Drowning Your Kids is Normal?

Posted on July 16, 2006 in Justice Psycho-bunk

The headline reads that Andrea Yates knew that the drownings of her children were wrong. But did she? “[Dr. Park Dietz] said Yates suffered from delusions, but was not suffering from them the day she drowned her children. She had numbed herself to do it.

Excuse me?

Numbing oneself does not necessarily indicate that one is cognizant of the wickedness of one’s actions. Had not Abraham felt terrible when he thought God commanded him to sacrifice his son Isaac and relieved when a ram in a thicket appeared as a better offering?

Fundamentalist draconianism creeps in to the diagnosis here: Yates must have heard from God. And yet she must not have. She must be evil herself. Either way, Yates ends up being sane.

This is “we got to get ’em anti-forensic psychiatry at its most chilling. Just where the hell does he get off? Am I delusional for not believing that devils exist and that drowning is sovereign for exorcising them? I think we must consider Dr. Park Dietz to be highly untrustworthy and maybe a danger to others.