Surveys taken shortly after the Kennedy assassination recorded the startling depth of the feelings that citizens have about the [presidency]. A large share of the population experienced symptoms classically associated with grief over the death of a loved one: they cried; were tired, dazed, nervous; had trouble eating and sleeping. A quick scan through history found similar public responses to the deaths of all sitting presidents, popular or not, by murder or natural causes...Kennedy’s death illustrated the deep psychological ties of the public to the presidency...
http://www.vqronline.org/essay/james-david-barber-and-psychological-presidency
I have read that previously and it did "startle" psychologists. The Kennedy assassination is among my earliest memories of public occurrences. I have written about it before. I was too young to have the deep feelings that adults had. However, I have thought several times, "If something happened to Obama..." I would cry! Yes, I would! I would be dazed. Grief-stricken, I don't know what all. I have never felt a personal connection with a president as strongly as I do with Obama.
There is an important psychological tie between adults and a president. I saw yesterday people protesting President Hoover with signs on their pickup trucks, "In Hoover we trusted, now we're busted." They "trusted" and felt betrayed. The psychological tie between president and people is not always positive. I studied the Cuban Missile Crisis in graduate school, it is the most studied decision in American presidential history, is written of admiringly by scholars and I admired JFK. I felt betrayed later in life when I learned that it was a crisis personal to JFK.
After FDR became president there were photographs of his smiling visage everywhere, in homes, stores, barber shops, everywhere. Alistair Cook tells the story of going to check in to a hotel with some friends. Behind the check-in desk was a particularly hideous rendition of FDR, like those Elvis-on-velvet jobs, it looked like FDR had too much rouge on his cheeks or something. Cook and his friends joked about the likeness and the hotel manager kicked them out!
Powerful psychological tie between president and people.
http://www.vqronline.org/essay/james-david-barber-and-psychological-presidency
I have read that previously and it did "startle" psychologists. The Kennedy assassination is among my earliest memories of public occurrences. I have written about it before. I was too young to have the deep feelings that adults had. However, I have thought several times, "If something happened to Obama..." I would cry! Yes, I would! I would be dazed. Grief-stricken, I don't know what all. I have never felt a personal connection with a president as strongly as I do with Obama.
There is an important psychological tie between adults and a president. I saw yesterday people protesting President Hoover with signs on their pickup trucks, "In Hoover we trusted, now we're busted." They "trusted" and felt betrayed. The psychological tie between president and people is not always positive. I studied the Cuban Missile Crisis in graduate school, it is the most studied decision in American presidential history, is written of admiringly by scholars and I admired JFK. I felt betrayed later in life when I learned that it was a crisis personal to JFK.
After FDR became president there were photographs of his smiling visage everywhere, in homes, stores, barber shops, everywhere. Alistair Cook tells the story of going to check in to a hotel with some friends. Behind the check-in desk was a particularly hideous rendition of FDR, like those Elvis-on-velvet jobs, it looked like FDR had too much rouge on his cheeks or something. Cook and his friends joked about the likeness and the hotel manager kicked them out!
Powerful psychological tie between president and people.
