New research on mice finds that trauma conditions at a young age produce PTSD-like symptoms, and the symptoms cause genetic changes that are passed down to offspring. Read Genetic scars of the Holocaust: Children suffer too on Time.com. Link supplied by a Lovefraud reader. …
Representing children in custody and visitation proceedings: Do children’s lawyers really protect them?
Many people who write us have children who have their own attorneys because in difficult cases the court assigns and pays for them. We have heard many stories now and sadly it seems unusual that parents say these attorneys have helped protect their children. It's nice to know that the legal profession is also concerned that children receive ethical and competent representation. There is actually an American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers (AAML) that developed in 1995 Standards for Attorneys and Guardians ad Litem in Custody or Visitation Proceedings. These standards have recently been revised and there is considerable debate about just what the role of children's attorneys should …
Facebook, bigamy and kidnapping
Lynn France typed the name of the woman she suspected was having an affair with her husband into Facebook. Not only did she find her, but she found that the woman and her husband had gotten married at Walt Disney World—a wedding photo album was posted right there on Facebook. John France—the husband—doesn't deny that he is remarried. But he insists that he was never married to Lynn in the first place, even though they had a wedding ceremony in Italy, lived together and had two children. Then three months ago, John France kidnapped the couple's two children and took them to Florida, where he lives with his new wife. Read On Facebook, wife learns of husband's second wedding on Yahoo Ne …
Changing the presumption: Is a child really better off interacting with both parents?
Just Like His Father? Is nearly four years old now and my own son is nearly eight. At the time the book was released, scientists were still engaged in the genetics versus environment debate regarding the development of antisocial behavior. That debate is now over and every authority accepts that antisocial behavior and antisocial personality traits develop due to a gene-environment interaction. I am working on revising the book because now some specific genes have been identified. Thankfully, I have not had to cope with the toxic environment a sociopath/psychopath creates for their offspring. Just Like His Father? doesn't really grapple with that issue other than to encourage people to …
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LETTERS TO LOVEFRAUD: Staying safe on Facebook
Editor's Note: Lovefraud received the following article from the reader in Australia who posts as “Dani S.” I recently had the unfortunate experience of coming across another personality disorder, this time on Facebook. I love Facebook, as growing up in a small country town and moving to the city, Facebook has been a great place for me to reconnect with old school friends and to chat with them online. I have always been very careful never to add friend request unless I know the person personally, so I thought that I was safe! Wrong! I joined a group called "Dead Beat Dads." The group had over 300 members, ranging from mothers, stepfathers and children of fathers that have exp …
When good parenting isn’t enough
There was a time when mental health professionals were trained to see children as intrinsically good until influenced otherwise. If kids came out bad, the parents were to blame. That attitude is changing, writes Dr. Richard A. Friedman, a professor of psychiatry in Manhattan. In reality, parents have limited power to influence their children. Read Accepting that good parents may plant bad seeds, on NYTimes.com. Link submitted by a Lovefraud reader. …
LETTERS TO LOVEFRAUD: Do I drop the restraining order again?
Editor's Note. Lovefraud received the following e-mail from a woman who we'll call “Ursula.” Nine times, Ursula has filed a restraining order against her husband. Eight times she dropped it. She is due in court within a couple of weeks on the ninth order. He is pressing her to drop it, and she is wavering. It has been 8 long years, 9 restraining orders and a child and marriage together. From the first date he brought 2 roses, one because I was beautiful, the second in I was worth it at the end of the date, go figure. Then he let me into the passenger's side of the car and he came into through the drivier's side and said I failed because I didn't reach over and unlock his door before he got …
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Why do they kill?
Anyone who is interested in the topic of domestic violence should read Why Do They Kill? by David Adams. The book describes Adams' detailed interviews of men who were convicted of killing their partners, and women who were victims of attempted murder. The breakthrough here is that Dr. Adams' findings are in complete agreement with those of Dr. Dutton. There is now little doubt that terroristic batterers have psychopathic personality traits. Because David Adams' findings are so important I want to summarize them here, then so as not to throw too much at you at once, next week I'll relate these findings to psychopathic personality traits and explain why I would call these individuals …
Respite for adopted Russian children and their parents
Many Russian children adopted by Americans suffer from the legacy of fetal alcohol syndrome, institutionalization, poverty and socially corrosive survival skills. A ranch in Montana gives them—and their parents—a break. Read Russian adoptees get a respite on the range, on NYTimes.com. Link submitted by a Lovefraud reader. …
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Psychopathic parents and the disappearance of baby Gabriel Johnson
By Ox Drover In the last few years the national media have picked up several stories of psychopaths using their children as weapons to inflict severe emotional damage to the nurturing parent. In the “Clark Rockefeller” case, the man posing as a member of the Rockefeller family kidnapped his daughter from a supervised visitation and held her hostage for several days before he was found. Another case featured here in a Lovefraud article was about Dr. Amy Castillo's three children being murdered by her husband to inflict punishment on her after she had warned the judge that her ex-husband had made this very threat. In spite of this, the judge let the psychopath have unsupervised visi …
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