Welcome Sleuthenius!
What's your take on Casey?
Thanks, Sparky.
I think some mental disorders, like psychoses, (i.e., Axis I disorders) can be diagnosed with nothing more than the subject sitting in front of you.
But, the thing about assessing personality disorders (Axis II disorders) is that it requires a great deal of valid historical information about the person and her developmental background. You have to identify patterns of behavior over time. You have to have some measure of the validity of the information youre using (and we all know about the validity problems in this case). So-called personality disorders can be very difficult to classify.
My take is that this personality has features of narcissism and histrionics.
She is not bi-polar because there is no reported history of bouts of depression (and mania does not occur by itself). She is not anti-social personality because she has not been acting against society, (she has tried to fit-in and manipulate society.)
She does have a lack of normal emotional response in her current situation, and this makes you think sociopath.
The pathological lying is the most fascinating aspect of her behavior the monotone speech, the impressionistic language that barely makes sense. Her mother speaks like this, as well, at times.
It will be tragically interesting to see how this plays out for this family and community.
(Caylee looks to be a well-nurtured child, probably by the grandparents, for the most part, and its a crying shame to think what really happened to her.)
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