Posted on 05/13/2012 12:12:29 PM PDT by KantianBurke
One day last summer, Anne and her husband, Miguel, took their 9-year-old son, Michael, to a Florida elementary school for the first day of what the family chose to call “summer camp.” For years, Anne and Miguel have struggled to understand their eldest son, an elegant boy with high-planed cheeks, wide eyes and curly light brown hair, whose periodic rages alternate with moments of chilly detachment. Michael’s eight-week program was, in reality, a highly structured psychological study — less summer camp than camp of last resort.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
But is she evil? Or is she just a good actress and salesperson? The girl I'm referring to here (and a few others like her) are enchanting, charming kids or young people who do awful things, from simple crimes to ruining the lives of others. A lot of people are good natural actors without doing wrong.
4 things I’d like to know:
1) Were (are are) the parents ever involved in the occult?
2) Are the parents observant Christians?
3) Was the Michael ever baptized? (I know, Baptists may snicker...but you shouldn’t...)
4) Was Michael spanked/disciplined when he first learned to manipulate with his terrible tantrums?
It’s like asking how much of a bad piano concert is due to the pianist and how much is due to the piano. Except we can’t examine either alone. It has not been given to humans to see every possibility and sometimes it’s wiser to refrain from assuming the worst when it is unclear. God won’t make a mistake; people can.
(4) is an example of petitio principii (aka logical fallacy of begging the question)
Spoiled children end up being liberals. Abused children can end up as psychopaths.
If you see this as a second amendment issue, you may need a bit of therapy yourself.
Or a cop.
Because such a calloused rejection by one’s parents wouldn’t scar the most normal of children right? As a parent myself, it’s easy to recognize that no sane parent would give your suggestion even a moments thought.
I don’t know if I’d call a spoiled child a psychopath.
That’s a bit of a stretch.
Blaming the identity of other persons on ignorance isn’t very intelligent.
The brain is interesting in that its anatomy and physiology(its actual neurons, synapses,and neurotransmitters)are constantly changing through our lives. I think of it like a garden that is constantly growing and being pruned. And what decides the pruning is, in part, environmental - for young children largely their parents. That is how I understand that there can be both “evil” and structural MRI differences in a brain. “Evil” (intentional or not) can cause over time these structural differences as the “evil” of the dominant mom mixed with the “evil” of the passive dad mixed with the “evil” of no concept of God being taught to the child etc. can all come together to physically prune this child’s brain in a certain pathological way. The good news of course is that God in his infinite mercy through the truth of His Word can “renew the minds” - rewire the pathological connections - of anyone who will allow Him to.
I so agree with that. Also, the "attachment parenting" movement should man up and accept a lot of the blame for creating these monsters.
One famous "attachment parenting expert" was so blind to what she had done she reported on her blog that her oldest was suffering from some (what seemed to me) shock like symptoms when she came home with his little sister! He cried and cried and didn't speak to her for several days, in fact, he seemed to have lost his ability to coherently speak for a few days.
One of my nieces on my wife's side was like a devil-child when young. She looked possessed, had tantrums, ran around like crazy doing bad stuff. One time I took her to a playground at the park, she bullied older children, pushing and punching others out of the way on a slide. Needless to say, I punished her while apologizing to the other older children. As a teenager, she grew out of it. Now, as a young adult in her twenties, she is shy sweet and gentle - 180 degrees opposite. Me and my wife are puzzled, thinking maybe she did have a demon that left her a while ago.
One of my own sons was always cold and detached from a very young age (his pre-school teachers called him the "ice man"). With a little love and understanding - and several years of karate training - he's turning out to be a very fine young man. Now he's about to graduate from college and has trained and studied diligently these past three years to become a Navy Seals candidate. I've also discovered that he has a very deep love of family that just isn't visible from the surface.
I have no doubt that the "tough love" he found in the karate dojo was a key contributor to his successful development as a person.
Agreed. The eternal nature versus nurture argument. I know of similar parents. It's puzzling and more than a bit scary -- the parents tried their darndest///
Great article. This kid might not turn into the next Ted Bundy but I don’t think that this is behavior that can just go away as they get older. These kids as they get older and more in control of themselves learn to hide the rages and learn how to act “properly” to get what they want from society. Its usually one thing that touches them and they shape their lives into getting that “high”.
The article talks about some, throwing the baby in the deep end of the pool and pulling up a chair to see what happens, or slowly cutting the tail off a cat piece by piece. Arsonists burn things not for any reason other than to watch something burn. For serial killers they get off on watching that moment when the life slips out of a persons eyes and some more get through life on making as much money as they possibly can.
I’m not sure these behavior’s can ever be fixed and I tend to think the one’s that “grow” out of it really don’t they just hide it very well. As for the boy in the article, he should be pulled out of the home, the fact that he routinely makes viable threats to the life of his brother should be reason enough to have him put away to see if he can ever function properly in society.
I did not indicate applying the switch at the slightest provocation. I specificaly call out applying at the start of a tantrum. The child needs to learn to control themselves. If they do not control themselves, society will control them. Pain association therpy does a great job of teaching a child what is not acceptable behaviour. First, even before a tantrum starts, teach what is acceptable and unacceptable behaviour. When the tantrum starts, give a warning and allow the child the opportunity to self correct. If they do not, apply the switch.
And before anyone starts shouting abuse, believe me, I know abuse, and this is not abuse. In fact, it is love and kindness because a child that does not learn to control themselves will have the lesson taught to them the hard way. Not correcting a child is setting them up for failure.
I worked for one at a large corporation. She made one guy kill himself. Put another into a mental hospital. Publicly humiliated everyone in her group. Kept all our planned raises for herself and froze our salaries for three years. Gave everyone in her group a “5” (unsatisfactory; fire them). Made each of us sit in her office while she read our reports, sentence by sentence, making fun of them and scolding us (she couldn’t string two sentences together). Utterly irrational. Mad as a hatter. Got promoted. I was the only one in the group who fought her up to the VP level. Made her retract my 5 rating and rate me as “satisfactory.” VP of corporate ethics hired a PI and made him hide all her wrong-doing. Oh, yes; this was Digital Equipment Corporation on the way down to oblivion.
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