This blog is a continuation of last month's blog about insanity in court cases.A number of years ago, a New York courtroom tried Pedro Hernandez for the murder of Etan Patz who was one of the first missing children to be featured on a milk carton. The defendant said at one point that he put Etan inside a plastic bag and then inside a box and left him a block away from his home in an alleyway with some trash. He said the child was still alive when he abandoned him. He also denied that he had … [Read more...]
Insanity in court cases: Test, Fakery – Part I
As I worked on the footnotes for my soon-to-published Privileged Killers, I wondered how much the insanity test had changed recently. The case I write about in my book, one among a few homicides, showed how a killer got off easy using a mental illness defense. So, insanity is on my mind. In fact, I recently blogged about the speculation that Bryan Kohberger, the suspect in the brutal Idaho stabbing deaths of four, might use mental illness as a defense. Definitions of Insanity. There’ve … [Read more...]
Visual-Snow Effects/Mental Illness-Defenses for Kohberger?
MENTAL HEALTH – DEFENSES FOR KOHBERGER? "The ringing in my ears and the fuzz in my vision is simply all of the demons in my head mocking me " – statement attributed to the Idaho multicide suspect, Bryan Kohberger. Allegedly visual snow plus tinnitus (ringing in the ears from an unknown source) bothered Kohberger enough that he once said he didn't want to live anymore. Allegedly, he also had drug use issues, especially with heroin, and was bullied for being overweight. There are … [Read more...]
Psychopaths in C-Suites Thrive
Nine years ago, author and psychologist Fred Kiel reported on his research about psychopaths in leadership positions at a Tedx Talk. Psychopaths in C-Suites Kiel titled his talk, "Psychos in the C-Suite." The term C-suite usually refers to a company's top management positions, where the C stands for "Chief," O for Officer). Various chief officers (e.g., C Executive O, C Information O, C Financial O, etc.) occupy the C-suites. Kiel and others suggest C-suites are overpopulated … [Read more...]
Narcissist versus sociopath – which is it?
I've posted a number of blogs about fraudsters Anna Sorokin and Alexander Marc Hatton as well as pieces about the Casanova Scammer and the Tinder Swindler. It's about time now to try to figure out they can be differentiated. So, Narcissist versus sociopath. What're the differences? Using the following two lists, a leading London therapist, psychologist Mark Levrant, weighs in on the attempts to distinguish between the two. Narcissist versus sociopath - how to tell 'em … [Read more...]
A Dark Triad Test to identify Psychopaths.
As you may know from a previous blog, I've been working on a book about the crimes and havoc committed by some people I knew with the Dark Triad personalities of psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism. Here's a Dark Triad test that's available on line. I can't attest to its reliability or validity (two key aspects of any psych test). However, look at the 36 item questionnaire and let me know what you think. If you go ahead and take it, you do so at you own risk. You might find … [Read more...]
The saga of the Titanium Rib and Dr. Mel Smith
I've had a lifelong interest in discrimination and birth-defects stemming from being bullied for my once-nasal cleft-palate speech. Hence I was interested when college classmate Alain Gunn wrote The Titanium Rib. The Discrimination Angle The book is about a device that allows infants born with defective chests and lung function to live. And it's a true story of two dedicated surgeons —one being a black man who endured discrimination as a trailblazer entering the lily white ranks of … [Read more...]