How to recognize and recover from everyday sociopaths - narcissists

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Young woman whose mother kidnapped her as a child speaks out

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Back in 1994, Dorothy Barnett lost custody of her still-nursing 9 1/2-month-old daughter to her ex-husband, Benjamin Harris Todd. According to news reports, when Barnett became pregnant, Todd originally wanted her to terminate it. Then, as they split up, Todd painted her as mentally deficient, and convinced the court in Charleston, South Carolina, to award him custody. Fearing for her daughter's safety, Barnett took her and disappeared for almost 20 years. In November, she was located in Australia and arrested for parental kidnapping. The child, now called Samantha Geldenhuys, 20, never knew of her history. For the first time, she tells her story on Australian TV. Woman kidnapped …

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BOOK REVIEW: Living and Loving After Betrayal

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I've been looking for a book to help you heal from the devastating betrayal of a sociopath. I finally found it. Living and Loving After Betrayal How to Heal from Emotional Abuse, Deceit, Infidelity, and Chronic Resentment, by Steven Stosny, Ph.D., is the best explanation I've ever read of how betrayal affects you emotionally and psychologically, and how to recover from it. In fact, I am so impressed with this book that we are now carrying it in the Lovefraud bookstore. Why it hurts Stosny starts the book by explaining why intimate betrayal hurts so much. Love bonds developed because they were crucial to the survival of the human race. Back in caveman days, we needed to look out for …

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Documents reveal Chicago Catholic Church sex abuse cover-up

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The Chicago Diocese of the Roman Catholic Church moved priests accused of child molestation from parish to parish, hiding their histories from the community, according to lawyers for the victims. The Diocese says allegations against 65 priests were substantiated. Documents related to 30 of them were posted on the Internet yesterday. Archdiocese of Chicago fought to conceal abuse claims: report, on NYDailyNews.com. Website with the actual documents: Archdiocese of Chicago Documents, on AndersonAdvocates.com More on the crisis: U.N. committee criticizes Vatican for allegedly enabling child sex abuse, on NYDailyNews.com.   …

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‘Divorce Corp’ documentary exposes corrupt and collusive divorce industry – even before the sociopaths show up

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Divorce Corp, a documentary playing in selected theaters through Jan. 16, 2014, takes direct aim at unscrupulous judges, lawyers and family court professionals, and the incestuous system that enables them to feed each other business and get rich. Some women's organizations consider the film to be dangerously one-sided. But I think it at least begins a discussion about what is really going on in family courts. Here's how the Divorce Corp documentary producers describe their movie: More money flows through the family courts, and into the hands of courthouse insiders, than in all other court systems in America combined — over $50 billion a year and growing. Through extensive r …

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New oxytocin study encouraging to parents of autistic children

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Oxytocin, sometimes referred to as “the love hormone,” has been found to affect the parts of the brain connected to emotional bonding, trust and many biological processes. Lovefraud has previously discussed the role of oxytocin in love relationships. A new study recently published in the the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences highlights how oxytocin may be helpful for another group of people who have difficulty establishing personal bonds those with autism spectrum disorder. Parents of autistic children are encouraged by the new study and are requesting doctors prescribe it for their children. Experts say parents should wait until more is known. Oxytocin Found to Stimulate …

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Connecticut parents say court-ordered expenses bankrupt them

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In an article for Washington Times Communities, Lovefraud reader Anne Stevenson writes that Connecticut parents allege they are being forced to hire court appointed vendors such as psychologists and guardians. In 2013, a group of parents complained to the Legislature that these vendors were bankrupting them through their questionable billing practices. One guardian ad litem allegedly charged $40,000, but billing records indicated she spent very little time with the child she represented. A task force established to assess Connecticut's family courts disagreed with the parents and determined that an audit of the court's books and contracts would be unnecessary. Anne invites Lovefraud …

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Father, Dmitriy Kanarikov, throws his 3 year-old son, Kirill, off roof of Manhattan high-rise then jumps to his death

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Separated parents Dmitriy and Svetlana Kanarikov had an agreed-upon visitation schedule for father Dmitriy to spend time with his 3-year-old son, Kirill. The visits seemed to go well until Dmitriy tossed his son off a high rise building and then jumped to his death as well. The couple had separated in August, when Dmitriy had turned violent toward Svetlana. Dmitriy had threatened  his estranged wife, telling her “he would take the child away” and "she would ”˜shoot (herself) from grief,'” Svetlana Kanarikov revealed. Svetlana believed this was Dmitriy's "sick way" of following through on that threat. Mom of boy, 3, thrown from roof of Manhattan high-rise calls it husband's ”˜sick way' of …

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Lessons from Sandy Hook: Disturbed people live among us

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On Friday, the Connecticut State Police released documents related to the investigation into last year's terrible school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. We know the broad strokes of what happened on Dec. 14, 2012: Adam Lanza, age 20, shot and killed his mother, Nancy Lanza, in the home that they shared. Then he went to the nearby Sandy Hook Elementary School and killed 20 first-graders and six adults. Released were thousands of documents, photos, audio recordings and videos. I downloaded one section of the report and opened some of the documents. One that was particularly chilling was the report of Newtown Police Lieutenant Christopher Vanghele, who was …

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Recover from the sociopath by experiencing beauty

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Donna Andersen at Longwood Gardens What, you're probably wondering, is that pattern behind me? The gigantic, voluptuous red curves on a field of green? They're apples. Thousands of red and green apples. The apples are floating in a few inches of water on the floor of the indoor conservatory of Longwood Gardens. The display is breathtaking. It is beauty for the sake of beauty. And it is incredibly healing. Terry and I recently treated ourselves to a couple of days off.  We took a trip not far and one of the places we visited was Longwood Gardens. Longwood Gardens, in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, was founded by Pierre DuPont of DuPont company fame in 1906. The conservatory in …

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Reports of U.S. child abuse are down, but fatalities are up

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Reports of child abuse and neglect totaled 686,000 during fiscal 2012, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. That terrible number is actually an improvement, down from 688,000 in 2011. A total of 1,640 deaths were attributed to child abuse and neglect. About 70% of the children who died were under 3 years old. Parents were the perpetrators in 80% of the cases. New federal data: Child abuse reports dip slightly, but child fatalities rise, on StarTribune.com.   …

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