Armchair Psych discussion of Jodi Arias

Status
Not open for further replies.

nursebeeme

Registered User
Joined
May 3, 2008
Messages
53,158
Reaction score
203
Got an armchair psych theory about Arias? Discuss it here:
 
I'm hedging towards this:

Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) - The DSM Criteria

Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is listed in the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic & Statistical Manual (DSM) as an Axis II, Cluster B (dramatic, emotional, or erratic) Disorder:

A pervasive pattern of instability of interpersonal relationships, self-image, and affects, and marked impulsivity beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts, as indicated by five (or more) of the following:

  • Frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment. [Not including suicidal or self-mutilating behavior covered in Criterion 5]
  • A pattern of unstable and intense interpersonal relationships characterized by alternating between extremes of idealization and devaluation.
  • Identity disturbance: markedly and persistently unstable self-image or sense of self.
  • Impulsivity in at least two areas that are potentially self-damaging (e.g., spending, promiscuous sex, eating disorders, substance abuse, reckless driving, binge eating). [Again, not including suicidal or self-mutilating behavior covered in Criterion 5]
  • Recurrent suicidal behavior, gestures, or threats, or self-mutilating behavior.
  • Affective instability due to a marked reactivity of mood (e.g., intense episodic dysphoria, irritability, or anxiety usually lasting a few hours and only rarely more than a few days)
  • Chronic feelings of emptiness.
  • Inappropriate, intense anger or difficulty controlling anger (e.g., frequent displays of temper, constant anger, recurrent physical fights).
  • Transient, stress-related paranoid ideation or severe dissociative symptoms.

Movies Portraying Borderline Personality Disorder Traits

A Streetcar Named Desire - A Streetcar Named Desire is a is a 1947 play written by Tennessee Williams, later adapted for film, which tells the story of a woman who displays histrionic and borderline traits, who goes to live with her codependent sister and her narcissistic husband.

Fatal Attraction - Fatal Attraction is a 1987 Movie Thriller starring Glenn Close & Michael Douglas about Dan Gallagher, a New York Lawyer (played by Michael Douglas) who is stalked by Alex Forrest (played by Glenn Close) with whom he has had an affair. The story portrays Alex's increasingly unstable behavior as a result of having Borderline Personality Disorder and feeling abandoned by Dan.

Girl, Interrupted - Girl, Interrupted is a 1999 Columbia Pictures movie which chronicles the experiences of a teenage girl with Borderline Personality Disorder, who is admitted to a mental health institution after attempting suicide.

Mommie Dearest - Mommie Dearest is a 1981 biography of Hollywood Actress Joan Crawford, played by Faye Dunaway, who, according to the account in the movie, exhibited Obsessive Compulsive, Borderline and Narcissistic Traits.

Single White Female - Single White Female is a 1992 Columbia Pictures Release starring Bridget Fonda and Jennifer Jason Leigh which portrays the events after a young woman takes in a roommate who exhibits some of the symptoms of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) and Dependent Personality Disorder (DPD) including mirroring, impulsivity and fear of abandonment.

http://outofthefog.net/Disorders/BPD.html
 
I'm with Mrs. G Norris on this one. The movie list was really interesting, thanks for that!
 
Adding:

Movies Portraying Borderline Personality Disorder Traits

Prozac Nation
 
I think NPD is as likely or comorbid with the BPD in JA's case.

Narcissistic Personality Disorder (Symptoms)
Individuals with narcissistic personality disorder generally believe that the world revolves around them. This condition is characterized by a lack of ability to empathize with others and a desire to keep the focus on themselves at all times.

Reacts to criticism with anger, shame or humiliation

Takes advantage of others to reach his or her own goals

Exaggerates own importance

Exaggerates achievements and talents

Entertains unrealistic fantasies about success, power, beauty, intelligence or romance

Has unreasonable expectation of favorable treatment

Requires constant attention and positive reinforcement from others

Is easily jealous

Disregards the feelings of others, lacks empathy

Has obsessive self-interest

Pursues mainly selfish goals

Also, narcissists are usually physically attractive and charming at first glance, so they may have advantages when they first meet people (making a sale, getting a first date, gaining popularity). However, the long-term outcomes for narcissists are usually quite dismal, especially socially (e.g., long-term relationship difficulties). On average, levels of narcissism drop quite dramatically by age 30.
 
Reposting...

Hey guys!
In a bunch of posts I mentioned an episode of Wives With Knives that tells the story of Nancy Anderson who stabbed her husband in the back.
This woman reminded me of JA very much.
Board member luv was able to find the video and posted the link.
I'm going to repost the link for anyone interested.
www.novamov.com/video/b7jyyxoj5q7hf
Enjoy!
I'm dying to hear what you guys think.


