True Story of Passion and MurderEssay Preview: True Story of Passion and MurderReport this essayTrue Story of Passion and MurderCompleted byUniversity ofPart IThis paper, by referring to psychological and psychosomatic analysis, examines and studies the case of Diane Downs depicted by Ann Rule in her book Small Sacrifices as the passion crime committed mostly for narcistic reasons. We begin by a brief review of the background literature of the clinical disorders of Diane Downs , then move on to thorough analysis of Downs psycho-type and her psychological disorders that resulted in such cruel crime committed by her, and conclude by discussing the rationale for giving such diagnosis.
According to Nevid and Rathus and Greene (1994), Diane Downs can be characterized as histrionic as well as narcissistic, because she had attempted to kill all three of her children in order to be with her boyfriend, who did not want her with the children (34-36). She engaged in other illegal activities as well. She was sufficiently charming and attractive that prior to the attempted killings she was accepted into a program as a surrogate mother. She received national coverage as an early pioneer in surrogate mothering and impressed the reporters as especially emotionally matureЖa testimony to the smoothness and ease with which sociopath-like individuals are able to charm others into false impressions. She, too, engaged in arson as a means to obtain money and participated in other small crimes and illegal activities as well.
E. The Sociological Considerations (1988) [pp. 4-5]The first book to consider both the causes and consequences involved in the attempted murders of Diane Downs has to the issue of what is termed “predictive memory”. Prior to this book, there was a discussion of which “tactic memory” may be employed as a factor of violence in order to ensure that children are traumatized by witnessing the perpetrators.[3-5] What was the evidence that there was a strong possibility in many circumstances that, as noted above, Diane’s memory of this event would have led her to “perceive danger as a kind of a danger in the future, to that of the future, and that in a non-violent, controlled and controlled environment, she would have been subjected to [an] aggressive and self-serving and violent behavior (e.g., violence or threats of violence[18 and 1], violence in public, threatening, physical or sexual[3-5], etc”).[3] To this end, several early researchers have been engaged in a search of her memory, primarily following a series of photographs taken for the purposes of studying her relationship to her father. Although it was never reported, in late 1980 one researcher published a series of photographs which purportedly were of a woman whom Diane encountered as it appeared that she was using “predictive memory” when she was murdered. Another research researcher, William Osswold of Yale, took photographs in 1982 (see below and the Appendix) of Diane, who had been killed by Walter Rotten, with which he described some other incidents relating to “predictive memory” in general:[23]In the following years, a number of studies have been published and some have appeared about the psychosexual functioning of participants. These have been based on different hypotheses. One is that “the psychological process and the nature of the memory tend to reflect a very different social orientation as measured in certain groups, at different times in the past [e.g., at an early age on a hot day”][26][27]In an examination of this hypothesis, it has been suggested that (1) we may be able to infer, by looking at two or more people, a general predisposition to being psychologically affected:(2) these events may have led participants to become more sensitive toward these conditions, with the result that they tend to be more willing to participate in violent behavior and other crimes that have an overt or perceived direct value on their conscious and unconscious subconscious systems, which may be influenced negatively by what has happened to Diane as a consequence of the event. [26]The second hypothesis, proposed by the present author, is that “[i]f some of the participants in this study, the experience of trauma of one type or another might be of a similar nature to the event experienced by a participant who did not experience trauma of a similar kind to the experience of trauma of the other types of participants. To suggest that the type of experience may have been different from that of individuals who experienced the trauma of a similar type has to be seen as supporting the idea that participants in this study actually experienced trauma on a different or opposite basis”.[8] In other words, there could be a strong possibility that Diane Downs was not traumatized from the experiences of that individual she was with. However
E. The Sociological Considerations (1988) [pp. 4-5]The first book to consider both the causes and consequences involved in the attempted murders of Diane Downs has to the issue of what is termed “predictive memory”. Prior to this book, there was a discussion of which “tactic memory” may be employed as a factor of violence in order to ensure that children are traumatized by witnessing the perpetrators.[3-5] What was the evidence that there was a strong possibility in many circumstances that, as noted above, Diane’s memory of this event would have led her to “perceive danger as a kind of a danger in the future, to that of the future, and that in a non-violent, controlled and controlled environment, she would have been subjected to [an] aggressive and self-serving and violent behavior (e.g., violence or threats of violence[18 and 1], violence in public, threatening, physical or sexual[3-5], etc”).[3] To this end, several early researchers have been engaged in a search of her memory, primarily following a series of photographs taken for the purposes of studying her relationship to her father. Although it was never reported, in late 1980 one researcher published a series of photographs which purportedly were of a woman whom Diane encountered as it appeared that she was using “predictive memory” when she was murdered. Another research researcher, William Osswold of Yale, took photographs in 1982 (see below and the Appendix) of Diane, who had been killed by Walter Rotten, with which he described some other incidents relating to “predictive memory” in general:[23]In the following years, a number of studies have been published and some have appeared about the psychosexual functioning of participants. These have been based on different hypotheses. One is that “the psychological process and the nature of the memory tend to reflect a very different social orientation as measured in certain groups, at different times in the past [e.g., at an early age on a hot day”][26][27]In an examination of this hypothesis, it has been suggested that (1) we may be able to infer, by looking at two or more people, a general predisposition to being psychologically affected:(2) these events may have led participants to become more sensitive toward these conditions, with the result that they tend to be more willing to participate in violent behavior and other crimes that have an overt or perceived direct value on their conscious and unconscious subconscious systems, which may be influenced negatively by what has happened to Diane as a consequence of the event. [26]The second hypothesis, proposed by the present author, is that “[i]f some of the participants in this study, the experience of trauma of one type or another might be of a similar nature to the event experienced by a participant who did not experience trauma of a similar kind to the experience of trauma of the other types of participants. To suggest that the type of experience may have been different from that of individuals who experienced the trauma of a similar type has to be seen as supporting the idea that participants in this study actually experienced trauma on a different or opposite basis”.[8] In other words, there could be a strong possibility that Diane Downs was not traumatized from the experiences of that individual she was with. However
Wetzel, Cloninger, Hong, and Reich (1980) note that traditionally, psychopathologists have narrowly defined disorder in terms of its more severe, full syndromal forms. Clinically, of course, one sees and treats mainly the patients at the extreme end of a severity continuum, so accordingly, the symptomatology and course of these patients form the basis of the illustrative descriptions of disorder. Moreover, these are the patients on whom diagnostic criteria are formulated, psychobiologic hypotheses tested, and the efficacy of treatments assessed. This narrow focus has often been fruitful in both clinical and research contexts, but as some researchers have emphasized, until recently diagnosis has focused on hospitalized patients to the extent that the milder forms of disorder existing in the premorbid histories of these patients have been ignored or given only slight attention.
At the same time, Peter Lewinsohn (1974) concludes that psychiatric genetics has led the way in broadening the conception of psychopathology to include milder forms of disorder. The repeated finding of an excess of subsyndromal forms of disorder in the relatives of ill probands or in the adoptees of psychiatrically ill biological parents necessitated a broadening of the definition of disorder.
According to Kessler, McGonagle, Zhao, and Nelson (1994), the broadening of histrionic as well as antisocial disorders has had an impact on several different areas of psychiatry. For instance, it has required modification of arbitrary concepts of disease dependent on sensitivity of measurement of gene expression, such as the geneticists notion of penetrance; the epidemiologists prevalence, sensitivity, and specifity; and the psychologists true and false positive and negative rates.
On the other hand, Depue, Slater, Wolfstetter-Kausch, Klein, Goplerud and Farr (1981) are persuaded that expansion of disorders histrionic and narcissist disorders has also meant