The Casey Anthony trial has completely transfixed me. Personally, I think she is guilty as h-e-"double hockey stick". I also believe she is a sociopath. True sociopaths are rare. There are individuals who are disassociated from others but the majority of the time, they can still have and do find the capacity to empathize and care about another human being. A spouse, child, parent, etc. True sociopaths do not have this ability. I believe Casey Anthony is one of them.
Dr. Martha Stout, a clinical instructor at Harvard Medical School, writes a perfect description of a sociopath. I took this from the article, Inside the Mind of a Sociopath:
 |
| Notorious Sociopath & Murderer, Jeffrey Dahmer |
"Imagine - if you can - not having a conscience, none at all, no feelings of guilt or remorse no matter what you do, no limiting sense of concern of the well-being of strangers, friends, or even family members. Imagine no struggles with shame, not a single one in your whole life, no matter what kind of selfish, lazy, harmful, or immoral action you had taken. And pretend that the concept of responsibility is unknown to you, except as a burden others seem to accept without question, like gullible fools. Now add to this strange fantasy the ability to conceal from other people that your psychological makeup is radically different from theirs. Since everyone simply assumes that conscience is universal among human beings, hiding the fact that you are conscience-free is nearly effortless. You are not held back from any of your desires by guilt or shame, and you are never confronted by others for your cold-bloodedness. The ice water in your veins is so bizarre, so completely outside of their personal experience that they seldom even guess at your condition.
In other words, you are completely free of internal restraints, and your unhampered liberty to do just as you please, with no pangs of conscience, is conveniently invisible to the world. You can do anything at all, and still your strange advantage over the majority of people, who are kept in line by their consciences, will most likely remain undiscovered."
Sociopaths are the most manipulative of people. Most have learned to read people extremely well and know how to say and do just the right thing to get them out of whatever trouble they are in or get what they want out of a situation. Now, neither the defense nor the prosecution would want to claim her to be a sociopath. First, sociopath is not a viable diagnoses for the insanity plea. Many mass murderers have gone on to face the death penalty that were deemed sociopaths. The prosecution doesn't want to bring it up because they have to prove, for 1st degree murder, that Casey was of sound mind and intentionally plotted out and in full knowledge followed through. Giving the defense even the ability to say, "She doesn't fully know or understand what the consequences of her actions were," is also not a good idea. But I truly, truly believe this woman is guilty and is a clinical sociopath. I also believe that she deserves to be put away.
 |
| Nancy Grace from Jordan's Blog & Online Studio |
Now, on to Nancy Grace. I cannot stand this woman. I hate when she is on a panel and I hate listening to her "analyze" a case. She is not a legal analyst, she is a sensationalist. Maybe at one time she was a trial lawyer but now its all for show. She loves to use trigger words and personal speculation, a lot of which would not be admissible in a courtroom. Her vocal inflections alone are enough to make me want to change the channel. The majority of the time she sounds pissed off and the few times her voice is kind, the change from angry to soft and kind and then back to angry again is so overly pronounced its comical. Whenever she is on a panel, even if another commentator is saying something that she seemingly agrees with, she will interrupt them and talk angrily as if they have said something wrong. Why is this woman on tv and why in the world do people like her? I bring her up because in my fascination with this trial and my desire to hear about it all, I have watched her a lot. And I just don't get why the people call in to her show and say, "I love you Nancy.."
2 comments:
You wrote this for me, didn't you? ;)
Anyway, a couple of thoughts: on sociopathy, there is actually a psychiatric condition often used to "diagnose" sociopaths, which is Anti-Social Personality Disorder (found in the DSM-IV-TR). Whether or not it's accurate to use ASPD and sociopathy as synonyms is a pretty intense debate. That said, attempts to classify sociopaths and/or people with ASPD as "criminally insane" are generally not successful. In fact, unlike what the world of TV tells us, it is actually quite difficult to be found so mentally incapacitated that the state cannot prosecute you because you are unable to assist in your own defense.
Nancy Grace is a hack and I can't stand her. She's a former prosecutor, and while I don't know what her record was like, I suspect there's a reason she left and became a TV "analyst" instead. She plays off of every misconception that people have about the CRJ system thanks to shows like L&O and CSI. I have not been following this trial at all, so I don't know what she's been saying, but I'm pretty confident that she's probably off the mark like she always is.
I was wondering if you were ever going to reply.. This post was basically cat nip for Shea. Lol
Post a Comment