<p>I’ll bet the atmosphere in that household was pretty terrible. As I wrote in an earlier post, based on a situation I know about in which the husband committed horrific crimes (but not murder) and the wife was supposedly in the dark about them, I’m guessing child protective services is involved in this case. Though the husband’s behavior so far could appear suspicious, he also shows characteristics (like the woman I know) of a spouse who’s been abused over the years–emotional, verbal, maybe even physical–to the point of being out of touch with reality. I’m not defending him, but it’s likely more and more will come out about this woman’s behavior. What a thoroughly damaged person.</p>
<p>I think she is both damaged and DAMAGING with regards to her family. No question her past behavior and current actions have screwed her kids up. The term schitzophrenogenic comes to mind…
[quote]
In the books Schizophrenia and the Family and The Origin and Treatment of Schizophrenic Disorders Lidz and his colleagues explain their belief that parental behaviour can result in mental illness in children:</p>
<pre><code>In [such] families the parents were rarely in overt disagreement, and the family settings were reasonably calm. But, as we studied these seemingly harmonious families, it became apparent that they provided a profoundly distorted and distorting milieu because one spouse passively acceded to the strange and even bizarre concepts of the more dominant spouse concerning child rearing and how a family should live together. We termed the seemingly harmonious ones as “skewed”.
</code></pre>
<p>Lidz illustrates his point with the “skewed” N. family. When he interviewed Mr. and Mrs. N., Mrs. N. dominated the interviews even when the questions were directed expressly to her husband. Though very efficient in his profession, Mr. N. felt he did not know anything about how to raise the children and relegated all judgment on family affairs to his wife. But his behavior transcended mere passivity. Dr. Lidz observed that Mr. N. behaved as a spokesman of his wife; he paraphrased her demands and questions. His wife “tended to treat him as a child”. Lidz concludes:</p>
<pre><code>Mrs. N. was clearly a very difficult and disturbed woman who despite her fluid self-boundaries […] seemed to retain a tenuous balance by imposing her view of the world upon the few persons significant to her, and by keeping her life and her family life confined within the narrow limits she could navigate.
</code></pre>
<p>Lidz noted that schizophrenogenic mothers manage to be impervious to the needs and wishes of other family members. “As her psychotic or very strange concepts remain unchallenged by the husband, they create reality within the family”. Dr. Lidz calls this phenomenon folie </p>
<p>The two books referenced were published in 1965 and 1985 respectively and research has come a long way since.</p>
<p>There’s been a lot of progress on the biological causes and research points to genetic and environmental factors. Parenting style is a risk factor in schizophrenia and related disorders. I believe that genetic and prenatal influenza are larger risk factors than parenting type though.</p>
<p>It’s unclear to me that AB was schizophrenic. If she were, then I’d expect some psychiatrist or psychologist or someone she knew to raise their hand about it. I haven’t heard anyone come out and say that she has had hallucinations.</p>
<p>Are you saying she snapped because without tenure she was now going to have to pay for her kids’ education??? Somehow, I doubt that.</p>
<p>AND, I don’t know about the benefits at UAH but at most public universities they do NOT include tuition, etc. for children. I’ve worked at several large public universities and the professors’ kids were not treated any differently than anyone else.</p>
<p>Hallucinations-- didn’t she leave the house after shooting her brother and when trying to find a get away car say she had an argument with her husband and was afraid the husband was after her? She wasn’t married at that time. </p>
<p>You think she might have been hallicinating that her brother was a threatening husband she did not actually have? Or she might have imagined a threatening husband and unloaded on an imaginary “him” when she shot the wall of her bedroom.</p>
<p>Maybe not schizophrenic, but surely something that should have been detected and treated. I’m beginning to wonder why I am so morbidly interested in this case, and maybe it’s the undetected/undiagnosed mental illness angle. This woman was more than “odd.” There’s a lot of secrecy in dysfunctional/abusive family environments. Clearly there was something going on in her birth family. And who knows what warped “rules” her own family had developed over the years. Surely, tiptoe around Mom must have been one of them. I hope those kids will get some therapy, soon.</p>
