Same, majored in college too, although, in the system, in the newest DSM it states non conformity is considered a disorder. There's the academia and there's the industry. Sad but true, but no harm in arming ourselves with knowledge hey! I mean, maybe others aren't bothered by the treatment and diagnosis, but I'm a weirdo, hence my pursuit of psychology LOL! 😉🙃😊
I married into a family of pedophiles: brothers and daddy. Scary yes. I could write a book on the warning signs. Two of these men were ministers. Pedophiles are not the sterotype of dirty old men they are often quite the opposite. They are often the nice uncles and the Santa Clauses. They love for children to sit on their laps for sexual stimulation.
this psychiatrist is incredibly intelligent and i found her explanation of sociopathy really good, it went beyond just the basic 'cant empathise' cliche and explained how it related to a lack of emotional intelligence
Ben Dover all I said was pick up a book how sorry if you thought I have u a tude tho but the best way to learn is to watch videos an to learn more about whatever subject you want to know about I read so many books on psychopaths there is just so much to it that's why I said to read about it
That child was terrified of her mother. The evidence was clear, James. Diane is where she should be so people are safe, and thank God she can't breed anymore!
Christie was NOT terrified of her Mother. That is even proven with her Ex husband Steve how can you say such a lie, my guess is Ann Rules book. AND that is not evidence. If you knew anything about this case then you would know there is no evidence she shot her kids.
James F How can you say she wasn't terrified? The child took the stand and told her story she saw her mother shoot that is terrifying no matter what you think. Even if she still had love for her mother the confusion alone of why her mother did this had to be terrifying. Many of us followed the trial long before the book by the way.
Tess A HI Tess before I answer the question I am also intrigued by your statement "It's evident this woman is a thorough, well-trained professional who definitely knows her stuff. She's precise, accurate, & on point....Luv it!!!!" Did either one of these persons Interview Diane to help them with their conclusions? Or was it all from the internet or Ann's book?
Tess A If you are a professional, how can a loosely dropped opinion make you so excited? Shouldn't professionals be more scientific when assessing serious cases like this one? It's like, you are a professional and that's enough proof to support your statements. I don't think so.
I'm a criminology student and I learned something very interesting in class: Psychopaths are BORN and sociopaths are MADE. Diane is a psychopath. She didn't become bad; she was born that way. I also hate how oblivious, ignorant, and obnoxious she acted in all her interviews. She's despicable.
The Greek Pianist Semantics. Many psychologists use the term sociopath/psychopath interchangeably. Who cares if they’re born and/or made, they’re vile, reprehensible creatures and a danger to others - even the “successful” psychopaths who manage to stay under the radar and never end up in prison.
The only thing I would like to know, James is...if a stranger came along to your sister's car and wanted to "rob/steal" it...why would he waste time shooting the children, who would hardly be able to give a adequate description of him, and leave a fully grown adult (Diane) barely grazed? Would love to hear the logic behind this.
Yeah, psychopaths are wastes of space. I've got one in the family. They have no idea of the effects of their behaviour; so end up living a deeply unfulfilled life.
It's a good thing that Diane Downs will never be free. The judge during her trial made sure that future parole board members will never forget her crime. The late Farrah Fawcett did a flawless job portraying her in Small Sacrifices.
I have such empathy all my life thank God I'm not a sociopath, I don't know me being upset when everybody else is very upsetting but I think I'd rather be that way they're not having any feelings for others like Diane Downs
@@velvet2406 Not an excuse for what she did, but Diane was born to a teen mom who had five kids by age twenty-five, and catered to her head-of-the-household husband. Diane is quoted extensively in Ann Rule’s Small Sacrifices about her perceived lack of attention in childhood.
The evidence is that when her daughter was able to speak again, she said her mother shot them all. And that just makes her look worse because she was in a serious relationship with a guy who didn't want kids.
I lost my daughter in Kmart when she was 5 years old for a brief few minutes and you could hear me screaming and crying in fear. My first thought was OMGOSH someone kidnapped her. I was so utterly distraught. Diane shows no emotion for her children except what looks like pure joy that she shot them.
