A president on the psychologist's
couch By Sunny Lee
BEIJING - Austrian neurologist and
psychiatrist Sigmund Freud, who looms large in the
field of psychoanalysis, used his youngest
daughter, Anna Freud, as a subject in developing
his theories. In South Korea where psychoanalysis
is still a fairly young profession, psychologists
are honing their skills on an unusual subject -
the president.
The outgoing South Korean
President Roh Moo-hyun has never sought
professional help from a psychologist, nor has he
volunteered to be a subject for a research.
Nonetheless, numerous professionals in this
burgeoning field took unsolicited
interest in him and applied
their skills on this patient, uh, the president.
Roh was an unusual president in South
Korea. He was the first president to face
impeachment in South Korea's history and also the
first to survive it. At the same time, and perhaps
little known outside South Korea, he was also the
first South Korean president to be subjected to
psychoanalysis.
Jung Hye-shin, a
psychiatrist with private practice, was one of the
earliest people who found Roh to be good
"material". A one-time Roh supporter, Jung used
her expertise as early as in 2002 during the
presidential campaign when Roh became the subject
for character assassination from his political
rivals as an incompetent candidate with "character
flaws". Jung rose to Roh's defense by carrying out
a professional distillation of his character,
based on an analysis of Roh's behavior and words,
and presented to the public a "competent leader".
Roh's following victory owed some unquantifiable
credit to this "character voucher" from the
credentialed psychoanalyst.
Interestingly,
running a psychological commentary on Roh soon
became popular practice in South Korea's political
landscape. When Roh launched a barrage of bitter
comments on his critics last year, for example,
numerous psychologists came to offer their
diagnosis on "Why Roh is upset".
Roh was
elected five year ago on a reformist platform,
largely based on the support from young voters and
the underprivileged. Roh's last-minute victory,
despite the "betrayal" of his ally Chung Mong-jun,
who had broken away sensing Roh's failure, was
more than just high drama for his ardent
followers.
Lee Hoon-gu, professor of
social psychology at Yonsei University in Seoul,
ran a commentary on why Roh was popular among
young voters. "To the majority of young and new
voters with a strong sense of nationalism, Roh may
have appeared as a symbol for self-reliance and
independence. They may have thought that it was
time for South Korea to have a leader who can
stand up to America and say 'No'. Then, they saw
Roh on the stage and cast their votes on him."
Dissected, Lee's subtle message is that
Roh wasn't necessarily presidential material. It
could have been someone else. Roh happened to be
at the right place at the right time.
Roh's "problem" began to be more
pronounced after he became the president. Bluntly
put, he cannot control his mouth, critics say. He
is a president, but he doesn't talk like a
president. He is also perceived as indiscreet and
inane. He became a favorite media gossip when he
blurted: "What's wrong with anti-Americanism?" or
"I feel like I cannot do the presidential job
because it's too tough." One of Roh's aides
described Roh as a person who becomes satiated
only after saying all and everything he has to
say.
As a president who likes to talk, and
talks too much, he also ended up making promises
he couldn't keep. A blogger, "Enki", carries in
his website dissected brain diagrams used in
anatomy class. He matches different parts of the
brain with different pledges made by Roh that have
yet to materialize.
One of the things Roh
did that upset greatly the nation's conservatives
was his more independent posture towards the once
rock-solid US-South Korea alliance. Some even went
so far as to say Roh shouldn't represent the
country, adding that foreign countries shouldn't
misunderstand the collective will of the South
Korean people just based on what Roh says. That's
more than an insult to the authority of the
nation's president. But then, critics say, it is
Roh to blame because he brought it all upon
himself.
Hwang Sang-min, professor of
psychology at Yonsei University in Seoul, points
out that Roh, who had humble beginnings in a poor
family, established himself as an "angry fighter"
against those with vested interests while working
as a labor lawyer. "Roh's defining image is that
of a fighter. He fights anything that represents
authority. George Bush was one of them," Hwang
said in a telephone interview.
"A country
needs authority. An organization needs authority.
