{"id":27150,"date":"2015-10-29T23:46:53","date_gmt":"2015-10-30T03:46:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/?p=27150"},"modified":"2015-10-29T23:46:53","modified_gmt":"2015-10-30T03:46:53","slug":"anonymous-tip-whats-in-a-lie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2015\/10\/anonymous-tip-whats-in-a-lie.html","title":{"rendered":"Anonymous Tip: What’s in a Lie"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

A Review Series of Anonymous Tip, by Michael Farris<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Pp. 145-148<\/em><\/p>\n

Shall we return to the most confusing hearing ever included in a work of fiction? Here is where we left off:<\/p>\n

Randall McGuire adjusted his tortoise-shell glasses as he walked to the witness stand.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Dr. McGuire is sworn in and Gail asks him to tell the court about his psychological examinations of Gwen and Casey. Dr. McGuire says he interviewed the individually and performed the Minnesota Multiphase Personality Inventory (MMPI) on both of them. Gail continues her line of questioning.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is this test designed to reveal?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe MMPI gives reliable insight into basic personality traits such as truthfulness, anxiety, self-confidence, and so on.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd what did the MMPI reveal about Gwen Landis?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGwen is a sensitive, caring individual who has internalized a great deal of anxiety, frustration, and bitterness. These are the conclusions relative to my overall diagnosis.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat did the MMPI reveal as to her truthfulness?\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And then there\u2019s this very odd paragraph:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe results were inconclusive,\u201d McGuire answered with a concerned expression. \u201cGwen\u2019s original scores were quite clear as to her veracity.\u201d But McGuire knew three answers to change on the test to change the results. Six changed answers would have made Gwen out to be a serious liar.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I\u2019ve read and reread this bit and my conclusion is that the second set of quotation marks only makes sense as a typo. Still, at least we know that Dr. McGuire did more than trump up his written report\u2014he also tampered with Gwen\u2019s MMPI results.<\/p>\n

Dr. McGuire tells Gail he performed the \u201cdraw-a-person test\u201d on Casey and gave her the Piers-Harris Self-Concept assessment.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat did these tests reveal?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCasey is quite a normal little girl in almost every aspect. Almost every aspect except one.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is that one area of exception?\u201d Willet asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cFear. Casey exhibits an extraordinarily high level of fear.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDid your clinical interview corroborate these assessment results?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAbsolutely. Casey is a wonderful little girl, but she is gripped in fear that is quite detrimental to her well-being.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWere you able to ascertain the cause of the fear?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCasey is afraid of her mother,\u201d McGuire said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Peter objects, calling McGuire\u2019s answer \u201cnon-responsive\u201d and Judge Romer asks Gail\u00a0to rephrase the question. Gail does so and Dr. McGuire explains how he determined the cause of Casey\u2019s fear\u2014\u201cI employed the standard I believe you lawyers call \u2018reasonable medical certainty'\u201d\u2014and then goes into more detail about Casey\u2019s fear.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is my professional opinion that the cause of Casey\u2019s fear is her mother. Not her and her mother\u2019s relationship in general. In general terms, their relationship is quite positive. But there is a pathological aspect to the relationship\u2014the area of discipline.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are four critical facts which lead me to this conclusion. First, Casey\u2019s interview revealed clear fear of discipline. Second, the CPS professional observed bruises. Third, Gwen admitted that her parents spanked her in a similar fashion. Fourth, Gwen revealed a great deal of bitterness and anger toward her ex-husband and frustration with her perception that he does not give her proper financial support. It appears that her frustrations, as well as her own experience as an abused child, lead Gwen to spank Casey in an improper fashion.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Let\u2019s look at Dr. McGuire\u2019s reasons. The second one is, as we know, false\u2014Donna and Rita did not observe any bruises. The third is not technically false, but its meaning changes when we take into account that there were no bruises. The fourth, that Gwen is angry with Gordon, relates less directly to the issue of Casey\u2019s discipline. But now I want to consider the first item on Dr. McGuire\u2019s list.<\/p>\n

Farris has not taken time to set up any subterfuge on this first point\u2014that Casey has a clear fear of discipline\u2014and it is not something that would likely be caused by the CPS visit, like Casey\u2019s nightmares (which Dr. McGuire does not appear to have any knowledge of). I would posit that Farris has not set up any subterfuge in this area because Farris does not actually see a problem with this item. I suspect, given what I have read of his writing on the topic of child discipline, that he thinks children should<\/em> be afraid of being spanked. I don\u2019t think he realizes the ways this fear can be transferred from the spanking itself onto the parent.<\/p>\n

Anyway, we\u2019ve got more testimony to get to, so we\u2019d better keep going!<\/p>\n

