What Happens when Leaders with Intermittent Explosive Disorders Interact?

Dear President Bush,

Despite Tom Cruise’s diagnosis that psychiatry is a bunch of bunk, those physicians keep conducting research. The June edition of the Archives of General Psychiatry reveals a new diagnosis, intermittent explosive disorder. It is characterized by “multiple outbursts that are way out of proportion to the situation. These angry outbursts often include threats or aggressive actions and property damage”. It begins in adolescence and runs through adulthood.

The survey shows 5 to 9 percent of the population affected by this disease. What happens if someone with IED gets elected to office in the U.S. or elsewhere in the world? Should multiple leaders have the syndrome and they have conflict in their interaction, what is the likely result? Does this make you want to have more or less countries with nuclear weapons? Why do peaceful leaders allow the placing of weapons into space, much less spearhead that effort?

I am concerned that numerous world leaders may have this condition as evidenced by their behaviors. You, Hugo Chavez, and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad quickly come to mind. What happens when two or three of you interact? Will you whip each other into a frenzied state? Or will one by virtue of size overwhelm the other?

An interesting natural analogy will take place July 4th. Two huge powerful storms on Jupiter will pass close enough for potential fireworks. Big Red, the huge red spot, is a monstrous storm with 350 mph winds and has been going for hundreds of years. Red Jr., its younger counterpart has similar wind speed but is much smaller. As red symbolizes anger, it might be interesting to watch the two storms interact on July 4th. There might be some lessons in it as your skirmishes with Iran and Venezuela continue.

As you claim to be proactive, how could the world implement systems that screen out potential leaders with intermittent explosive disorder from serving in the top job? Think about it and let me know your thoughts. That is if this letter didn’t send you into an uncontrollable rage…