Authority differs from authoritarianism. Roh says
he fought against authoritarianism, but he
actually destroyed authority altogether. He failed
to distinguish the two," Hwang said.
Now,
psychology, not strategy, appears to better
explain why Roh does the things the way he does.
Cheong Seong-chang, director of Inter-Korean
Relations Studies Program at the Sejong Institute,
a think-tank that often advises the government,
says Roh has a temper problem. For example, Cheong
points out, in Roh's meeting with George W Bush at
the recent Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, Roh
put Bush on the spot by confronting Bush to
publicly pledge the possibility of normalizing
relationship with North Korea, which the two had
privately discussed. These details, however,
weren't supposed to be leaked at that moment;
rather it was something that Bush had asked Roh to
deliver to Kim Jong-il on his behalf in the
North-South Korea summit, which was held in
October.
But Roh wanted to brag about it
"by making it public ahead of time. Roh tried to
bring interest to the issue," Cheong said, adding,
"Roh is a populist. He excites people. That
becomes strength when running for an election, but
becomes a weakness when running a nation."
When Roh was elected as South Korea
president in 2002, he earned a 48.9% of voters'
support. As the president, his popularity
plummeted to 5.7% at the end of 2006, the worst a
South Korean president has ever had.
The
criticism that Roh acts on impulse without
thinking enough about possible ramifications ha
long been maintained by his critics. But it also
has its share of believers as well. A
Korean-American psychologist, who runs a popular
blog, using a name "Newyorker" said: "The reason I
came to like Roh was because he is someone who
speaks his mind without calculation of its
ramifications. He differs from other South Korean
politicians who are all solemn and full of pompous
air."
Yet his blog roll, titled "Why Roh
Moo-hyun failed", is more self-revealing than
comforting. Moon Jung-in, dean of international
relations at Yonsei University, gives a spin to
the criticism on Roh by arguing that Roh actually
knows what he says and he says it deliberately.
"Roh, Impulsive? No, no, no," he said in an
interview, adding, "His every move is calculative.
He even makes himself look upset if necessary.
It's all strategic."
Moon is an advisor to
Roh. There is an old cliche in politics: "Your
mistake is my strategy." It is used to whitewash
one's mistake by making it appear as if it was
deliberately done.
Roh's supporters often
say Roh is a much-misunderstood hero. Some say Roh
is too ahead of his time. Others even compare him
with Jesus. In fact, Sohn Ho-cheol, professor of
political science at Sogang University, said Roh
appears to believe that he is a martyr fighting
against the established social mainstream. Roh's
advocates say it will take some time for South
Korea to have a more accurate assessment of Roh.
Interestingly, Roh continues to be more
popular outside South Korea. The New York Times
reporter, Howard French, predicted in his recent
column that after Roh steps down, "veneration of
Ro Moo-hyun will follow". Even the ideologically
different Chinese media named Roh as one of the
most influential 10 leaders of the world, and it
was not the first time it had done so. But
domestically, Roh's popularity was as low as 25.4%
in the latest poll, conducted December 26.
This week, Professor Hwang of Yonsei, who
specializes in developmental psychology, came up
with a psychological profile on Roh. Hwang hints
that Roh suffers from Asperger's Syndrome, one of
several autism-spectrum disorders in which one
lacks the perspective to see himself from the eyes
of others.
In answer to an e-mail query,
the psychiatrist Jung said of Roh: "I think one of
the things we professionals shouldn't do is to
give an over-simplistic comment on a person's
psychological state." But Jung isn't necessarily a
supporter for Roh in all instances. Last year, she
warned Roh against living in "his own world of
logic" in a column which appeared in South Korea's
progressive Hankyoreh Daily.
On another
occasion, she also advised Roh to refrain from a
desire to "prove his existence" too much. That was
a nuanced message to say, "Watch your mouth." It
is also a message she expressed in many different
ways over the years. Apparently, her most famous
patient didn't listen.
Sunny Lee
is a writer based in Beijing, where he has lived
for five years. A native of South Korea, Lee is a
graduate of Harvard University and Beijing Foreign
Studies University.
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