Gail asks Dr. McGuire what he recommends, and he responds as follows:<\/p>\n

\u201cLet me emphasize that I think their relationship is basically sound and I strongly recommend therapy that I believe will yield a very positive result. But it is simply far too dangerous for Casey to be in her mother\u2019s care until this cycle of abuse that appears to have been going on, perhaps for generations, is arrested,\u201d McGuire said.<\/p>\n

. . .<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe that five to six months of foster care will be necessary to achieve the desired results. If she cooperates under my care, I believe that we can make the necessary gains on this timetable. If she doesn\u2019t cooperate, then it may take a year or more.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Farris wants us to see McGuire\u2019s recommendations as completely ridiculous. He wants us to see Gwen as a perfectly good mother caught up in a hellish court battle. But\u00a0while I absolutely condemn Donna\u2019s lies and the forgery of her report, and Blackburn\u2019s bribing of Dr. McGuire, my views of Gwen are more complicated.<\/p>\n

I do think Gwen spanks inappropriately. Now yes, I think all spanking is inappropriate, but I would point out that what Gwen does is far more than the\u00a0\u201cswat if she runs in the road\u201d method many people think of when using the term \u201cspanking.\u201d Indeed,\u00a0her method\u00a0makes discipline punitive rather than a cooperative learning process and injects fear into the parent-child relationship in an extremely problematic way. But more concerning, honestly, is Gwen\u2019s instability\u2014she literally packed her bags, wrote letters to her parents and her lawyer, and staked out the foster parents\u2019 home preparing to snatch Casey.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know that there is enough going on here to warrant removing Casey from the home, and I know that in many cases social services works with parents to help them improve their parenting and provide them with support services while the child remains in the home. My point, though, is that there are things going on here that I find\u00a0concerning. Farris seems to think he has presented an open-and-shut case of a good parent caught up in a bad system, but the actual picture he has painted is not that simple.<\/p>\n

And there I go getting on a tangent again. At this rate we\u2019ll never finish Dr. McGuire\u2019s testimony! Anyway, at this point Gail turns the witness over to Peter. Actually, hang on a sec. I just flipped ahead and this goes on for seven more pages. I\u2019m going to call it a day and pick up with Peter questioning Dr. McGuire next week. I\u2019ll close with this bit:<\/p>\n

Willet had walked McGuire through a flawless performance. McGuire congratulated himself on mixing just a bare minimum number of lies with heavy doses of the truth to achieve the desired result.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I\u2019m actually really curious what the lies are, outside of the MMPI results. After all, Gwen does spank Casey in a way that would create fear of discipline and Dr. McGuire doesn\u2019t know that there weren\u2019t bruises. This means that when Gwen said her parents spanked her in the same way she spanks Casey, Dr. McGuire had every reason to conclude that Gwen was abused. Finally, Gwen is<\/em> frustrated with Gordon and\u00a0upset with him for failing to pay child support. The only lie I see\u00a0in the picture Dr. McGuire lays out here is that there were no bruises, and Dr. McGuire does not know that<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Peter stood and grasped the back of his chair.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I hope you\u2019re all on the edge of your seats! To be continued next week . . .<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m actually really curious what the lies are, outside of the MMPI results. After all, Gwen does spank Casey in a way that would create fear of discipline and Dr. McGuire doesn’t know that there weren’t bruises. This means that when Gwen said her parents spanked her in the same way she spanks Casey, Dr. McGuire had every reason to conclude that Gwen was abused. Finally, Gwen is frustrated with Gordon and upset with him for failing to pay child support. The only lie I see in the picture Dr. McGuire lays out here is that there were no bruises, and Dr. McGuire does not know that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":845,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[469],"class_list":["post-27150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-anonymous-tip"],"yoast_head":"\nAnonymous Tip: What's in a Lie<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I'm actually really curious what the lies are, outside of the MMPI results. After all, Gwen does spank Casey in a way that would create fear of discipline and Dr. McGuire doesn't know that there weren't bruises. This means that when Gwen said her parents spanked her in the same way she spanks Casey, Dr. McGuire had every reason to conclude that Gwen was abused. Finally, Gwen is frustrated with Gordon and upset with him for failing to pay child support. The only lie I see in the picture Dr. McGuire lays out here is that there were no bruises, and Dr. McGuire does not know that.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2015\/10\/anonymous-tip-whats-in-a-lie.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Anonymous Tip: What's in a Lie\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I'm actually really curious what the lies are, outside of the MMPI results. After all, Gwen does spank Casey in a way that would create fear of discipline and Dr. McGuire doesn't know that there weren't bruises. 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