Naming confusion and emotional fusion

Eran and I have been teaching an in-depth class on Supportive Listening over the past few months. And in the class discussions about the at times irresistible urge to give advice, we've talked about emotional fusion, or fusion for short.

The one liner on emotional fusion is this:

Emotional fusion is when the boundaries between two people become blurred to the extent that it's unclear where one ends and the other begins.

Much more on this later. For now, I found a fascinating New York times article about how some Barrack Obama supporters are taking on his middle name, Hussein as a show of solidarity.

On the hand, sure, Obama's getting a rough time from hard core conservatives about a given middle name that doesn't play well in part of the country. And some of his supporters want to take a stand and say "this isn't right." Fine.

But it seems very "fusiony" to me to then take on that name as well. Seems to blur the boundaries between self and other. This is one symptom of Obama-mania--supporters who take on his name.

Whether I support Obama or not is beside the point--the broader issue is that there is a man running for president, and a phenomenon around him. Something special is happening, and everyone picks up on that--even those (especially those?) who are on the opposite side of the political spectrum.

It leads me to wonder, in the midst of such emotional intensity, and the resulting fusion, where this energy may lead, and what the guy at the center, Mr. Obama, would be wise to do about it.