![]() |
While 58 percent of Republicans reported having excellent mental health, only 38 percent of Democrats described themselves that way.
Advertisement - story continues below
The study was no surprise to Dr. Lyle H. Rossiter, a veteran psychiatrist and author of a controversial book that makes the clinical case liberalism is a mental illness.
"Based on strikingly irrational beliefs and emotions, modern liberals relentlessly undermine the most important principles on which our freedoms were founded," says Rossiter, author of "The Liberal Mind: The Psychological Causes of Political Madness." "Like spoiled, angry children, they rebel against the normal responsibilities of adulthood and demand that a parental government meet their needs from cradle to grave."
TRENDING: Ivanka Trump made a quiet visit to Maui after the wildfires
While political activists on the other side of the spectrum have made similar observations, Rossiter boasts professional credentials and a life virtually free of activism and links to "the vast right-wing conspiracy."
Advertisement - story continues below
For more than 35 years he has diagnosed and treated more than 1,500 patients as a board-certified clinical psychiatrist and examined more than 2,700 civil and criminal cases as a board-certified forensic psychiatrist. He received his medical and psychiatric training at the University of Chicago.
Rossiter says the kind of liberalism being displayed by both Barack Obama and his Democratic primary opponent Hillary Clinton can only be understood as a psychological disorder.
"A social scientist who understands human nature will not dismiss the vital roles of free choice, voluntary cooperation and moral integrity – as liberals do," he says. "A political leader who understands human nature will not ignore individual differences in talent, drive, personal appeal and work ethic, and then try to impose economic and social equality on the population – as liberals do. And a legislator who understands human nature will not create an environment of rules which over-regulates and over-taxes the nation's citizens, corrupts their character and reduces them to wards of the state – as liberals do."
Dr. Rossiter says the liberal agenda preys on weakness and feelings of inferiority in the population by:
- creating and reinforcing perceptions of victimization;
- satisfying infantile claims to entitlement, indulgence and compensation;
- augmenting primitive feelings of envy;
- rejecting the sovereignty of the individual, subordinating him to the will of the government.
Advertisement - story continues below
"The roots of liberalism – and its associated madness – can be clearly identified by understanding how children develop from infancy to adulthood and how distorted development produces the irrational beliefs of the liberal mind," he says. "When the modern liberal mind whines about imaginary victims, rages against imaginary villains and seeks above all else to run the lives of persons competent to run their own lives, the neurosis of the liberal mind becomes painfully obvious."
By the way, the Gallup poll conducted late last year also found only 43 percent of independents describe themselves as in excellent mental health. While Rossiter thinks he understands the discrepancy in the state of mental health between Democrats and Republicans, the Gallup pollsters could only scratch their heads.
"The reason the relationship exists between being a Republican and more positive mental health is unknown, and one cannot say whether something about being a Republican causes a person to be more mentally healthy or whether something about being mentally healthy causes a person to choose to become a Republican," the study concluded.
Advertisement - story continues below
Related offer:
Get "The Liberal Mind: The Psychological Causes of Political Madness"
Get Michael Savage's prophetic "Liberalism Is a Mental Disorder"
Advertisement - story continues below
Previous story:
Liberals clinically mad, concludes top psychiatrist