Feb 24, 2013

Jodi Arias brings attention to the Narcissist and/ or Sociopath In Your Life - Watch out for these Predators Among us!

This article on Sociopaths and Narcissists is an extremely important series about the sometimes subtle, sometimes glaring qualities of Narcissists and Sociopaths. All women - and men - need to read about these dangerous people that live among us. They are growing more prolific and they usually carry themselves with what appears to be  above average intelligence, articulate and often charming natures and  physically - they appear "normal".

In the year 2000 I had a near deadly experience with a Sociopath/Narcissist who turned out to be a batterer, a rapist and an attempted murderer.

He did not appear to be any of those things.

He wore neatly pressed attractive suits and ties nearly every day. Unbeknownst to me, they were mostly Armani suits - which it turned out he procured at consignment stores and Goodwill's in wealthier suburbs, where high end designer castaways were more plentiful.

He drove a BMW sedan - with what later turned out to be a stolen license plate, ie he did not have the title to the vehicle, undoubtedly having procured it illegally.

The man never worked a day in his life, unless one counted a very short stint at a photo developing shop where he was fired for stealing expensive equipment.

This, again, I discovered after the crimes.


He operated out of his elderly parents home in Fairfield Connecticut, they, having long transplanted to Georgia for the warmer climate. This left  their forty year old divorced son to "watch over their house" unwittingly giving a dangerous predator a perfect cover, naturally claiming his parents residence as his own.


A basic colonial n the Fairfield lakes area purchased in the early seventies for 40,000, in the late nineties, now lent the appearance of  middle class respectability in a town that had grown leaps and bounds in popularity. In fact Fairfield would be enjoying its highest Real Estate surge throughout the eighties and nineties.

Commuters from NYC and Stamford could not afford the obscenely rising real estate prices in Westport  New Canaan Wilton, and certainly Greenwich. In droves they now purchased 20 miles up the coast in Fairfield. a smallish town rife with much more affordable homes minus the soulless snobbery that had begun to swallow the region

This snobbery was the very reason my parents ultimately left Westport moving to the Branford Guilford area where small town quaintness and charm could be had without the insufferable snootiness that had consumed my childhood town.

I mention these seemingly innocuous facts because  the sociopath that almost killed me was obsessed with money affluence and the appearance of success.

I soon began to see a chronic restlessness in this man; Charming at first, he now seemed bitterly unhappy with his lot in life. There was a good deal of soap boxing about the many people who had wronged him and were somehow responsible for what his life Lacked.
He spoke of an abusive mother who "destroyed any chance of happiness he had.He regaled me with emotional stories of corrupt businessmen who ruined him financially..

Being a naive kind and compassionate person I stupidly took him at his word often giving him latitude due to an abusive childhood that again I later discovered was completely false. He invented his abused childhood with a precise purpose. He knew it would buy him sympathy from me.


He would dress meticulously each day in a freshly dry cleaned suit, with literally no where to go;
He would troll at local coffee shops, restaurants bagel stores and small businesses looking for victims, typically of the female persuasion. He was however an equal opportunity sociopath, gender only mattered insofar as what he was looking to procure for himself.at that moment or that day.


As this excellent set of linked articles so aptly describes Narcissists Sociopaths view all people as objects to fulfill a need or desire, or as was often the case with this textbook Sociopath, he often used people as bridges; the appearance albeit erroneous of credibility which in turn helped him to use and or abuse other people in a perverse cyclic mode of operandi that in the short term worked well, until he was found out and had to move to another geographic area. I later discovered he was working the Greenwich Wilton area simultaneous with disastrous results on many other women - and men's lives.

For example he would earnestly pursue a "friendship" with woman related to a prominent family in the area; At the time that I first met him I was told he was having lunch with the sister of the Mayor of Bridgeport. This was at an obscure coffee shop called Art Greens on Black Rock Turnpike ( The shop is no longer there)

I later found out that this man was merely having an impromptu cup of coffee with the mayors younger sister and indeed she had simply run into him at the coffee shop and he'd foisted himself upon her insisting she stay for a cup of coffee and a chat. She like me at the time was too polite for her own good and this is the exact type of person that sociopaths and narcissists have their antennas honed for, as we make perfect victims.

