Armchair Diagnosis

HUGE DISCLAIMER: I am not a clinical psychologist, nor am I a person qualified to actually diagnose mental disorders, despite having a limited background in clinical psychology and having taken graduate courses in abnormal psychology and taught the undergraduate course. To my knowledge, John Mark Karr has not been formally diagnosed or undergone a psychiatric evaluation by a qualified professional. The following is pure speculation on my part. There, did I cover my ass enough?

I have followed the JonBenet Ramsey case from the beginning because I was born and raised in Boulder, Colorado (and was living there at the time of the crime). I remember seeing the story on the 5 o’clock news on December 26, 1996, and since then I have read every newspaper story and devoured every bit of information I could obtain about the case. I have had several theories of who might be responsible, but I’m not a detective and I’m just as stumped as the Boulder Police were and are. Call it intuition, call it an intimate knowledge of the facts of the case, but I never thought that John Mark Karr was actually responsible for JonBenet’s murder. His story just never added up for me.

Now, based on the DNA evidence, we know that Karr did not commit the crime, one wonders why he would confess to something he didn’t do. My personal theory is that he suffers (I’m not sure if this is the right word, he seems to be pretty content in his delusions) from delusional disorder. DSM-IV-TR defines the criteria for delusional disorder as follows:

• Criterion A: Nonbizarre delusions (i.e., involving situations that occur in real life, such as being followed, poisoned, infected, loved at distance, or deceived by spouse or lover, or having a disease) of at least 1 month’s duration.
• Criterion B: Criterion A for schizophrenia has never been met (i.e., patients do not have simultaneous hallucinations, disorganized speech, negative symptoms such as affective flattening, or grossly disorganized behavior). Note: Tactile and olfactory hallucinations may be present in delusional disorder if they are related to the delusional theme.
• Criterion C: Apart from the impact of the delusion(s) or its ramifications, functioning is not markedly impaired, and behavior is not obviously odd or bizarre.
• Criterion D: If mood episodes have occurred concurrently with delusions, their total duration has been brief relative to the duration of the delusional periods.
• Criterion E: The disturbance is not due to the direct physiological effects of a substance (e.g., a drug of abuse, a medication) or a general medical condition.
• Subtypes are defined, including erotomanic, grandiose, jealous, persecutory, somatic, mixed, and unspecified.

Perusing this description and assuming Karr has never been diagnosed with schizophrenia (which I’m sure would have been in the press if he had been, also his behavior–other than his apparent flat affect– doesn’t seem congruent with someone who has that diagnosis) or is not on drugs, it looks like he’d meet the criteria fairly easily for the unspecified type. Or possibly the grandiose type, given that JonBenet Ramsey has risen to iconic status in our culture, and his self-perceived association with her could arguably be grandiose. Anyway, why else would someone be so convinced that he committed a crime that he had nothing to do with?

He also meets the criteria for pedophilia, one of the paraphilias listed in DSM-IV-TR. So to play armchair clinical psychologist, and for those of you keeping score at home, I’d say that John Mark Karr has delusional disorder comorbid with pedophilia.

I’ll be interested to hear about the results of his psychiatric evaluation if he undergoes one in connection to his possible indictment in California for 5 counts of possessing child pornography.

We’re Only Human

Just a few minutes ago I received an email asking me to renew my membership in the Association for Psychological Science (formerly the American Psychological Society). Embedded in this wordy email keeping me updated on the goings-on of APS, there was a link to a new blog published by APS that discusses various current research findings in psychology. It’s definitely worth a look, and some interesting reading:

We’re Only Human

Food, Glorious Food

Glamour magazine has an article this month on “The Sneaky Little Ways America is Making You Fat”, an interesting look at the social psychology of how and what we eat. When I talk about hunger and food in my class, I try to stress the interaction of culture and food in our society (e.g., how 99% of all first dates involve getting something to eat, or how it’s culturally acceptable to curl up with a pint of Ben & Jerry’s in order to cope with heartbreak). This article provides a good review of other examples.

Not included in the online article, but in the print version, is a box on “How to feel full on less food”. The second tip is to “make your meals appear bigger”:

“Studies show that people feel fuller when their food looks like a large portion–even if it’s just an illusion and not the result of added calories. Pad your hamburger or sandwich with lettuce and tomato so it looks thicker; blend your smoothie with ice to give it more volume; pour your juice in a tall, narrow glass so it seems to contain more liquid; or serve your meal on a smaller plate or in a smaller bowl.” [italics added]

Hmm…Sounds like taking advantage of an inability to conserve (or inducing a deliberate ignorance of conservation properties) may be a “stupid human trick” to help lose weight. There’s a study in here somewhere…the only question is whether it’s been done already.

The Knowledge

I use a study of London taxi drivers in my class as an example of how the hippocampus acts like an internal GPS system that helps us remember mental “maps” of areas. These taxi drivers have to pass a notoriously difficult exam (The Knowledge) about the layout of London’s streets before becoming licensed. London cabbies have been shown to have a larger hippocampus than the average citizen, either as a result of learning those layouts or predisposing the ability to learn them (or some other factor affecting both of these; it’s a correlational finding).

Now that computerized GPS systems are becoming more prevalent, The Knowledge may become obsolete. But London cabbies are decidedly old-school, holding out on widespread implementation in their cabs. If GPS does take hold, does this mean the end of the London taxi driver as we know it?

Find the CNN article here.

On a related note, a favorite new blog of mine is New York Hack, a blog chronicling the adventures of a NYC taxi driver who also happens to be female. Fascinating stories, and she’s got a book deal, so keep an eye out at your local bookstore. It’s a great read.

We Hold These Dating Truths to Be Self-Evident…

So I was interviewed a few weeks ago regarding my dating prowess. Specifically, about any horror stories I had about meeting people who were not quite as they had seemed online. This was all for a New Jersey Star-Ledger article about truth in online dating, which extolled the virtues of a site called TrueDater.com. I’m a member of this site (no, I will not tell you what my username is), and have written several reviews of dates I met online. So when I was contacted about interviewing for this article, I figured I had nothing to lose and would take this opportunity to educate the masses on some online dating etiquette. It also interested me because I’m hoping to do my dissertation on online dating. It’s an endlessly fascinating topic.

Check the online version of the article here.

Ironically, I went on some really horrific dates with men who had been untruthful regarding various aspects of themselves AFTER I interviewed for this piece. I should call the reporter and give her some follow-up material! Thankfully, my brief foray into the online dating scene is over, as the “29-year-old New Brunswick man” who said my pictures were “terrible” is now my current male companion. C’mon, they weren’t THAT bad!