The Witzelsucht Memorandum
the un-blog

Where Top-Hat, Red-Carpet Service is Practically a Motto

Witzelsucht (vit'sel-zookt) [Ger.]  a mental condition characteristic of frontal lobe lesions and marked by the making of poor jokes and puns and the telling of pointless stories, at which the patient himself is intensely amused. --Dorland's Medical Dictionary
What Pat Robertson said about Ariel Sharon wasn't Robertson's most disturbing statement of the week
Lost amid the hullabaloo over Pat Robertson's pronouncement that the debilitating stroke suffered by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was the wrathful punishment of an angry God exercised by Sharon excising God's little half-acre was Robertson's more alarming claim, two days earlier, that God told him that another Supreme Court judge will soon retire, and that the Senate will confirm Samuel Alito's appointment to that panel.

Alarming, that is, for Mr. Robertson's family and friends, and anyone else who cares about his well being ... or America's. For while it's passable to analyze the world through the lens of one's own cosmology and see God's hand in every day events, believing that God has taken time out from running the universe to jaw at you personally may be cause for concern.

And Pat Robertson, past contender for the GOP presidential nod, has often heard God's voice. The Christian Coalition founder has claimed that God told him that he should purchase a television station, that the 2004 vote would be a Bush blowout, and that Robertson would do holy works or possibly find work in a theater ("I have chosen you to usher in the coming of My Son"). God's also furnished Robertson with yearly business forecasts, though Robertson didn't mention what fiscal year the Almighty uses.

Such statements may hint at the cause of Mr. Robertson's bizarre behavior. For if Mr. Robertson genuinely believes that he has heard God's voice, and that he heard this voice in his head, then he may be suffering from a mental illness such as schizophrenia. Voices in one's head is the best-known symptom of this disorder. They sometimes urge sufferers to violence, as with David Berkowitz, the "Son of Sam" killer, who believed that the devil spoke to him through a neighbor's dog. Mr. Robertson may be suffering from a similar affliction. That could explain his penchant for issuing wacky proclamations that land him on the front page. 

Anyone who cares about Mr. Robertson's well being should be worried. The rest of us should worry because Mr. Robertson's views carry great weight in the White House, which hungers for the support and activism of his vast constituency. Even a tiny possibility that the nation's conduct could be swayed by the delusions and hallucinations of a mentally ill man is too much to tolerate.

There is hope. The degradation of Mr. Robertson mental state and his descent into madness might be stayed by psychiatric intervention. With appropriate diagnosis and treatment, not excluding medication and electroconvulsive therapy, there's no reason why Mr. Robertson can't go on to lead a normal, productive life. But only the encouragement of those close to Mr. Robertson can make that happen. 

So act before it's too late. Sign Wit Memo's petition urging Pat Robertson's friends to urge him to get the checkup from the neck up that he so clearly needs. Just clip the coupon below and paste it into an e-mail to Wit Memo..

We, who care about the welfare of our nation and believe that its actions should be based on decisions reflecting only sound mental health, petition you, the friends and associates of Pat Robertson, to urge him, in the most strident terms, to seek the attention of qualified mental health professionals, preferably psychiatrists, and to avail himself of whatever course of treatment those professionals advise. (Not excluding, as we mentioned above, medication and electroconvulsive therapy. Especially electroconvulsive therapy.)

 
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