Unfortunately this man led the owner of the coffee shop and a gaggle of regulars to believe that he was dating  this woman and that they were in fact and item.

Note; It should be mentioned that I am the antithesis of an elitist, despite, or perhaps because of my Upper middle class roots. Growing up in huge lonely homes in Westport Connecticut  a sprawling estate directly on the Long Island Sound only served to convince me as a child and young adult that money did not buy a happy loving family.

 This is directly related to the role of the so called relationship between the Sociopath and the mayors sister. I down played important instincts that right off the bat were telling me that despite this mans seeming charm, there was something wrong with him something dangerous even.

And then I would think to myself..."but he dated the mayor"s sister for  almost a year/ I know this for a fact, so how could he be a psycho?"

 I knew the Mayor second hand as he had attended UConn with my eldest sister. I was also aware that his family was rife with lawyers who were all well known and respected in the Bridgeport/ fairfield area. This wasn't simply the sister of the mayor, this was the sister of a well known and at the time very respected family.

Unfortunately and foolishly I was trusting a sociopaths claims that he had dated the mayors youngest sister for a year, especially when it seemed corroborated by the people at the coffee shop. But again the owner of the coffee shop as well as the regular patrons had only seen the two together a handful of times and they also took his word that the two were an "Item"

 This is where I wince at my own naivete and how easy it must have been for this man to bamboozle me.
 I think he thought Id be impressed that he'd dated this women, when in fact I was not the sort of person to be awed by such a thing at all! However it served instead as a misleading counter to my growing gut feeling that this man was not who nor what he professed to be and indeed that there was much amiss with many of his claims about his life, including his so called career and a constant stream of casual lies and secretiveness regarding his own life paralleled by an irrational growing demand to know where I was at al times.

I was begging to see signs of extreme jealousy and my sister who didn't like him from the moment she met him kept claiming that he was driving by my cottage in Fairfield during the wee hours of the morning. Then there was his growing propensity to attempt push my family and friends out of my life, particularly my sister who lived up the street and my little nephew whom I adored. None of this seemed normal and I began to pull away and all hell broke loose.
In retrospect it is not a coincidence at all that this is in fact the same mayor that a few years later was convicted  for bribery, racketeering, extortion and  a gaggle of other federal charges.

You see, the man that nearly killed me had an antenna for people who had  moral weaknesses be it outright criminal involvement or simply chronic adult, drug use fellow scam artists on larger and smaller scales and his cohorts ran the gamut from a very casual acquaintanceship with the mayors brothers to involvement with small time con men who he would use and extricate services from, with promises of future business with his myriad of prominent local connections.

After breaking off the relationship this man as diplomatically as possible he walked into my home through a back door  and spent several hours assaulting me and very nearly killing me with multiple blows to my head against a plaster wall, and the wood floor where he had dragged my lifeless body. He continued to smash and pummel my head as he alternately stood over me and railed at me for such things as "not introducing him to my parents"  He punctuated each bizarre accusation with either a smash of the back of side of my head into the floor or a karate type blow to my temples and boxing of my ears . I was choked alternately until I became unconscious which is when he would stop shake me by my concussed damaged head only to start choking me once again.

Soon thereafter he began pulling off his tied to finish me off or so I believed, and when I finally mustered some small strength to move away on my back he changed his mind and began to undo my belt instead. I believe he realized that his DNA would be on his tie and that this could be present possible evidence pointing to him. When I saw that, my Adrenalin kicked in and I began to yell and plead, my voice box had been damaged from the severe choking screaming was impossible; Photos of my neck taken the following day clearly showed his fingerprints on my THROAT in deep purple furrows.

