Agatha, Andrea and my interest in psychology

I recently finished a ridiculous Agatha Christie novel “Trial by Innocence.” The whole plot depended on biological determinism. A mother of six adopted children is slain in her home. Potentially any of the children adopted out of situations of extreme poverty could be the assailant. They are all essentially unstable stock: cussed misfits, born swindlers, and homicidal maniacs.

Last week the USA Today featured a story on Andrea Yates the Texas mother who killed her 5 children because she believed Satan commanded her to do it. The psychological expert called on by the prosecution Park Dietz testified that while her actions sprang from delusion (Satan told her through morning cartoons to slay her children she nonetheless) knew right from wrong. In fact she testified that she wanted George Bush and the rod of human justice to rid her of her demons. Instead of being evidence of a lack of mental competence Yates aspirations were deemed by the witness for the prosecution to be a clear sign that she knew right from wrong. Dietz asserts,

“Under Texas law, if a mentally ill person commits a murder in response to command hallucinations from God, they would surely be insane," he said. "If they did it at the direction of the chief of police, they are arguably insane. If they believed it at the direction of a gang leader, at the direction of Napoleon, at the direction of Satan, they are not insane. Gang leaders, Napoleon and Satan do not have moral authority in Texas.”

Use your delusions I guess. The situation is made all the less clear cut by the recognition that Yates believed that God was using her sinful act as an avenue for the salvation of the children. She would face civic punishment (which would incidently rid her of the Satan within.) They would merit eternal life (having been sacrificed before the age of accountability.) That such thought patterns represent a knowledge of right and wrong is ludicrous. Her civic punishment might be fine with Andrea Yates and Park Dietz but it ain’t justice. While, I could never embrace the absolute determinism of Agatha I nonetheless believe that insanity exists and sometimes in our fallen world people are not strictly responsible for their actions. In part we have a judicial system precisely to arbitrate these sorts of exceptional situations. Pandemic fears of the abuse of the insanity defense was born in large part as a reaction to the eugenic thinking represented by Christie in her novel. It is time to snapback from the long arch of this backlash. Justice demands that we do so.