Edit: I found an article about this case. It was difficult because they changed the last names and city in the TV show.
http://www.theweeklyvice.com/2008/07/nancy-bautista-case-of-backstabbing.html
 
I think she is a psychopath who also has Borderline PD. The narcissism is covered by psychopathy -- they are narcissistic and more.

If she were just BPD, I don't think she'd have been as successful as she was in fooling people. For her to have a 4-year relationship with a man and have him still liking her, she knew that her psychopathic manipulation of him was a higher priority than allowing herself to act out as BPD folks do. She was smart/cold enough to try to hide it. Usually, borderline folks aren't as able to or aren't concerned enough about their behavior to hide it that well.

I think the cold, calculated manipulation is the main sort of behavior she runs on day to day. The emotional, BPD stuff sounds like it's more when she gets angry or jealous and upset. So I think she's not really very emotional -- she's cold... until she blows her top or jumps in the car to stalk someone hours away!

So her Jeckyl and Hyde sounds like Jeckyl = charming psychopath, and Hyde = psychopathic rage and BPD jealous, tire-slashing, stalking bonkers.
 
The discussions above suggest – correctly – that Arias can be characterized as a psychopath and a narcissist. The traits of these personality disorders are enumerated above.

I have noticed that she has a knack of closely reading her interlocutor or her audience and she looks for cues that she is coming across credibly and satisfactorily. This conversational strategy is especially noticeable during her police interrogations. Here she is shy coquettish and demure. She came across as an innocent 14 year old girl.
During the trial as she proceeds with her defense testimony she behaves largely as an innocent 14 year old female. She uses unusual word combinations that most people in similar situations would never use. She is very adept at providing explanations and excuses using torrential word stew and run on sentences. Her story is rehearsed and practiced. She has difficulty in responding to questions where she is asked “how did you feel” and her answers to those sorts of questions seem “off center” and “contrived”.

Example- “how did you feel when your Mother beat you with a wooden spoon?” ANSWER: “I felt . . . . “betrayed” and “confused”. These are very strange words used to answer a question that involves a highly personal emotional experience. Indeed they are words that an author would use as a 3rd person story teller.

As she explains her “traumatic” events with TA her eyes are empty and passionless. She rarely establishes any eye contact with the jury. She mainly looks down or away in a dreamy pointless gaze. I doubt she assumes any eye contact with any jury member. The serial answers she provides sound like she is reading a research paper to a school class i.e. information proffered is largely mundane and colorless matters of fact.
 
Example- “how did you feel when your Mother beat you with a wooden spoon?” ANSWER: “I felt . . . . “betrayed” and “confused”. These are very strange words used to answer a question that involves a highly personal emotional experience. Indeed they are words that an author would use as a 3rd person story teller.

Hi! I agree with you Zeno. Her speech patterns are definitely strange.

Just wanted to say, that some shrink on Dr. Drew (or one of those other shows) said that a victim of child abuse would not feel "betrayed". She said victims of abuse consistently blame themselves for the abuse - saying things like,
"I felt like there was something wrong with me to deserve the abuse"
"I tried so hard to be perfect so I wouldn't get abused"
etc.
 
A cold-blooded psychopathic killer seeks satisfaction from knowing the victim saw his death coming. They often sacrifice the advantage of surprise to make sure the victim sees the revenge is at hand. They also keep souvenirs, pose their victims, etc.

I suggest this explains why Jodi took pictures of TA in the shower. I believe (MOO naturally) that he was stabbed in the heart while his arms were duct taped together (tape going around his back sticky side down) and she was sitting on top of him. Thus disabled, she could untape him and let him shower while she got dressed, got her camera ready, etc. He thought she was gone so he wasn't running anywhere. He didn't realize he was critically wounded - you can see him putting pressure on the chest wound while in the shower. He sits down in the shower because he is feeling lightheaded.

When Jody returns, she has the gun and the camera. She is ready to take her photographic record of his murder so she will have pictures of him seeing his revenge coming, begging for mercy, dying cleanly from the gunshot wound. She also doesn't realize the heart stab was not immediately fatal. She opens the shower door, he sees her and is surprised and terrified at the same time- hence the "what the hell" look on his face. She shoots, he experiences a huge jolt of adrenaline and lunges at her--she tries to shoot again, the gun jams and she runs back to the bedroom to get the knife.