To this day, I will never forget the empty dead look in this mans eyes that resembled an animal just before the first terrible blow of the back of head into my living room wall. Plaster with wooden lathes behind it somehow miraculously despite his using all of his strength  it did not knock me completely out or kill me as he clearly expected it would. I slumped down the walls tilted hideously my legs buckled and a sound came from my mouth that I didn't recognize as myself or even human. But I fought to stay conscious, believing I would surely be killed and my body disposed of  if I gave in to the lure of the unconscious. As He peered into my face it was with disbelief that I was conscious and the disbelief seemed to turn into rage that I was still breathing.


This man convinced a fair amount of educated women and men that he was alternately an "investment banker' a real estate developer, and volunteered with orphans in Sarajevo

After the criminal court proceedings we discovered he assaulted at least four other women each one too terrified to report the incidents to Police. He had told me in no uncertain terms that he would kill me if I ever told the police. He held me all night as I was in and out of consciousness refusing to let me call an ambulance, unable to see out of one eye temples swollen purple eyes whites and bruised ears something I later discovered was called Battle sign. I was certain I would never wake up with bleeding in my brain from over 40 blows to my temple region an area that has the thinnest bone covering the brain.

I was not alone. This man ingratiated himself into the lives of some fairly prominent people in Fairfield New Haven Counties, including Attorneys, Politicians and a myriad of small local businesses, almost always using other faux connections to make the new connections. He pored over newspapers  to absorb every new real estate project and local political happenings in order to present a believable version of a successful investor and man about town.

As I was awarded a standing criminal restraining order, ( lifetime) the Police inform me of this man's whereabouts from time to time. They recently warned me he is currently living with a much older wealthy woman in Southport Connecticut.

He uses various misspelled versions of his last name in order to avoid detection of his criminal history (both the felonious charges for the crimes against me, as well other less serious charges such as check forgery) the four violent felonies committed against me were plead down and this man was given a 3 year suspended sentence: Criminal Restraint first degree Assault second degree terroristic threatening and Stalking all magically became misdemeanors in a plea deal that is standard fare at GA2 superior Court.

I pray for the woman that he lives with and is supported by:  I am certain that this man has committed violence against her and likely is abusing her considering his track record with women. I fear for her life. Partner and domestic violence is statistically rarely reported by the wealthy; There is a huge emphasis on appearances and despite how far we think we've come, the stigma associated with interpersonal violence is alive and well.

He has surely convinced her via force or contrition not to report him to Police or he will go to prison for a long long time( presumably as a repeat offender).The battered women's syndrome has a tight hold over even the most intelligent successful and independent women.  Lenore Walker defines this complex and frustrating relationship and the victim's shame that helps perpetuate the cycle of  violence and the ensuing honeymoon
  .
This post began with my eyes trained upon the murder trial of Jodi Arias. The now thirty two year old woman who " confessed" to killing ex boyfriend Travis Alexander in 2008. After watching her on the stand  for days it's become clear that Arias is a Sociopath and  has Narcissist Personality disorder,. the former statistically a much rarer occurrence in women.

Arias's "confession" is obviously a complete farce. And as is so often the case she maligned her victim's character whilst trying to absolve herself of pre-meditated murder. It is obvious to me that this murder was 99 percent premeditated, meaning Arias went with a plan that is she got what she considered the typical booty-call dismissive demeanor from Travis Alexander after their love-making, she was prepared to murder him.


 The Gun matched the caliber of her grandmother's stolen gun. She had just changed her hair color prior to that particular visit to Travis's. The pair were no longer in a genuine relationship which

Much is being written about Arias lately,she has been n the stand for several days, and the media is having a field day with the paradoxical baby faced looks and soft spoken voice  and the level of violent carnage that she committed. I have yet to hear anyone utter a word about her  psychological profile which is strange considering it literally reeks of Sociopath but again in my opinion Ms Arias has more than one disorder including borderline PD and POSSIBLY Dependent PD. I suspect we will hear more about Arias's Psychiatric evaluations a bit further down the line within the trial, but again where are these Psychologists now, because I for one am having a field day with assessing the relationship of This victim and Jodi Arias and the role that Mr Alexander's attitudes towards women, and Arias in particular, might have set off a ticking time bomb.

