Friday, November 8, 2013

Frequently Asked Questions on the JFK Assassination (Pt. 1- Oswald's Background)


1. What personality disorder(s) did Lee Oswald have, if any?

BPD - or borderline personality disorder, is now generally believed to have its genesis in  'schizophrenogenic mothers’[1]. Often, this can arise from incest- or some other form of emotional or physical abuse. While not asserting this happened to Oswald, there are some other markers which give indications it may have. Those include:

i) Borderlines tend to have significant sexual difficulties (ibid.) (We know Oswald had these in his marriage)


ii)  Borderlines crave attention. (We know Oswald did from his TV appearances, and flaunting his Russian while in the Marines)


iii)  From 25% to 65% of borderlines have suffered separations from a parent, generally in preschool or adolescent years[2]. (This conforms to what we also know about Oswald's early family history).

iv)  Families of BPDs tend to be isolated and self-contained. Thus borderlines have no external families by which to gauge their pathology[3]. We know this applied to Oswald's mother and her family – which kept their issues to themselves as far as they could.


v)  Borderline adolescent males tend to aggressively act out their impulses. These can include bouts of hyperactivity, stealing, truancy etc.[4] We know this applied to Oswald when his family lived in New York and later, New Orleans.
vi) In late adolescence and adulthood - borderline males display a low tolerance to frustration which "makes it difficult for them to stay in school, and likewise wander between jobs and residences"[5]. As we know Oswald changed jobs often as well as places of residence.

In sum, it is clear that Lee Harvey Oswald likely had at least one personality issue: BPD or borderline personality disorder. It is also quite likely he had at least one other, since "an estimated two-thirds of borderlines have one other personality disorder[6]..In addition,

Kutcher et al (1989)[7]  have found electro-physiological abnormalities that are 'unique' to both schizotypal and borderline disorders. This strongly suggests that BPD and schizotypal disorder share a common genesis, and may well represent a single type of schizophrenia.
 
It should also be noted that a primary feature of BPD is 'splitting' which means a person can alternate between being very caring, warm and sensitive - as his wife Marina has acknowledged in interviews[8], and being aloof and  emotionally withdrawn depending on the subject's perception of the person he is relating to at that time[9]. (If the image is positive, the subject will be warm and caring, if negative, the subject will be hostile and withdrawn. This splitting of images of perception likely has its roots in how the child related to his mother in formative years, alternately seeing her as 'good' – or 'bad' depending on her actions and her level of care, or perceived care)

Lastly, it is important to note that borderline personality disorder is not a sociopathy, indeed: "depressed and lonely borderline males hide behind sociopathic facades" [10]. Hence, because of certain borderline tendencies and images - 'feeling of omnipotence' - it is possible to confuse their condition with that of sociopaths.[11] Clearly, as a probable sufferer of BPD, Lee Harvey Oswald was no sociopath. Clearly also, he was likely confused with one, which is why it became easier to accept or believe he was the assassin.


2. Would this have made Lee more or less likely to be the assassin?


In my own opinion, and taking key factors into account, I believe it would have made him much less likely to be the assassin. However, his 'profile' would have made him more likely to be accused of being the assassin.

Why less likely as an assassin? While the borderline male (adolescent) does have some propensity for violence, it is on the scale of the known, interpersonal level: fist fights, destruction of property. As we know Oswald was guilty of these in his younger (teen) years. However, the assassination of a sitting President elicits an entire new magnitude and order of violence, which Oswald clearly did not possess. He did occasionally inflict violence on Marina, but it is an enormous step from that (violence to a known, loved one) to killing a stranger - even an important stranger. This simply does not fit a schizotypal-borderline profile.
 
 
Some  may opine at this point, ‘but he took a shot at Gen. Edwin Walker!’  No, he did not. No evidence points to it, and what evidence is available discloses a Latino character and short Caucasian in a 1957 Chevy. The car is in a photograph presented as an “exhibit” by the Warren Commission, but the license plate area is defaced. Why? The Latino character is almost certainly Sergio Archacha Smith, and the short Caucasian is the Oswald double that James Douglass documents so meticulously – including multiple witness statements, in is book ‘JFK and the Unspeakable'. It is worthwhile to note that not even Walker himself, in a deposition, believed Oswald made the shot.
 
This evidence was supported by Robert Surrey, one of Walker’s aides who spotted two men prowling around the residence days before the shooting.  The car was described as a 1957 Chevrolet and one of the man as dark-complexioned.  This description of two men and the car exactly fits the description given by James Douglass (op. cit.)  of Sergio Archacha Smith and an Oswald double who drove with him out to the Trinity River after the assassination.
 
 
The fact that Oswald never learned to drive is also critical here. Given a Warren Commission file photo showing the (actual ’57) Chevy parked next to Walker’s home – but with the drivers’ license cut out from the image, why would anyone want to protect Oswald if he really was the perp? It makes no sense. The only reason anyone – likely the Dallas PD or FBI – cut out the plate identification is to protect someone else other than Oswald!
 
 
Another salient point: the slug found at the scene was from a 30.06 as reported from the FBI files cited in Mark North’s excellent book Act of Treason (page 255). So how did a 30.06 rifle mutate into Oswald’s alleged 6.5 mm Mannlicher –Carcano some months later, when all the evidence is Oswald never fired such or was ever photographed with such?  Why would Hoover, the FBI, the Warren Commission and the Dallas Police be so eager to hang this shooting on Oswald, to later implicate him in the JFK assassination? Mark North again has the answer[12]:

“Hoover, the Dallas P.D. and the Warren Commission realized early on that an examination of Oswald’s past reveals only a pacifist engaged in leftist activism. Simply put, he is nonviolent

North aptly points out (ibid.) subsequently that the Walker shooting – like other “media myths” -  was totally unrelated to the assassination and further:
 
“would have faded into total obscurity but for the fiction that will be created on 11/22/63”

Again, another effort to paint the “red patsy” in time for the real culprits to take out Kennedy.
In effect,  the inherent instability implicit in BPD  would have rendered Oswald perfect fodder for being a 'patsy' (since BPD manipulators are also easily manipulated themselves). Hence, he would be more likely to be accused of being the assassin, particularly by those who painted him into this position. He made the ideal  'fall guy', and his BPD personality profile doubtless played a role in his initial selection in the fake defector program.

(To be continued)




[1] Cauwels, J.M.: 1992, 'Imbroglio: Rising to the Challenges of Borderline Personality Disorder' , W.W. Norton & Company.
[2] Cauwels, op. cit. p. 233

[3] Cauwels, op. cit,. p. 235.


[4] Cauwels, op. cit. p. 144.


[5] Cauwels, op. cit. p. 145.


[6] Cauwels, op. cit. p. 62


[7]Kutcher, S. et al. 1989, 'Biological Psychiatry', Vol. 26, pp. 766-74

[8] Marina Oswald Porter, on 'Oprah Winfrey Show', 11/22/96.

[9] Cauwels, op. cit., p.194-95

[10] Cauwels, op. cit., p. 149
[11]
See also: Kelly, Delos:1989, 'Deviant Behavior', St. Martin's Press.(Chapters 5, 16 and 22)

12] North, Mark: 1991: Act of Treason, Carroll & Graf Publishers, p. 255.


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