Does anyone else believe that Casey Anthony has severe mental problems? Why haven't they offered her some mental help?

It’s pretty obvious. Look at her eyes. Clearly, she has a bad case of the crazy.

@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard But why have we not heard ANYTHING about getting her a little help? She may be a horrible mother, but holy shit she needs some help. Just because she’s a “monster” to most of the modern world doesn’t mean that she doesn’t deserve to be checked out and helped for a possibly disabling mental problem.

Could anyone seriously suggest otherwise?

You can’t fix narcissistic behavior.

@KatetheGreat I really don’t know, and I’m with you there. I actually expected that her defense would go the “innocent by reason of insanity” route.

I’d concur with @Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard. Specifically, she seems to have a case of slap-ass crazy.

@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard There are a few states that don’t have that option, I believe.

@KatetheGreat really? I had no idea. From my year or two of being a psych major, it really sounds like she’s a sociopath. Her flagrant disregard for the welfare of others and her inappropriate emotional responses are a big clue. Basically, as @bob_ points out, she’s crazy in the slap ass way.

You have to want to get help in order for the help to work. So I’d imagine that if she hasn’t asked for it (and I don’t know, I haven’t been following it), that’s why it hasn’t been offered. Or, it has, we just don’t know about it, since it’s not like therapists go around discussing who their patients are and disclosing details.

@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard Well, I checked and it seems as though Kansas, Montana, Idaho, and Utah don’t allow the insanity plea. Giving this information, I’m quite surprised. Just like you, I see a sociopath in her. They are classified by inappropriate feelings, immediate disregard of her actions and their effects, and the ability to convince people that her lies are true.

She’s been seen by a number of psychologists and psychiatrists @KatetheGreat. Just days into the trial; the jurors were sent back to their hotel and the defense asked that she be evalutated. Three separate psycologists said she is competent to stand trial. The three reports are sealed. If any of the doctors had found anything – anything – she’d be getting treatment.

@bkcunningham Thank you very much. I hadn’t seen anything within news reports or other websites that indicated that she had been evaluated.

I’d like to help her out. Seriously. My therapy regime for her consists of a full bottle of Valium and a tire iron. She’d only feel the tire iron for a bit, once the Valium kicks in.

Okay guys, flame away if you like. I think she’s guilty as hell and I hate people who hurt children, either on purpose or by gross negligence. Yeah, I’d like to beat the shit out of her, but we all know I have anger issues.

@KatetheGreat Just so you know, there’s a rather large difference between what the psychology community defines as sociopathic (or, grrrr, anti-social personality disorder), and what the requirements are for a legal insanity plea. Many people feel like insanity pleas are a way to get off the hook for doing bad things, so you almost never, ever get them. Really, in real life, they are freakishly rare. Even Andrea Yates had a hard time making that case, and she actually had a good case for not knowing the difference between right and wrong (whereas a sociopath knows but doesn’t care).

You are welcome Kate. When the jury was sent out of the courtroom and to their rooms that day, everyone speculated that the defense and prosecution had worked out a plea in the middle of the trial. But it turned out that she was being evaluated again. I think she had a little outburst that made her defense team think she needed to be evaluated.

I agree with WillWorkForChocolate.

I always get ‘angry’ when in Dutch newspapers or talk shows non professionals ánd professionals state that so and so (usually some accused person) ‘definitely’ must have this or that disorder.
As long as I am not a registered psychiatrist ánd have not been face to face with that specific person I would held any opinion back.
Not only is it impossible, in my view, to diagnose somebody from afar, it could possibly even harm the possible court case.

My response is, who “they” that would have offered mental help? it’s not part of the legal trial process. It might be a condition of parole or probation, depending on what her sentence will be, to be evaluated and treated if found to have a condition.

Competent to stand trial is not an evaluation of the mental health of a defendant, it is an evaluation of the defendant’s ability to understand the proceedings and participate in the defense.

This is a horrible story but I’m not entirely surprised. I do believe she did it mostly to escape the tedium of being a mother to an ever changing mini human and also to escape the panic of wondering if she’d ever have a shot at a “normal” life as a young single mom.

I’m more considered with the mental health of the jury.~

Frankly, I don’t think that there is nearly enough focus on the mental health of people on trial. If you’re not so far out there that you can’t tell right from wrong, the court doesn’t give a shit how “crazy” you are.

Although I understand why it is necessary to make sure that “insanity” doesn’t become abused as a reason for committing crimes, I think that other facets of mental illness should be factored into the equation in many cases.

Someone might force mental treatment on her if she ends up with another kid missing or dead. Unfortunately.

^I hope she gets her tubes tied.

I 2nd @chyna.

From a distance and using armchair psychology, I believe that she might have Borderline Personality Disorder, which really cannot be treated.

If she WAS abused by her Father, that will make you crazy crazy. Trust me. I think it’s the parents who are guilty. They are hiding something big time.

@furball 11 Being abused as a child, IF SHE WAS does not give her license to kill. There are many jellies on Fluther that were abused as children but have grown up to lead normal lives, have gotten married, had children and haven’t murdered family members. I’m not buying the “poor, poor Casey” defense.

Really, poor Casey? If she’s mental does that dismiss her from being dangerous? What about other people around her? If you’re her co worker, how secure do you feel? If you’re the father of her dead child? If you’re her parents?

Who protects the rest of us who don’t kill anyone?

Why do we have to gamble ourselves and our friends/relatives to someone like Casey Anthony running around, mental or not?

@Neizvestnaya -Well said!

@Neizvestnaya, @chyna: it hasn’t been established that Casey Anthony killed anyone. It’s not as if the word of God flows directly to the ears of Nancy Grace and her band of vampires.