In other words after reading many of Travis Alexanders blog entries online dating service profiles, watching video clips of his " motivational speaking" events, a picture of this man is emerging that is somewhat less than flattering when it comes to his views and treatment of certain women. In one of Alexanders emails to a friend he even states I am a bit of a sociopath after all" indicating that he is aware of a certain disconnect and or lack of empathy or compassion for women in the context of this particular email.

This comment from Alexander speaks volumes and I am surprised that more attention hasn't been forthcoming. Likely the press may be reluctant to write anything that appears critical of a man who was so violently victimized , yet we need to look at details like thee in order to learn from "intimate violence".

In the end I believe that this was a case of two disordered young people whose lives intersected and violence of some kind was almost guaranteed by the nature of both of their personalities. This is in no way placing blame upon the victim Travis Alexander. It is simply necessary food for thought.


In any event, p lease read the linked website thoroughly : It is very comprehensive yet uses layman's terms and thus easier to understand and apply to either your or your loved ones life.  Learn about  Sociopaths, Narcissists Borderline PD's - for they are all among us. Statistics bear out huge percentages that would stagger most people.

As such this information may save your life. Not all Sociopaths are killers, the very best and brightest some might manage to use their aggressiveness and ability to manipulate to rise to successful positions.....  but one can be sure of this just about every person with a serious personality disorder will run roughshod through every single life that they intersect with, leaving emotional, psychological and spiritual damage from which many many people never recover.

Awareness is the first step for those who have been damaged by Personality disordered people,be it a casual dating situation a child a parent a sibling a spouse or a so called "friend"

 Most of the victims of these people are not aware of what exactly the problem  is within their relationship with such a person and as one can imagine this often leads to a good deal of self blaming and a mind and soul quandary of sorts, whereupon a well meaning kind healthy person simply cannot fathom why their relationship is so filled with tumult and discord with the sociopath or narcissist  persona.

These reasons are why I am so tenacious about bringing the realm of character and personality disorders to the general public. This information needs to be understood and even prerequisite for every single boy and girl at an age whereby they can understand process and apply it to their lives. This applies to adults as well for many are parents who owe it to their children in this violent society to arm them with as much knowledge about how to spot the behaviors of what usually turn out to be chaotic and or violent people.

 We cannot afford to live in the dark about these " unpleasant and complex seeming subject any longer. Violence among teens is on the rise and too often the warning signs are ignored by others including adults who either don't understand don't know or do not think it would ever happen their teenager or young adult child.

 The following link and other sites like it on the Internet can save lives preventatively as well as begin the healing process for people who are either entrenched in or survived relationships with narcissists and sociopaths. This is not limited to romantic relationships their are siblings and friends co workers or even acquaintances whose relatively small involvement with the Personality disordered person has literally left their life in total chaos, and them questioning why did this person act like this and or they may blame themselves as Socio's are experts at playing the persecuted or victimized role to better ensnare potential victims. Victims need only be anyone who has something that the narcicist or sociopath want's or need or simply wants ti control.

Arm yourself  Narcissistic Sociopaths | The Narcissist In Your Life

Feb 17, 2013

Re: Christopher Dormer's Murder


The Christopher Dormer situation has been bothering me for weeks and now it has come to its violent fiery end, just as I feared  it would.

This Post at Alt.net describes some truths regarding the so called " shoot out" at the cabin where Dormer was holed up. It is very disturbing and very credible.
How law enforcement and media covered plan to burn Christopher Dormer alive

I have been following the story closely and I have had mixed feelings about the situation from the moment I read about the case.  From Dormers myriad of  initial complaints about the LAPD in his oft repeated "rambling manifesto"  on Facebook a "manifesto" that was not in fact rambling at all. This is worrisome as it speaks of not only the LAPD P.R machine, but mainstream medias willingness to lap it up like milk and help malign this man.

It was articulate, precise and believable, pulling the curtain back on a what certainly appears to be a morally defunct  Police department including some  hideous everyday behaviors of LAPD police officers: From cell phone photos of crime scene corpses, that Police officers would send each other in a sick daily game of who could capture the most gruesome image , to more standard fare such as the already infamous police brutality and racism that the LAPD is notorious for. Since the advent of cell phone cameras, these events of brutality have only increased and become more credible. However it is still rare to see justice served to LAPD police officers accused of brutality, even when caught on tape.