I lost my son once at the mall for maybe 10 minutes.I was crazed with fear,He was found,If he hadn't been I prob would have needed an ambulance called That was a long time ago.
James you need to stop stalking these boards with your comments. You're one of the very few who believe she's innocent, after 30 years I'm sure that wont change. However, spending all this time on these boards is pointless and will only cause you more distress. Noones going to change there mind because you don't agree. No matter what reasons you throw out there, there's hundreds to throw back. Her children have never spoken out in favor of her, and for good reason. She is where she belongs.
I've followed this closely for years. I know more than you think. I watched her glee at being the center of attention at the beginning of all this. Her lack of sorrow for her dead and injured children. The lack of feeling she has for them even now. The only person she cares about is herself. Her story is unbelievable. You know that. She's where she belongs so she can't hurt anyone else--even you. Because if she were free, she'd be hurting you and your family. She's a psychopath, James.
Oh yeah!! Thing is with people like her they literally think they are the smartest people in the whole world and they BELIEVE their own bullshit. Biggest flaw they have is that they can't keep their mouths shut! They do several interviews and get themselves too involved instead of just laying low or just being NORMAL. And they have no emotion at all. Other sociopathic killers pretend to cry and don't have a single tear come down their face. . .Diane didn't even do THAT!!! Not once has she shown any type of grief or sorrow. She has always been an ice maiden. Not once been sad and is always laughing, smirking and doing whatever she could to get noticed!! Still to this very day, she loves to hear the sound of her own voice!! Ugh I hate her, I just HATE her. How nobody has tried to kill her in prison I do not know
Yeah it is pretty obvious she is psycho. About as normal as norman bates. _Sociopaths have a conscience, albeit a weak one, and will often justify something they know to be wrong. By contrast, psychopaths will believe that their actions are justified and feel no remorse for any harm done._ this woman showed no remorse whatsoever and completely denies to this day, well in her last parole hearing video from the last hearing in December 2010, she is in total denial. not sure if the 2021 hearing was delayed or not.
The most chilling thing I saw was the re-enactment she did of the shooting, she's giggling and acting as if she's merely auditioning for some kind of action movie. Disgusting, just freaking disgusting.
I do not have a hugh education on this womans pathology. With that being said, Im pretty sure if you ask a mother what they would have done if they were a victim/witness in this case it sure as hell wouldnt be oh I just let my kids get shot as I watched. Most mothers I know would throw themselves on top of their kids in an effort to shield them. And then she is calm and lets them treat her minor wound while telling the police what just happened. Any other mother would have to be dragged away and given something to calm her down. No way in hell would she smile and play up to the camera.
+Carrie Koffas In this situation, the worst case scenario is that Diane shot her own children (what I believe) and the best one is that she is a terrible mother. What GOOD mother drives her children down a deserted road late at night to sight see? Have you seen her LAUGHING when she's reenacting what happened. She's a sick person, pure evil. Regarding her wound, the picture of her wound on this site does not seem to support your statement: cmm.lefora.com/topic/705180/CRIME-SCENE-EVIDENCE-DIANE-DOWNS-VEHICLE#.Vk3INb-4elw
+Sandra “Makeuplvr69” Martin It is true what Carrie said. She has a plate in her arm to hold the bones together. BUT if you see you her would looks so minor is just another ploy to convince people of her guilt. If you look at the evidence you will see the truth. Are you interested in the truth?
@@jamesf3695 James, who is Diane's brother, hate to rain on your pity party but I was in a head on collision in 1980. Broke my elbow (one of the strongest joints in the body), had the same surgery and hardware your sister did and have a bigger scar. Bfd...it hasn't impacted my life in the slightest . Oh, I also broke my wrist on the other arm and my ankle from slamming on the brakes. She couldn't tie her shoes for two damned months? I couldn't wash my hair, dress, or bathe without help for three months. Again stop with the pity party. As I understand, the hardware was eventually taken out of Diane. I still have mine.
