The fuzzy image of what occurred in the Ramsey household is becoming a sharper picture when viewed with CS knowledge and evidence coupled with Patsy's psychology, as some of us have determined it to be. Her narcissism flashes a dark shadow where empathy and compassion would normally reside.
The Cancer Survivor Patsy was a victim of her past, present and future self created through her life's experiences including, but not limited to, having a narcissistic mother who, imho, tolerated men for what she could get from them in ways of power, influence, prestige and the almighty dollar. NP used her daughters to achieve that end.
As proof of this, we need look no further than Nedra's living room. It was a museum dedicated to her accomplishments where she proudly displayed her daughters' beautiful photographs, crowns, ribbons, sashes, trophies and other symbols of achievement and glory.
Narcissistic Nedra created the double bind with Patsy. Patsy learned the power of the double bind at her mother's feet.
The Double Bind Theory was first articulated in relationship to schizophrenia, but Bateson and his colleagues hypothesized that schizophrenic thinking was not necessarily an inborn mental disorder but a learned confusion in thinking.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_bind
It has been mulled over, time and again: Why did John and Patsy wait years after marrying before having children?
The simple answer seems to be that Patsy was looking for a mature, successful man who could achieve the wealth and power she desired. John was a businessman with a Master's Degree who wore dark shades while driving his Porsche [not sure if it was the Porsche 911 model] when he met Patsy in Atlanta; the hub for French Fat Cats.
Living to fulfill her dreams of success, P & J began their family. Then, there is a tragic watershed moment in John's life. Hence, crown Patsy's head with trauma suffered due to John's response to Beth's death in 1992. Wrap the static in her head around a staggering Stage 4 death sentence in 1994.
In that traumatic environment, from Patsy's prospective, God provided John and Patsy with their dreams for wealth, power and influence. And He issued pounding punishments for their perceived sins. Give. Take away. Give. Take away.
It is the classic double bind relationship only Patsy experiences this bind with her narcissistic self and The Higher Power, God.
A double bind is an emotionally distressing dilemma in communication in which an individual (or group) receives two or more conflicting messages, in which one message negates the other. This creates a situation in which a successful response to one message results in a failed response to the other (and vice versa), so that the person will automatically be wrong regardless of response. The double bind occurs when the person cannot confront the inherent dilemma, and therefore can neither resolve it nor opt out of the situation.