I am certainly not condoning Christopher Dormers murder of a retired LAPD Police Captain who had once been Dormers Representative ie akin to a lawyer at the hearing where Dormer officially lost his career with the LAPD for supposedly slandering a Police trainee for physically abusing a mentally handicapped man.

Nor do I condone the murders of the captain's daughter and her fiance, who was also a member of the LAPD. I was very disappointing that Dormer chose violence of this sort particularly against non LAPD members as part of a campaign, that at its core was seeking to expose wrongdoings within that Police department. He could have ripped the lid off of that department instilling permanent change if he had used the media and the celebrities that he purposely mentioned in his manifesto as PR and insulation. Obvioulsy Dormer felt that it was futile any attempts to expose this department would be met with

Much of the information that Dormer posted about the LAPD'S inner workings were far too detailed to be fabricated. I believe they were and are in fact valid. The trouble is that Dormer had two agendas; one was revenge for his unfairly lost career, and forever maligned character, a character that was important to him as he felt he had led a decent life and indeed from all appearences he had. As time went by the outcome that his dismissal from the department had on a life that seems from all angles devoted to service.

There is no doubt that his methods were wrong. However, his anger and resentment had three years to fester. From all appearances this man was intelligent and sensitive. He was appalled at the police brutality that was an everyday occurrence with his department. The bully tactics and the blue wall that surrounded what really went on at the LAPD both on the beat and on an administrative level to silence allegations and anyone that threatened that blue code of silence that we are all aware exists in every department to some degree.

A perfect example of some of Dormer's claims occurred within the LAPD's over zealous pursuit of Dormer:. The haphazard shooting of two innocent older women in an SUV that slightly  resembled Dormer's SUV is a perfect illustration of a Police department out of control on hyped up adrenalin fueled revenge, operating  without constraints, rules or following proper police protocol .

All witnesses to those shootings have said that the LAPD officers opened fire upon the vehicle and the two women without any verbal commands to the occupants of the car, and quite easily could have killed both women.

The officers thought that one of the two occupants might be Christopher Dormer.

What does this say about the way that Dormer was eventually cornered and murdered. Reading the article below unfortunately did not bring any surprises. Once I looked into the LAPD shooting of the women in a "Dormer like" car, I knew that this department was hell bent on murdering this man.

And my personal belief is that the bulk of the LAPD'S hatred for Christopher Dormer did not stem from  the murders of the LA police officers, but more-so the fact that Dormer had already exposed so many of the department's dirty secrets such as the cell phone crime scene photo's etc.

The threat that this intelligent and  articulate man posed to this police department as a believable whistle blower was enormous. If Dormer shared as much as he had on the Facebook page, imagine what an official inquiry into his allegations would mean to a police department rife with abuse of power, police brutality, racism, corruption  and much worse.

Bottom line The LAPD murdered this man. They burned Christopher Dormer to death. Two wrongs do not make a right.  When I heard on the radio that the cabin " burst into flames" I was immediately suspicious. I knew that this fire was intentional despite the official version being fed to the media once the smoke cleared and the  LAPD  gathered themselves up

As well keeping the media at bay, news helicopters with their cameras were not allowed near the perimeter of the scene as it unfolded and afterwards, in effect  putting a blanket upon the entire "shoot out" scene, All of this raises red flags galore. The entire media ban by the LAPD was purportedly made in order to protect the police officers.

And what a surprise, the mainstream media complied. However, Police scanner  radios, and the many  listening ears tell the real story - and those words cannot be undone..

On a final note (for now)  had Dormer been the monster that the LAPD made him out to be, he would have simply killed the couple whose cabin he ran into  before the LAPD cornered him. Indeed he was cornered because he let the couple live. Murdering or even maiming the two would have completely changed the outcome of the day, and dormer knew the chance he was taking allowing them to live.
He likely would not have been captured and the scenario that unfolded would have been completely different.

