathological lying – just open the NY Times, LA Times, etc.  Or turn on the TV news.
• commonly have knowledge in that area – they are aware of the facts, that’s how they spin them so well.
• seem insufficiently concerned about victim’s condition – because by blaming poverty or societal ills (yet not doing anything effective to combat them) they can carry on ignoring the real problems we face.

For the purposes of argument, let’s assume that Hasan really did suffer from vicarious traumatization.  A man in his job would surely recognize it, and a man in his job would surely know that there are resources to deal with it.  Yet he evidently did nothing.  Nor does the vicarious trauma theory account for his internet cheerleading for the enemy.  Just because someone is horrified by the reality of war – a perfectly normal reaction – it does not follow that they suddenly begin rooting for the other side.  As Michael points out, much of the media seems to think ignoring Muslim extremism resolves the problem.

Whitewashing the acts of extremists thinking they may just leave us alone if we stick our heads in the sand, won’t work.

What does the media lose by sudden jihad syndrome?  They’ve cocooned themselves into a world where America really was responsible for 9/11.  I don’t mean they necessarily buy into the conspiracy nonsense but their core beliefs.  We brought their hate on ourselves, they believe, by our aggressive tendencies.  If we had been obsequious, humble, meek, and looked at things from the other guy’s perspective, we’d all be sharing a Coke and a smile by now.  But it’s the dawning of the Age of Obama, and he’s appeased our enemies at every turn.  The plan is on track to clear nearly all of our troops from Iraq by August, 2010, and any observant person knows he’s desperately looking for a way to avoid a McChrystal surge in Afghanistan so we can cut and run.  That leaves the left with only one real complaint: we’re not surrendering fast enough.

They are pathologically committed to their utopian thinking and denial of Muslim extremism, so they go to ridiculous extremes to cover it up.  We may have an Alinsky Rule 10 sighting: “If you push a negative hard enough, it will push through and become a positive.”  Sure, the guy went off.  But we drove him to it by trying to make him participate in our constant warmongering against the Religion of Peace.  So it’s our fault, and to remedy the problem, we should probably cut and run immediately. So even Sudden Jihad Syndrome can serve the appeasers, because this narrative delays recognition that the real problem Muslim extremists have with us is that we exist and we are free.  Instead,

By way of “illuminating” Hasan’s actions, Blitzer interviewed a panel of — no, not experts on Islamic jihad, but psychiatrists.  Blitzer endlessly repeated the mantra that Hasan had been “taunted” for being Muslim, had feared going to a war zone, and had ultimately gone “berserk,” and the docs echoed this line. “He did not reach for help when he should have,” lamented one panelist. Another opined: “It sounded like it got to be too much for him.” Yet another told us: “All kind of people need help who aren’t getting help. … He was feeling picked on by his colleagues. … He was strained. He was scared.”

Hasan wasn’t afraid to go to war.  He just didn’t want to do so for America.  It’s getting to the point that I think the media collectively suffers from a far worse mental illness than they claim Hasan may have.

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