there have been two other women in our state who have done things similar. andrea yates down in houston a couple years ago drowned 5, count 'em, FIVE, of her kids, one after another, while hubby was at work. another lady out in tyler, name escapes, took her three kids out in the yard on God's instructions and bashed their heads in with rocks. the eighteen month old survived, the seven and ten year olds did not. ms.schlosser was also operating on God's command.
what is common among them is that they were all members of tight knit 'religious' communities characterized by charismatic preachers, fundamentalist understandings of scripture. they were also human beings who were marginalised by these communities has baby making child care givers, left alone to manage in very difficult settings for large parts of every day.
ms. schlosser told her husband the night before that she was going to 'give the baby back to God'....
tyler lady had been having religious delusions for sometime, but were not recognized as such because they were not seen as unusual in their community...
andrea yates had been batty as hell for years prior, but the community and husband were very closed to 'secular' help....imagine struggling with severe mental illness while being the care giver for five small kids every day, including home school....
a shrink friend of mine once said 'it's a wonder it doesn't happen more often'....who hasn't said, 'I'm gonna kill my kids if they don't ....' the difference is that for these few, the boundary that stops the act no longer exists....
these religious communities are dangerous because of the stated ability to know what God wants, and to find it in scripture. in the mental health world, people who claim that God speaks to them are given very close attention, because it is well known that hearing the voice of God is the first sign of a serious psychosis. my point is that i think the warning signs abounded....
on the other side of things is denial. no one wants to believe or is willing to believe that the capacity to do wrong lurks in their own heart or in that of a loved one. but it does, either through conscious intent, or through insanity. i spend a good deal of time with clients (typically women) who live with dangerous men who've made serous threats against them or others, who cannot accept the need to receive those threats seriously and act accordingly. when they say, I just can't believe that X would do something like that! i say Don't you read the paper?
shrinkboy
