[Preliminary Diagnostic Impression of Jack Ruby by Manfred S. Guttmacher] Page: 3 of 12
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JACK L. RUBY - PRELIMINARY DIAGNOSTIC IMPRESSION:
Despite an outwardly friendly and Ingratiating manner,
this patient seethes with hostility. Much of the time he Is
able to keep It under control, but his controls are brittle
and when they break, the hostility erupts with volcanic
force.
^He appears to be Incapable of establishing deep and
meaningful relationships with others. The patient impresses
this Examiner as an Individual who does not recognize subtle-
ties or nuances in personal relationships; people are likely
to be either friends or foes.
Because of his deep-seated feelings of inadequacy he is
acutely aware of his position as a member of a minority group,
against which bigotry and prejudice is frequently directed.
Doubtless, this was an important factor in the high regard
which he had for President Roosevelt and President Kennedy.
The fact that President Kennedy was, himself, a member of a
minority group and his determined stand on civil rights had a
special impact on this patient.
There is no evidence of psychotic thinking at this time -
no actual breaks with reality are discernible. He impresses
me, however, as an individual whose adjustment is tenuous
and in whom, under overwhelming stress, a dissociative state
could readily develop, which would permit unconscious needs and
impulses to assume complete momentary dominance.
The patient's psychological relationship to President
Kennedy was a very unusual one. Apparently he was not merely
the idealized and idolized father figure as the head of State,
but he was, in addition, seen as the leading member of the per-
fect family group. The patient^ in all probability because of
his own wretched early family life, became, in a sense, a
vicarious, participating member of this group. This type of
identification with a nation's ruling family group was formerly
seen commonly in many European and Oriental countries. It is
far less usual in the United States.
An effort has been made to reconstruct the actions and
reactions of the patient, following the President's assassina-
tion, from his own account and those of his sister Eva and his
roommate, George Senator. He was in the newspaper office when
the tragic announcement was made. He had already been greatly
disturbed that day by the black bordered advertisement in the
Dallas Morning News, over the signature of Bernard Weisman.
According to the patient, when he heard the news of the
President's murder a lot of fragmented ideas came into con-
sciousness, - he would have to leave Dallas, the town was
ruined, *1 felt like a nothing person, like the world ended -
I did not want to go on living anymore." He telephoned his
sister Eva, who was crying hysterically. He then called several
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Dallas (Tex.). Police Department. [Preliminary Diagnostic Impression of Jack Ruby by Manfred S. Guttmacher], report, January 7, 1963; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth338321/m1/3/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Dallas Municipal Archives.