Instead, Dormer told the couple that "he didn't want to hurt them" and tied them up, leaving them unharmed. The Woman wrested out of her ties and called 91, citing that a man resembling Dormer had just been in their cabin and Dormers fate was decided as Police swept in, cornering him.

Feb 8, 2013

The LAPD's shooting of Two Innocent Women during Manhunt for Christopher Dormer



Suffice to say that today's indiscriminate shooting of two innocent women by the LAPD is a perfect example of the dangerous and illegal practices and tactics employed by far too many members of this Police Department:

Above Property of the LAPD 
Ironically, one of  Dormer's main focuses regarding the LAPD in his mainstream - media dubbed "rambling manifesto"  was the LAPD's  refusal to adhere to proper police protocol describing in detail episodes of  brutality, racism violence and death resultant from this unrestrained police department.

It should be said that the word "rambling and manifesto" were inseparable in virtually every major News source's description of Dormers tell all essay. The "Manifesto" was a detailed report that included information surrounding his dismissal from the LAPD for reporting a female recruit for kicking a mentally handicapped man. He explained the ensuing damage that his dismissal from the force has on his military career his character and reputation as a person who had served others most of his adult life. He also detailed some horrific behaviors among LAPD officers and I found  all of it credible. Too many details to be fabricated.

Interestingly there are three versions of Mr Dormers manifesto now floating around the web.
I've read them all and only one is consistent and believable  as  having been written by one man. Intelligent, articulate and very detailed the manifesto delved into the issues and happenings surrounding his dismissal from the LAPD as well as extremely disturbing inside the blue wall information about brutal and even ghoulish behavior that was everyday occurrence with many of his fellow LAPD officers.  .

Clearly, if Christopher Dormer did kill a former LAPD Captain's daughter and her fiance,  a man who also was an LAPD officer, this is brutality and revenge gone awry and Dormer should face the consequences in Court I don't believe for a moment that the LAPD intends to capture Dormer alive, they are obviously out to assassinate him.

I feel deeply for the murder victims and their families, they too have been victimized by these murders.
I have prayed for them as I do all people touched by violent crime especially murder of two young people.   In no way is my empathy for victims made less by my concurrent outrage regarding the LAPD and their obvious out of control gunning for this man; It is my belief that they wish to silence Dormer, procure revenge for his outing them ie crossing that Blue wall. And last on the LAPD's revenge list is  Dormers alleged killing spree. The media is simply sating that Dormer murdered these people and there has been no evidence offered and certainly no due process. The public has no way of knowing for certain that Christopher Dormer in fact killed all of the victims that the LAPD has attributed to him.

We do know that the LAPD's haphazard revenge - bent methods and mentality in pursuit of  Dormer is glaring proof that the LAPD  is intent upon "taking Dormer down", in these two shooting incidents the officers involved seem akin to thugs with badges.

Abuse of power, Police brutality, Corruption and  cover-up has haunted the LAPD for decades. We now have indisputable proof that their officers are guilty of excessive force, operating out of proper Police protocol within these two shootings; Two women minding their own business, driving a truck that was vaguely similar to Christopher Dormer's truck. as the linked article explains the truck was a different make and color than the last reported known  vehicle that Dormer was driving.

According to witnesses and the victims themselves, the police began shooting at the women in thier truck, seemingly out of nowhere from behind the truck, with absolutely no verbal warnings, no chance to "surrender".Ambush is the word that comes to mind, and ironically tis is the word LAPD bandied about regarding Dormers alleged shooting of two LAPD Officers, who it turns out were in fact      pursuing Dormer when they were shot. One Police officer died and the other survived.

The LAPD Police officers shot one of the women in the back and the other was ONLY BY CHANCE grazed by an LAPD bullet, causing significantly less severe injury.

On the same day in another town LAPD officers shot at a slender man driving another truck that was not the same make as Mr Dormer's.

