Twoapennything
Inactive
I know I don't post often, but I do read Caylee's forum frequently. After reading the copies of the e-mails sent amongst Caylee's various family members, I found myself so saddened by what is obviously a contentious, dysfunctional dynamic within the family and extended family itself -- I'm a firm believer in it's not what we say, but how we say things. For example, while I agreed with Cindy Anthony's brother Rick's sentiments on Casey's involvement with Caylee's disappearance, and Caylee's probable death, as an outsider looking in, I certainly didn't find his approach to Cindy conducive to true emotional support. No wonder she told him to eff off! I came away from reading those e-mails feeling that there was a very deep emotional dysfunction running through Cindy's family of origin in general.
I am a probation officer and have recently had to do some rather extensive research on Malingering for a case I was supervising, and I came across a term I had not heard of before: Nondeliberate deception. I thought it possibly applied to what we are seeing from Cindy Anthony.
Nondeliberate deception is when a person engages in deception, but does not do so from a conscious or deliberate place. In layman's terms, it essentially boils down to an elaborate self-deception -- even though something seems obvious to everyone else, an individual engaging in nondeliberate deception truly believes their particular perception of events.
From Detecting Malingering and Deception: Forensic Distortion Analysis - Second Edition by Harold V. Hall and Joseph G. Poirier:
I was very struck by the Anthonys’ nonverbal body language as exhibited in the videos released yesterday, as they talked with Casey in the jail. Their language was so stilted – almost meek! Yet, to me, I kept getting the sense that George and Cindy Anthony, if it were possible, just wanted to jump up and throttle Casey through the video monitor and demand that she tell them where Caylee is. Yet, they didn’t. I’m not an expert, but the nonverbal body language, to me, demonstrated that they know Casey is being dishonest – yet, they cannot bring themselves to face it. I was also struck by the fact that Casey is clearly in control of that family – to me, George and Cindy seem to outwardly react rather helplessly to Casey’s continued petulance, and it made me wonder Wow, where is that fierce mama bear persona that we see Cindy demonstrate in her media appearances?
For those of you who have viewed any or all of the jailhouse videos, what are your thoughts on the verbal and nonverbal cues between the Anthonys and Casey?
Moving on, I also came across a very interesting example of a Millon™ Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-III (MCMI-III) interpretive report, done for a 21-year-old Caucasian female with alcohol/drug issues. The MCMI-III measures adult psychopathology. While this is not – I repeat not – an analysis of Casey Anthony specifically, I found it to be an insightful view into the profile of a young female with high scores on the Antisocial/Histrionic, Narcissistic and Paranoid personality scales. Read the interpretive report here.
I am a probation officer and have recently had to do some rather extensive research on Malingering for a case I was supervising, and I came across a term I had not heard of before: Nondeliberate deception. I thought it possibly applied to what we are seeing from Cindy Anthony.
Nondeliberate deception is when a person engages in deception, but does not do so from a conscious or deliberate place. In layman's terms, it essentially boils down to an elaborate self-deception -- even though something seems obvious to everyone else, an individual engaging in nondeliberate deception truly believes their particular perception of events.
From Detecting Malingering and Deception: Forensic Distortion Analysis - Second Edition by Harold V. Hall and Joseph G. Poirier:
Forensic clinicians are generally more concerned with deliberate deception compared with nondeliberate deception. Nondeliberate deception usually connotes less harm to self or others, and generally, nondeliberate deception conveys no culpability. In actual practice, however, it is usually difficult to discern deliberate from nondeliberate deception. Nonverbal behavior can be an important aid to the trained evaluator in helping to make meaningful those discernments.
One variation of nondeliberate deception can be self-deception, and there are clinical scenarios in which self-deception can be very detrimental. Siegrist (1995) found depression and public self-consciousness to be correlated with self-deception in a student population. The suggestion is that depression and/or low self-esteem may induce self-deception as a coping mechanism. This is a dynamic often observed by treating clinicians. Individuals hold, or share with others, an illusory interpretation of a problem. The interpretation results in a less-than-realistic grasp of the problem situation. Forensic clinicians may encounter the dynamic intertwined with a serious forensic issue. A good forensic example is disputed custody/visitation matters where the extent of parental self-disillusionment can be impressive. Another forensic example is in the criminal matters when family members cannot believe that a son or daughter has committed a serious criminal act in spite of overwhelming evidence. In these situations the nonverbal cues of the involved parties can be very telling and the forensic evaluator must be alert to alternative interpretations of deceptive behavior.
Nonlinguistic behavior is, therefore, an integral aspect of every human behavior and a very critical component of FDA (Forensic Distortion Analysis). Distortion analysis is a primary method in the forensic detection of deception (Paulsen & Hall, 1991). Analysis of distortion between verbal and nonverbal behavior is an important component of that method. The problem is that nonverbal behavior can be incredibly elusive. When nonverbal behavior occurs, it is generally not very apparent to the observer.
I was very struck by the Anthonys’ nonverbal body language as exhibited in the videos released yesterday, as they talked with Casey in the jail. Their language was so stilted – almost meek! Yet, to me, I kept getting the sense that George and Cindy Anthony, if it were possible, just wanted to jump up and throttle Casey through the video monitor and demand that she tell them where Caylee is. Yet, they didn’t. I’m not an expert, but the nonverbal body language, to me, demonstrated that they know Casey is being dishonest – yet, they cannot bring themselves to face it. I was also struck by the fact that Casey is clearly in control of that family – to me, George and Cindy seem to outwardly react rather helplessly to Casey’s continued petulance, and it made me wonder Wow, where is that fierce mama bear persona that we see Cindy demonstrate in her media appearances?
For those of you who have viewed any or all of the jailhouse videos, what are your thoughts on the verbal and nonverbal cues between the Anthonys and Casey?
Moving on, I also came across a very interesting example of a Millon™ Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-III (MCMI-III) interpretive report, done for a 21-year-old Caucasian female with alcohol/drug issues. The MCMI-III measures adult psychopathology. While this is not – I repeat not – an analysis of Casey Anthony specifically, I found it to be an insightful view into the profile of a young female with high scores on the Antisocial/Histrionic, Narcissistic and Paranoid personality scales. Read the interpretive report here.