@Reality Bytes so you're saying she should have had the kids removed from her custody because of her addiction, right? I bet Cheryl would agree. Just wrong addiction.
It's not just Elizabeth Vargas, or Barbara Ziv or Anne Rule. The jury got it right, James. They convicted her of murder and attempted murder. She's been in jail for years because of that conviction. All of her appeals have been denied and so have her probation appeals. She'll never get out of prison, unless she manages to break out again. We know what she is and what she did. You can't change that. It's done.
Wow! This is an excellent description of a psychopath! I've seen hundreds of not-quite-right descriptions but this doctor has it RIGHT! YES! How do I know? Unfortunately, I spent ONE tortuous year with a poster child NPD followed by TWO Hellish years with a BPD. Evidently I was a Magnet! I read every book I could find, all of Freud, all of Jung, and I kept my curiosity going. I learned about gaslighting, projection, selective memory, black and white thinking. I learned about Narcissistic Rage, walking on eggshells, etc. The NPD was an ex-Top Gun pilot; the BPD was a psychologist in practice for 19 years in Escondido. I only stayed out of academic curiosity and got out at the very last minute....well, after the BPD called the police, filed false charges against me, kept me locked up so I couldn't leave, destroyed evidence, tried to poison me then stole the evidence, had a restraining order issued (he was an expert court witness in Escondido so they believed him!), had me stuck in jail for 10 days and stole every possession I had plus about $60,000. So yeah, I stayed a tad too long but I sure did learn a lot! Now I can see these soulless zombies coming from about a mile away!
A hole in Diane Downs' story: She said when she got out of her car to speak with the supposed "bushy" or "shaggy" haired stranger, she had the car keys in her hand, and pretended to throw them. Yet she claimed "Hungry Like the Wolf" played without stopping. But if the keys were in her hand, that means the music couldn't have been playing, or the air conditioner running. Those won't work without the key in the ignition.
You're right, Martin. Christie, Diane's daughter, testified that Diane shot all three of the children. Christie suffered a stroke. Danny was paralyzed for life. Cheryl was killed. I'm not sure what James does with his niece's testimony. He shows great compassion for his sister, but I see very for his nieces and nephew. I'm sure he'll say Cheryl was brainwashed. It's what Diane claims, and we know what paragon truth she has always been. What an exemplary life she's led. Mother of the Year!
JAMES SHES DIFFERENT FROM YOU SIR,I GET WHERE U R COMING FROM BUT YOU MUST HAVE SEEN SIGNS OF LYING AS YOU GREW UP WITH HER I PRAY FOR YOU ,JIM FROM SCOTLAND.GET ON WITH YOUR LIFE MATE.
Is it possible to upload the full interview with Diane Downs where she talked to Anne Jagger in 1983? This case fascinates me since years and I'd love to see the full version of this infamous interview.
Read Ann Rule's book, Small Sacrifices. It is, in my opinion, one of her best (and I love all her books) and it will answer any lingering questions you have about Diane Downs and why she did this.
Very descriptive in terms that one can actually understand of what a psychopath is. I’ve always had a hard time understanding exactly what they are about but this lady explains it well.
I understand what the psychiatrist says about disconnecting from emotion - but the joy Downs felt when re-enacting the shooting for the cameras is evidence of emotion. I've heard the defining a sociopath in terms of not relating to others - but here the psychiatrist argues the sociopath can't even relate to him / herself. If she doesn't know what it means to be happy or sad - then how can she feel happy ( in the limelight for the cameras ) or the kind of infatuation that apparently led her to kill / maim her kids? It's been said she was obsessed with her married lover who didn't want to be a Dad. Therefore her kids had to go. I'm not so sure about being unable to relate to herself. I think she could _only_ relate to herself and her needs and desires. I think I like the definition of lacking empathy for others better.