<p>And the victims’ families: This woman didn’t just randomly shoot a gun in her workplace and kill whoever happened to be in the way. She systematically aimed and fired at a row of innocent human beings. Bless the colleagues who pushed her into the hall.</p>
<p>Assuming the husband is an innocent dupe/victim in this whole thing, if he had ever thought of divorcing her, the courts would likely have given Amy Bishop custody of the children, even if her past squirrelly behavior were known. He may have stayed to help his kids deal with her. Another reason to blame Braintree officials from 1986: if that were on record, then the husband would have a chance at getting custody in a divorce.</p>
<p>I am not saying she is schizophrenic. And I am aware of the dates of the books quoted. And as a physician I am well aware of the biology and genetics of mental illness. But there are experts in the field who still believe that mentally ill parents can have an effect on the mind of the children that they raise, an effect that is more than the genes that they passed on. The word schizophrenogenic is now a more generic word for a parent such as this.</p>
<p>This doesn’t require mentally ill parents. It’s more of an issue of parenting style. There’s a research study (or maybe a few) that shows a correlation between parenting style and schizophrenia.</p>
<p>The genetic component in schizophrenia is nowhere near 100% so environmental factors obviously have to be involved.</p>
<p>" There’s a research study (or maybe a few) that shows a correlation between parenting style and schizophrenia"</p>
<p>If you’re referring to research that alleged that schizophrenogenic mothers produced schizophrenic kids, that research has been debunked. It ended up that the mother’s crazy-appearing behavior was their trying to cope with their kids’ crazy behavior.</p>
<p>But there are experts in the field who still believe that mentally ill parents can have an effect on the mind of the children that they raise, an effect that is more than the genes that they passed on.</p>
<p>Oh…I agree. I doubt a schizophrenic parent (especially the mother) could avoid having some negative impact on a child…even a non-bio child.</p>
<p>I’m very surprised that she has a court-appointed lawyer. Typically such lawyers have little experience in capital crime case. Normally, a middle class, educated person would do everything possible to get a private lawyer experienced in handling cases that could lead to the death penalty.</p>
<p>I think that she simply made up the story that was most likely to garner instant sympathy and be effective. Perhaps she even made it up in advance. </p>
<p>I once fired an employee after a period of remediation during which he completely failed to cooperate, much less improve. I felt sorry for him, and gave him 6 weeks notice (until the end of our official probationary period), during which I gave him contact names and attempted to support him in finding a job more suited to his abilities and interests. I checked: he didn’t contact anyone whose name I gave him. Instead, he went to my boss and claimed I was letting him go because of a “personality conflict.” There wasn’t one, of course He waited until the last week, and then told everyone in the department that I was firing him with NO notice. I, of course, could say nothing. After he left, I made it clear to the rest of the people who reported to me that he had had a remediation plan, and that after that I had given him 6 weeks notice and tried to help place him elsewhere.</p>
<p>That kind of experience makes one sympathetic to the “march them out the door” method. But I still think it’s wrong.</p>
<p>Interesting, but not enough for someone to have been removed from the classroom or to not get tenure.</p>
<p>"HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — Students said they signed a petition and complained to no avail about the classroom conduct of a professor accused of killing three colleagues and wounding three others in a shooting rampage at a faculty meeting.</p>
<p>The students upset with biology professor Amy Bishop told The Associated Press they went to administrators at the University of Alabama in Huntsville at least three times a year ago, complaining that she was ineffective in the classroom and had odd, unsettling ways.</p>
<p>The students said Bishop never made eye contact during conversations, taught by reading out of a textbook and made frequent references to Harvard University, her beloved alma mater.</p>
<p>“We could tell something was off, that she was not like other teachers,” said nursing student Caitlin Phillips.</p>
<p>Still, they said, they saw no sign she might turn violent."</p>
<p>Why do people read irrelevant material into what I write.</p>
<p>I was very specific in what I wrote.</p>
<p>The article that I read had nothing to do with schizophrenic mothers. It had to do with parenting style. It was a large-scale research study parenting styles and it took place in Scandinavia or Europe. I read it a few years ago.</p>