Discussion

[Evan_or_L]

I'm saying that It will be abused. In itself the idea is not racist but if you look at anything about racial profiling, It shows a level of prejudice no matter what Injustices will be inevitable.  

[Annie Anthrax]

Yeah, I agree with you. There used to be lots of grumbling about police using our stop and search powers here in the UK, especially in London.
It was alleged that the police targeted black people, which eventually lead to lots of rioting. But opinion is still surprisingly divided!
Academics tend to feel that the police are/were institutionally racist, but cops feel that they weren't being -ist about anything.

But that's a whole debate in itself!
See, once again, we can't debate if we agree about everything! (Although I do think you can teach kids not to do domestic abuse!)  

[Evan_or_L]

Yes, but alas, inhibitors are usually shattered by those who abuse. People who have low selfesteem will do anything to gain pleasure. After all, "Men are that they might have joy."  

[Annie Anthrax]

Oh my good heavens! This is the worst case I've read about. Sylvia Likens. It's quite an old case, everyone involved in now dead pretty much but it made me upset just to read it.
How cruel all those involved could be. Have a read of that! I haven't really got anything I wish to discuss, just wanted to raise some awareness.

I'm quite glad everyone involved got time inside, but not that the woman who lead the abuse got out of jail. She shoulda got the chair man!
The reason I haven't got anything to discuss is because, this woman was depressed and full of anger. She as an authority figure and lack of appropriate role models (or having their behaviour challenged) for the others involved lead to them all engaging in this horrific act.
Dr Philip Zimbardo (of Stamford Prison Experiment fame) talks about it here. Not so much this case, but about evil and it's nature.

It's been made into a few films and such, but it's such an awful story I don't want to see them!
I appreciate child abuse is nothing new and often the most horrific acts are committed by those closest to us. You could probably think of a few cases of equal horror in your own countries and areas.
Still, throw any thoughts down here.  

[Evan_or_L]

Wow..., that was... well..., terrible. I can't really say much more than that.I doubt that the Zimbardo study relates here though. It is about the role playing gone serious. What I really must ask is how She became like that. I've heard of abuse like this before. Malnutrition is often the first step. The next step is verbal and psychological abuse. Physical abuse is the last step. It usually always goes in that order. How to proceed... did the article say that she is pregnant? If she got the chair wouldn't that kill the baby?  

[Annie Anthrax]

No, she wasn't pregnant. Just pissed off and a domestic abuser!

And I mentioned Dr Zimbardo's study because it's about how normal people end up becoming evil. And apart from the adult lady who was looking after them all, that's what everyone involved in the abuse was.
Just normal kids! But they all got caught up in this and ended up doing terrible things to this girl.

Where did you read that?  

[Evan_or_L]

On the wikipedia page you posted I saw this

"She kicked Likens in the genitals and accused her of being pregnant. Paula Baniszewski, who actually was pregnant at the time, became enraged and knocked Likens onto the floor."

Unfortunately, kids are near always the victims. Freud's theory of ego defence mechanisms uses displacement and rationalizationm to state how people can do anything and find a way to justify it.  

[Annie Anthrax]

Yeah, but Paula wasn't the carer though, she was one of the carer's kids.
Displacement? Rationalisation?  

[Evan_or_L]

Freud's only valid discoveries (in my eyes) are the existence of a subconscious mind (which is a psychoanalists way of saying autonomic nervous responces) and the id, ego, and superego. When these three thought processes can't come to a conclusion a person uses ego defence mechanisms to keep their self esteem. Rationalization is rationalizing what a person did to throw blame off themselves. (She deserved it sort of thing). Displacement is an anger management technique where a person can stop frustration by showing hostility not to the upsetter, but to a target they can get away with abusing (Normally violent games but for them actual living beings).  

[Annie Anthrax]

And we're back in the room! biggrin
I got a phone call today from this nice little domestic abuse charity near where I live now. Training starts next month hopefully and I've got my little book on DV so hopefully I can become sh*t-hot on it.

On the subject of which, I found a really interesting newspaper article about Family Annihilators. That is to say, people who go a bit wobbly and they kill everyone in their families.

Interesting stuff!  

[Evan_or_L]

I read the article and I must say that that is the same for rapists, killers, and the family annihilators. Control is a huge aspect for people with no self esteem. Without esteem, it is really hard to love.