Antisocial personalities (commonly known as sociopaths or psychopaths) feel no pain (or have a very high threshold) at all-not their own, and not yours. Sociopaths care about winning, power, and hurting others. They are masters of deception, using trust, guilt and threats to manipulate others, and attain their goal. Related to anti-social personality, and more relevant to the cases in point, is the narcissist. They can feel pain-but only their pain (sorry you don't count). And since they are not aware of anyone else's pain, they do what they need to do in order to tend themselves. Neither the American people nor Obama's reputation exist as considerations in their minds, except to the degree that they can fill their needs.

Second, is the concept of a ‘split' in consciousness. A split in consciousness occurs as a result of trauma or unresolved painful conflict. Most of us have many aspects to our personalities. When we are talking to the bus driver, we behave in a certain way, and when we talk to the doctor we behave and feel differently than when we engage with our spouse. This is the normal ebb and flow of personality. We experience different states of mind/body (being), triggered by various non-conscious internal or external cues (e.g., smell, lighting, location, faces, physical states are all cues). These states of mind flow seamlessly and naturally as part of one's whole being.

A split off or non-integrated aspect of the self is a different state of being than ones normal self. In this situation, there is no normal flow, no seamless boundary between one state of mind and the other. Rather there is a ‘split'-which can be as wide as the grand canyon. The wider the gap, the less awareness one has of this ‘split-off' aspect. If it is not outright deception, as in the case of the narcissist/sociopath, then this lack of awareness allows someone like Daschle to proclaim the need for strict prosecution of tax evasion, while he is evading taxes.

We cannot be certain whether one or both of these processes (or other processes) are operative in these people, but we can be certain that they are toxic to the psychological recovery of this country. I think, with Daschle, we, the American people, dodged a bullet. Can you imagine the kind of health care policy such a person would construct for this country? It would have to be, to some degree, devoid of the ‘caring, empathic' aspect of health care. As it is, we are, courtesy of Daschle, Geithner, Killefer, Spitzer et al, left with one more hit to our collective integrity. Lets hope the Obama team lives up to its ethical promises.