Our friends over at the New Haven Advocate pointed out an interesting finding when a local social work master’s student at Souther Connecticut State University went on a “get out the vote” effort in 2004 targeted at people with mental illness to vote. He found people with psychosis were more likely to vote for Bush.
Lohse says his study is no joke. The thesis draws on a survey of 69 psychiatric outpatients in three Connecticut locations during the 2004 presidential election. Lohse’s study, backed by SCSU Psychology professor Jaak Rakfeldt and statistician Misty Ginacola, found a correlation between the severity of a person’s psychosis and their preferences for president: The more psychotic the voter, the more likely they were to vote for Bush.
Wisely, Lohse attributed the preference to a person with psychosis’s preference to an ordered environment and world aorund them:
“Our study shows that psychotic patients prefer an authoritative leader,” Lohse says. “If your world is very mixed up, there’s something very comforting about someone telling you, ‘This is how it’s going to be.’”
Unfortunately, Bush does not reciprocate the love. As President, Bush has overseen the gutting of many federal services and funding initiatives to the mentally ill over the past 6 years. Although backing a commission on mental health in 2002 and 2003, he hasn’t done anything since that time other than to pay lip service to people with serious mental illness.
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Survey: People with Psychosis Prefer Bush « Dipple Dopple (12/2/2006)
2 Comments to
“Survey: People with Psychosis Prefer Bush”
Since “authoritarian” and “incumbent” are obviously confounded here, it’d be interesting to see if you can get similar results in an election with no incumbent.
If I were asked questions about my political views back when I had a psychotic episode, I would have responded positively and supported the President because I would have been paranoid someone (government) would come to get me (if my responses were honest, against Bush). I would have viewed any question as a test of my loyalty and patriotism.
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Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 29 Nov 2006
