Some of you may have noticed that I haven't been writing for Lovefraud as regularly over the last year. The reason is I have been working to get a research program off the ground. Objective scientific research on psychopathy and the family will inform a better understanding of the disorder and educate professionals about the needs of victims and family members. In a very exciting and lucky turn of events, an expert in “mixed methods” research has an office down the hall from mine at the University of Bridgeport, and l have recently learned a great deal about how to conduct this kind of research. I have long appreciated that the usual mathematical approach to psychological research does not …
Does anything work in getting a victim away from a sociopath?
Since Lovefraud launched in 2005, I've collected 2,850 cases—people who have contacted me to tell me about their experiences with a sociopath. In nearly 100 of these cases—3.4%—the person who contacted me was not actually the victim, but was a friend or family member who was trying to pry the victim away from the sociopath. For example, here's an email that Lovefraud recently received: I have a sister-in-law who is dating a married man, who claims he will be getting a divorce, which is still yet to happen. Now she's pregnant with his kid so things are more serious. They were supposed to move out together a couple months ago, but when the day came he disappeared, then a couple weeks later s …
Does anything work in getting a victim away from a sociopath?Read More
Woman who left U.S. with kids faces extradition
After her divorce in 1997, Eileen Clark, 54, left the United States with her three children for the United Kingdom. she now faces extradition back to the United States. It will be interesting to watch this case—so far I haven't seen any information to indicate whether this woman or her ex-husband were abusive. Read: Mother-of-three facing extradition from Britain and a trial in U.S. for kidnapping her children 15 years after fleeing an unhappy marriage, on DailyMail.co.uk. Link supplied by a Lovefraud reader. …
Man cons woman to adopt baby
A Pennsylvania woman met a guy online, fell for his stories, and got pregnant. She claims that he then conned her into giving him the child. Read: Woman fights man she met online for baby, on Today.MSNBC.MSN.com. Link supplied by a Lovefraud reader. …
The Wisdom of Solomon
By Joyce Alexander, RNP (retired) We have recently been discussing on Lovefraud the judicial system that is supposed to protect our children from abuse, even from abuse by their parents, who are supposed to love and protect them. The case of Josh Powell murdering his sons has brought this topic not only to the headlines, but to the front of our own thinking about psychopathic parents. Of course, not all parents are loving, protective parents, as proven by Josh Powell's recent murder of his two sons in a dramatic fashion, after possibly murdering their mother. There was ample evidence, I think, that Josh was violence prone, starting when he attacked his mother with a knife when he was a …
Lessons from the Josh Powell inferno
Last week, the Josh Powell story exploded in the media. Powell, of Graham, Washington, was supposed to have a supervised visit with his two young sons. Instead, he slammed the door in the face of the social worker, hacked the boys with a hatchet, and then blew up his house. Powell and the two sons died. I watched three news shows about the tragedy—Dateline on MSNBC, 20/20 on ABC, and Dr. Drew on HLN (Headline News). All of the programs reflected shock, horror and outrage. Dr. Drew Pinsky did actually call Josh Powell a psychopath. But what struck me about the coverage was that this tragedy was almost predictable. All the warning signs were there, if anyone had a complete picture of what w …
A petition to save a child’s life
A few years ago, I met Dr. Ariel King at the Battered Mothers Conference in Albany, New York. Her story is one of the worst involving an at-risk child that I have ever heard. Dr. King's 8-year-0ld daughter, Ariana-Leilani, has an extremely rare and dangerous disease, severe chronic neutropenia. She wants to care for her little girl, but she can't, because Ariana-Leilani is now in the physical custody of her husband. Because Dr. King is American and her daughter and husband are German nationals, the case is stuck in international limbo. The website is www.Ariana-Leilani.org with the petition for Ariana-Leilani. The following articles tell the story: A UH Alumni in the fight for her …
Overcoming the hype to educate people about sociopaths
Lovefraud recently received the following email from a reader whom we'll call “Eleanor.” Thank you for your wonderful site Lovefraud! It has helped me tremendously. I am still with my sociopath husband, but am quietly and surely planning on leaving. We have a few children so it really makes it more complicated. He has now gone up to the next stage in what I've read sociopaths love to do. I'm so thankful that I read about it before he did it and know how to react and what to expect! He's started to call up my family, giving them a sob story about how broken he is and how I won't get any help (we've gone through a few counselors, with no obvious results as they've all been taken in by his a …
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LETTERS TO LOVEFRAUD: My biggest regret is that my girls were forced to do what I decided
Editor's note: The Lovefraud reader who posts as “Missymooz” sent the following e-mail. I also was married to a sociopath!! For 15 years!!!! We had 4 children together, bought homes together etc., etc. I just left (for the third time) 2 months ago. I would like to tell my story, just in case it may help someone else out there. I feel very stupid to have stayed for so long. But here goes: I met him briefly when I was only 16, but we both went our separate ways. I married another guy when I was 19. This marriage dissolved when I was 25, and guess who was there to lick my wounds??? It all seemed like fate!! So I dated him for a while, and craving a child by then (my first husband did not w …
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Psychopathic mom pressing for more time with the kids
Lovefraud received the following email from a man whom we'll call “Brad.” He has two children with a woman who was diagnosed as a psychopath. Brad is concerned about the kids spending more time with their mother. After the email, I'll make a few comments. But many of you have personal experience attempting to co-parent with personality disordered individuals, so if you have suggestions, please post them. I have custody of my two children. My son is 12, and my daughter is 10. I'm remarried too. I have had custody since 12/2007. The kids are doing great. There grades are A's and B's. We have a happy home. Ok, now the question. She was diagnosed as a psychopath, by a very professional psy …
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