+aerialkate Sociopaths definitely get joy from things but it is a shallow joy, usually that comes with ones ego being fed. She was happy because she was the center of attention and on TV. That is not an emotion in the same sense as joy one gets from loving their own children and connecting to other people. Enjoyment is what you are talking about - which should be defined a little different than true emotions which usually come from connecting to other human beings in some way. Put it this way. The feelings that sociopaths feel are the more primal ones - fear and rage, hate, and also sshallow pleasure and gratification.
She's not necessarily relating to herself but relating or moving towards the attention that is on her and this is where the narcissism comes in. She loves herself and anything and anyone that feeds herself. The cameras, the lovers, even her kids when they served a purpose for HER. Attention is a drug for narcissists because it makes them feel needed. Nothing gives them greater joy!
@Folires Morales Christie and Danny were adopted by the prosecutor who put their mother in prison. Both have graduated from college; Danny is a computer expert and Christie is raising a family.
And why are the kids fatally or near-fatally wounded, and she, being right-handed, is shot in the left arm? She's the biggest threat to him, not three sleeping children. None of Downs story is even plausible. Any parent will tell you, you do NOT stop a car on a deserted country road, at night for a complete stranger ESPECIALLY with your kids in the car. You DONT. No matter what you say. Moreover, what on earth was she was doing in that place to start with. Sightseeing when it's pitch black out?
My ex girlfriend. I would sit there and cry when she tortured me and she would totally dismiss it and would turn it around and make it about Her and how I did it
Aspurgers syndrome is not an disorder in emotional development but linguistic and learning development that results in challenged social interaction. A lack of empathy is usually a symptom of that lack of social skills but not to the degree of a sociopath who can kill a human and feel nothing more than as if they had broken an inanimate object.
What Downs did is reprehensible, so were the actions of Ted Bundy. I have read many psychological reviews of these types of people and they share many similarities in what occurred in their early, early childhood so as parents I think all should be aware there are reasons these people turned out the way they did. To me, that is so sad to realize the power parents have to detrimentally harm an innocent. I recommend watching the Y T video 'Child of Rage.'
I recall watching the Cayce Anthony trial. The dysfunction in that family was , so over the top you could observe how she grew up a sociopath. She would lie and steal money from family members yet, her mother said she was " a good mother " as grandma was raising that little girl while Cayce partied with friends. It was obvious she had killed her child as she became a burden for her and also she wanted to hurt her mother.....it was her ultimate anger reaction, to kill the little girl her mother loved so much. During the trial the grandmother lied about " chloroform " searches on her computer , likely done by Cayce but she was still protecting her daughter from her responsibilities and from the law ; behavior she had exhibited, all of her life, never making her daughter accountable for her actions. Poor little girl did not have a chance to grow up normal, in these conditions. The jury was afraid to send Cayce to death row, so they went for not guilty. They were hoodwinked by the defense lawyers and afraid of the death penalty, so they sent a murderer, free. Such as it happens when defense lawyers are allowed to handpick jury members. Manipulations do not represent justice.
With a lack this severe of basic human emotions and in Ted Bundy's case being a sadistic, unhinged, necrophille there's no way it's mostly their upbringing. Their upbringing wasn't ungodly terrible and many people have poor or even bad upbringings. Diane Downs and Ted Bundy were born dysfunctional or were born with a predisposition to develop this way. In no way are the ordinary people with a bad upbringing.
She sounds alot of Susan Smith, Casey Anthony, Stacy Barker, Andrea Yates and there is Diane Downs who murdered her own children then shot herself in the arm and drove herself to the hospital and blamed it all on someone who wasnt even there. She is crazy to shoot her kids and she is still in denial of it all even to this day! She was crazy to kill her kids and it was because she had a realtionship and it blew up in her face and so she took her anger out on her kids. Beyond sad and sick too.
Has anybody watched I believe it was 2011 her last parole hearing and she change the whole damn story to you she went to meet a guy for pictures that was for her FBI boyfriend look it up
I do not know why this happened as I was not there. Where was her ex that night? The only thing I am 100% positive about is the truth from the court transcripts and police reports. What I do know is Diane was convicted of shooting her family with Ruger 74-16787 and the police tested her hands and she never held a gun that night, they also showed she never fired a gun that night. The gun she was convicted with was found and ballistics were ran on that gun and the ballistics did not match.