TA had fallen to the ground but pulls himself up to the sink coughing and choking with a bullet in his cheek. He is in great pain and is screaming for help. She returns with the knife and tries to finish him off and her fury increases as she is fearful someone will hear. The battle goes down the hall, she slits his throat there and then drags him back to the bathroom, trying to reclaim the scene as it should have been, as she imagined it would be in those hours driving to Mesa.

He spoiled it and made a huge mess when it was supposed to be so simple. Him thwarting her plans yet again explains the rage escalation that lead to the vicious almost superhuman strength she had to almost decapitate a man and then drag his body.

I think she forgot all about the camera in her wild antics afterwards where she ran around bundling up sheets to throw in the washer. I think she took the pillow to use sleeping in the car, used the pillowcase to stuff her bloody clothes in, and left the house in a rush.

Can't wait for the cross. I hope the prosecution can control their emotions. I have often thought the (justified) anger the prosecution expressed during questioning in the Casey Anthony trial might have lead the jurors to feel sorry for her.
 
I think she has low self esteem crossed with a society that is steeped in confusion. Probably personality disorders that could have been helped with therapy long ago, but its way past that. She seems to have no identity or some hole that she's filling with these men and grasping on to them for dear life and sucking the life out of them. Maybe her parents should have put their foot down a long time ago- hell I would have. She seems to hate boundaries. But she's trapped in a child ego state. This isn't disassociation- she's skilled at playing manipulative girl and lying to get out of trouble. - that's just my observation
 
I think she is a psychopath who also has Borderline PD. The narcissism is covered by psychopathy -- they are narcissistic and more.

If she were just BPD, I don't think she'd have been as successful as she was in fooling people. For her to have a 4-year relationship with a man and have him still liking her, she knew that her psychopathic manipulation of him was a higher priority than allowing herself to act out as BPD folks do. She was smart/cold enough to try to hide it. Usually, borderline folks aren't as able to or aren't concerned enough about their behavior to hide it that well.

I think the cold, calculated manipulation is the main sort of behavior she runs on day to day. The emotional, BPD stuff sounds like it's more when she gets angry or jealous and upset. So I think she's not really very emotional -- she's cold... until she blows her top or jumps in the car to stalk someone hours away!

So her Jeckyl and Hyde sounds like Jeckyl = charming psychopath, and Hyde = psychopathic rage and BPD jealous, tire-slashing, stalking bonkers.

I completely agree. I have a friend with BPD. Her episodes are never hidden..her and her husband while they seemed happily married are interrupted quite a bit by her spells .. Not saying that right. BPD isnt something u can hide. Moo
 
Has she actually had any psychiatric evaluation? It seems to me that a person that has any or all of these traits could possibly be deemed unfit to stand trial. In other words out of touch with reality.
 
Has she actually had any psychiatric evaluation? It seems to me that a person that has any or all of these traits could possibly be deemed unfit to stand trial. In other words out of touch with reality.

I'm pretty sure everyone accused of violent crimes are required to undergo psychiatric evaluation. We do know that a psych eval of JA was done, but we do not know the results.

Being nuts does not fulfill the legal requirement of insanity. She clearly knows the difference between right and wrong and is not delusional - so that's good enough.

Check this out:
Insanity defense - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Competency_evaluation_(law)
 
sociopath; narc behavior to the max, self centered always and in every way. Manipulative on the stand to the point of slipping in things and embellishment on the stand as well. Also she loves the attention totally on the stand that is why she is on the stand. She's an attn seeking *advertiser censored* imo; not name calling but calling her as I see her today: that is true about her behavior; she uses religion as well as a guise to get a man; and when that man said Hey you aren't even worthy of me....she went into a frenzy. That crime scene is a sexual frenzy; of blood and photos and something he obviously failed to give her and I think it goes to motive; sexual jealousy and a frenzied killing of TA; maybe because he teased her often am not sure. None of what she has stated on the stand has any relevance towards any abuse of any kind. It's all in her made up Jody Land Head.
 
I wanted to add here that there is often a comorbidity with people diagnosed with one personality disorder, so that they may be diagnosed with a second one also. If you scroll down to the graph at the link below you can see that there is a high comorbidity between ASPD (antisocial personality disorder - psychopathy) and BPD (Borderline personality disorder) so she may indeed be both.

Comorbidity

Definition:

Comorbidity - Comorbidity is a psychological term used to describe the occurrence of more than one diagnosis in a single patient. Comorbidity is common in the diagnosis of psychological disorders.

http://outofthefog.net/Disorders/Comorbidity.html

Fun gal. Not.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Members online

Online statistics

Members online
199
Guests online
2,488
Total visitors
2,687

Forum statistics

Threads
589,955
Messages
17,928,293
Members
228,017
Latest member
SashaRhea82
Back
Top