"Old Hickory" and a New Diagnosis

Donald Matthew Mender, Yale University School of Medicine, has published Boundary Violations of the U.S. Constitution: The Case of Old Hickory in The Neurobiology of Social Disruption: Intersectional Perspectives on Psychiatry, Pathology, and Society (Potomac Institute Press, 2015). Here is the abstract.

Object relations, the developmental neurobiology of attachment, and critical theory are enlisted in order to illuminate ways that the poorly bounded psychodynamics of dysfunctional American political leaders resonate with mass constituencies to promote public policies violating checks and balances specified by the U. S. Constitution. A case study of Andrew Jackson is used as an illustration.

Download the essay from SSRN at the link.