Why the LAPD methods in Manhunt for Dormer are indefensible


Two Innocent women Shot by mistake in Manhunt for Christopher Dormer had no warning

Feb 3, 2013

A Psychiatrists response to " I am Adam Lanza''s mother"

The article highlighted below was written by an anonymous Psychiatrist in response to a post entitled I am Adam Lanza's Mother written shortly after the Newtown School Murders.

I wrote my own post about the "Lanza's mother" article, and the multitude of eye opening comments following the original article in "The Blue Review."

The comments were almost more important than the Post. They were very telling, serving as a representative slice of the enormity of this issue, and the far reaching ill effects that volatile "problem" teens like "Michael" have on the population.

Many comments were from damaged and angry adult siblings and other family members of  so - called "problem" kids/ teenagers, a term the writer/mom uses to describe her violent son, along with the substantially softer "special needs child."

Like the term "Mental illness" "special needs" has been misused and abused since the Newtown Murders It has become this crazily broad reference that far too many people are sweeping children and young adults with evreything from mood disorders such as Bipolarity, to Schizophrenia and its sub-types,  to Autism and Aspergers ( completely different brain syndromes) and the mos insidious Personality disorders.

I say insidious, because certain personality disorders are generally far less overt to the untrained eye  (and even the trained eye) than true mental illnesses. This is because manipulation and deception are key features of the more dangerous personality disorders.

At the same time there are a bundle of more innocuous personality disorders,such as Dependent PD Avoidance PD etc, can be more subtle.However by adulthood, the teen who has Oppositional defiant disorder, diagnosed or not, statistically will evolve into Anti Social personality disorder - .aka  a "Sociopath."

Anti Social Personality Disorder is not mental illness per se, nor is it " curable." Sociopaths also don't typically have odd and eccentric behaviors nor look like " crazy people". Our prisons are filled with sociopaths, probably because they share a disdain for authority and lack normal conscience and empathy, yet they can be educated, and  articulate; think Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer etc.

As described in my earlier post, sociopaths from middle or upper middle class families become the most dangerous criminals, due to their enabling, unwitting or not, who decry I CANT bear to see my " child" in prison, or forced" institutionalization".

The teen at the center of the "I am Adam Lanza's mother article is a perfect example of dangerous volatile adolescent with an enabling parent; Despite repeated violence, including weaponry (Knives etc), and serious threats to both his mom and her other "normal" children, his mother, Lisa long, cannot help but tell us of his " high intelligence, (common for ODD and socio-patholgy) and his articulate, sometimes charming behavior and these "special" qualities that clearly add her reluctance to have him institutionaluzed  removed from harming her other children.

The best part of the Post below is the fact that this Anonymous Psychiatrist doesn't simply lament, he proposes solutions, and asks for tangible "help" from a variety of agencies and sources that need to be involved or become more proactive if we are to put a dent in these violent occurances.

Several of these requests parallel issues that I addressed in my earlier post and I have underlined the ones that I feel are most imperative.. Number one and two on his list are clearly essential, but I would also add that on the State level lawmakers and the Courts that carry out the actual sentencing and have the power to put someone into mandatory treatment institutionalization or prison - "Man up", as he suggests and do so with haste..


A Response to I am Adam Lanz's Mother from " I am Adam Lanz's Psychiatrist.."

Over the weekend, the viral blog post “I Am Adam Lanza’s Mother” spoke to the complicated relationship of a mother to a potentially dangerous and mentally ill son. xoJane asked a psychiatrist to respond.
I am sharing this story because I am Adam Lanza's mother. I am Dylan Klebold's and Eric Harris's mother. I am James Holmes's mother. I am Jared Loughner's mother. I am Seung-Hui Cho's mother. And these boys -- and their mothers -- need help. In the wake of another horrific national tragedy, it's easy to talk about guns. But it's time to talk about mental illness.”