I bet if they would have tested the towel that she had put around her arm for ballistic residue it would have came up positive. Psychopaths are not dumb.
Being a psychopath, a sociopath or a narcissist is not being mentally ill. It is considered social dysfunction, often triggered during their upbringing and certainly nurtured as well. Many people raise psychopaths and do not know they do it. If you do not show compassion and a sense of respect for all creatures, you mold a psychopath. They lie, cheat and steal while hurting and murdering animals....that is the big read flag. No conscience can easily be observed in small children if not ignored by oblivious parents and teachers.
I agree with everything she says her except I do think some people can be calm in a crisis because they know they need to keep it together to try and save someones life. It doesn't mean they are not terribly upset or freaked out. Obviously this does not apply to Diane who was a cold blooded killer.
CocoPink44 yeah. like I just don't cry or show much emotion in the face of death. It's due to being raised by much older parents and having elderly relatives die often during my childhood. after a while, I just realized death is expected and not to be feared. Later in life, i was seen as cold by friends when my relative or theirs would die and they would cry and be inconsolable. I just shrugged it off and was like...it happens you know? As a mother, of course I would be distraught, but part of me would be calm and if my child is dying and can't be saved, I would be calm for them. I hate when people say that people who don't cry or emote are suspicious. makes me feel like they're calling me a sociopath.
I really think my mom is a sociopath. My brother has paranoid schizophrenia and he would go missing. I would loose my mind with stress call the police, and try locate him. She on the other hand would go to bed at the same time each day, (for her beauty sleep) and never stress about the situation. It baffled me so much and I felt like I was in the twilight zone. My father was the same both superficially charming but not really caring of others. Also does not feel stress.
I'd love to see the world for one day through the eyes of a psychopath.. and I also wonder if a psychopath sometimes wonders what normal people feel.. for example, how empathy feels like..
This came out on my 2nd birthday and it makes me sick to know she attempted to kill her children and succeeded with one. I hope she never gets out of jail.
I know she shot her children, but I was wondering what would a psychopath/sociopath do if someone does harm their children very badly or try to kill them etc?
They would still not panic and have a very emotional reaction. They could get furious at the aggressor, they might not have an emotional connection with the kids but might see them as property, property that has been damaged by other. She would try to kill the murder, get revenge if possible but she was likely to provide assistance to the kids, wrap their wounds and drive fast to the hospital to save them. So, yeah, she would still not have a very emotional reaction but she would be pissed to know her kids were dead or injured, in a way she would see property damaged.
Raimonda nesvarbu no the oldest daughter died, the son was left paralyzed neck down, and the other daughter was in a coma... they were also under 7 and asleep when she did it.
My Uncle is the one who she killed her kids for. They use a fake name "Lou Louiston" but his name is really Nick. I have had a few conversations with him about what happened. He is VERY nice guy who is living in Alabama with my Aunt.
diane is definitely guilty, and i agree, a psycho/sociopath. i do wonder how many people who display psychopathy, are true victims of a crime and end up suspects in the crime. how many are wrongly imprisoned? i guess it's good to keep a person like that under 'control', but if they didn't do the crime that would suck to have the cops desperately trying to build a case on me because i had flat affect, laughed inappropriately and didn't seem overly bummed about my dead & dying kids.
Your Highness could you please pardon my sister from the atrocities that have been committed against her and my family. First order of the day would be to have you show me proof she held a gun that night.
unfortunately this is also not true The prosecuting attorney said this in court said this and it was taken for truth. The truth is the Dr who diagnosed her wanted his statement recanted but he refused to do so.
People don't just do stuff for no reason. We really don't take mental illness more seriously. Most of these murderers all have mental illness or are sociopaths. When we overlook these things, stuff like this happens.
