Replies

"Very delusional - as I believe Andrea was delusional in her fears of the kids going to hell unless she took their lives."

I'd like to point out that the only evidence we have that Andrea was dillusional comes from the case her defense lawyers tried to make. None of it is necessarily true, though some of it may be partially true.

"Each case is so different - we can never generalize, especially when it comes to mental illness."

Yes, each case is different. I worked with troubled teens for many years. I should admit at this point that, while not schizophrenic, I AM a chronic depressive. No bipolarity. No biggie. It just fits my personality profile. I only bring it up to make the point that TRANSFERRENCE is a bad mistake to make when attempting to understand why anyone does what they do. I've seen evidence of a lot of transferrence when reading passionate responses to passionate issues on many threads. Transferrence skews our perception.

I understand what you are saying, but I base my assumptions not on what the defense said, but what the doctors who treated her said, as well as family and friends, and her general condition/state at the time of and prior to the act. Her close friend tried frantically to get Rusty to get her the help she needed, because she saw, firsthand, an obviously very sick woman who was getting sicker and sicker by the day. She stated that she cried out when she saw the report on TV: "Not my Andrea! Not my Andrea!" She knew the REAL Andrea, we didn't, and this was not the real Andrea.