These are the words that spread across the Internet written by Boise mother Liza Long describing the challenge of grappling with her exceptionally gifted -- and exceptionally aggressive -- teenage son. Long gave a voice to the complicated "risk" burden that lies on parents, doctors and community to identify these potential dangers before it’s too late.
Or as in the case of the “Dark Knight” shootings, to prevent another mother from wearily confirming over the phone after being informed her 24-year-old son could be the culprit of mass homicide: “You have the right person.”
As Long wrote incisively in her essay about her 13-year-old, “I live with a son who is mentally ill. I love my son. But he terrifies me."
I know what challenges she faces, because -- in the words of Long -- I am Adam Lanza’s psychiatrist. I am Dylan Klebold’s and Eric Harris’s psychiatrist. I am James Holmes’s psychiatrist. I am Seung-Hui Cho’s psychiatrist. And it is absolutely time to talk about mental illness.
Parents like Long definitively do not cause these types of mental illnesses that morph into violence. More often than not, the desire is there for the best treatment possible. Unfortunately, my chosen field of psychiatry has a lot of limitations.
In terms of the relationship between mental illness and violence, here is the little we do know. According to APA Council on Law and Psychiatry (Access to Firearms by People With Mental Illness: Resource Document, Arlington, Va., American Psychiatric Association, 2009), "The 'absolute risk' message is that the vast majority of people with mental illness in the community are not violent. The 'relative risk' message is that people with serious mental illness are, indeed, somewhat more likely to commit violent acts than people who are not mentally ill. And the 'attributable risk' message is that violence is a societal problem caused largely by other things besides mental illness (ready availability of guns, for example)."
criteria for commitment to a hospital).
Because this boy was missed. That moment is now gone, and we as a nation are grieving with the consequences of the failure.
The only move left is foI have had patients who have believed they were “chosen” to carry out a mission or who started to speak of the devil being present in the form of human beings. But are they violent? Do they need to be locked up? At what point do I inform the authorities when no specific plans to commit violence are mentioned to me, but the words start to become more terror-inducing. “Enemies” are mentioned. “Hate” punctuates every other word. Conscience can appear strikingly absent or little, if at all. Behavior is erratic -- but does not pose a technical threat.
I have had patients that are ticking time bombs.
I know the responsibility that lies upon me. When there is a sense that a patient is near breaking. When it is missed, I spend the rest of my life second-guessing myself and wondering what I may not have seen. It happens. Too often.
It is fair to say that pretty much everyone is enraged at my profession right about now. This is what happens when the time bomb is not caught, not stopped, not prevented.
We as psychiatrists need to find a way to catch our troubled sons -- the next Adam Lanza -- in the moment when he changes from chronically dangerous (that dreaded sense of ticking time bomb) to acutely dangerous (when the violence amps up to meeting the r me to ask for help. And that’s exactly what I am doing.
1) The US Congress: Please create better laws to ensure the ticking time bomb is caught before it is too late. Make it much easier for a family to get a potentially dangerous person into mandated treatment. This means less paperwork, too. We need to support parents and mental health professionals.
2) The US Justice Department: It’s time we enacted a Health Law Court. Have doctors serve as judges and streamline legal proceedings for tough medical and psychiatric cases. Go to commongood.org for ideas on how this can be done.
3) Health Insurance Companies: Man up. My main complaint is with you. You make it so hard to keep people in the hospital when they need to be there, and it’s even harder to keep them in intensive outpatient services. Please create protocols for difficult cases and loosen the purse strings for extremely troubled individuals –- before it’s too late.
4) Network TV: Please create some exciting television that is actually educational about mental illness. Or least give us a “Gossip Girl” who takes her medication and sees her psychiatrist regularly. Less stigma, better health.
5) Drug Companies: You are always trying to ply me with coffee and doughnuts. I have trust issues with you. Don’t want anything, thanks.
6) The Hollywood PR Machine: Please find the mental health community a really attractive celebrity to get the US mental health system some money. I am glad that George Clooney and Angelina Jolie are doing so much for Africa, but can we borrow one of them please?
7) High School Students: Tell the popular kids to stop being such dicks to the odd kids or the ones they don’t understand.
8) Community Psychiatry Health Researchers: You have kick-ass and innovative ideas for how to reform the system. Could one of you put on a sequin dress and walk a red carpet please? We need to get you more money.
Me? I will keep trying to do my job. But I want to be better equipped the next time the risk appears before me. Because these young men need help. We all do.