The theory has been floated before that George’s youthful indiscretions in drug abues and addiction to alcohol may be having an effect on his brain. While I’m sure we’ll never know for sure – here is a video comparing his vocal performance from 10 years ago with now. It’s quite remarkable. Seeing him 10 years ago, I can understand why he might be so magnetic. His hick-ish quality comes off as unassuming instead of bumbling dumbass.
Bush's Pre-Senile Dementia
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3 responses to “Bush's Pre-Senile Dementia”
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I get a “page not found” error going to that link. Looks like it may have been removed.
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Re: Bush and presenile dementia
The most striking bit of decline, as indicated by this particular video, is decreased verbal fluency — rate of word production per unit of time — sometimes referred to as progressive nonfluent aphasia. That is generally an indicator not so much of presenile dementia but of frontal/temporal dementia. Patients with frontotemporal dementia remain oriented to time and place, show preserved visuospatial ability, and do not initially show memory deficits. However, they show “early and progressive change in language, characterized by problems with expression of language or severe naming difficulty and problems with word meaning.” (Work Group on Frontotemporal Dementia and Pick’s Disease)
Mean age of onset is mid to late 50’s. Frontotemporal dementia carries with it a high risk of impulsivity.
Reference: Razani J, Boone KB, Miller BL, Lee A, Sherman D: Neuropsychological performance of right and left frontotemporal dementia compared to Alzheimer’s disease J Int Neuropsychol Soc 2001 7 468-480.
The best way to determine whether such a diagnosis is accurate, without access to Bush himself, would be to calculate a verbal fluency score from a random sample of speeches ten years ago and from a random sample now.
Otherwise there is the obvious problem of selective editing.
Dr. Jordan B. Peterson
Department of Psychology
University of Toronto
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
M5S3G3 -
Dr. Peterson,
I am a writer from Philadelphia and wanted to know if there are any videos available (particularly iterviews) with people suffering from frontotemporal dementia? I have read plenty on this terrible disease, but would like to see patience in different phases.
Hope to hear from you.
Brian M. Cooney
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