Jani's at the mercy of her mind

[MacCruiskeen]

There is no prediction I would more gladly have been wrong about, WR, but there are few predictions I was more certain of.

But christ yes, no joy.

I hope Jani will live to write her own book and stay sane (she is and obviously always has been sane, so far) long enough to make it a good one, i.e., a truthful one.

[Jerky]

How blessed we are to have so many incredibly insightful, perceptive and well-informed pediatric psychiatrists and psychologists participating here at this message board, willing to dole out their expert opinions free of charge.

And how unfortunate for young January that her monstrous parents appear unwilling to confess to their obviously countless crimes and abuses made manifest in the blazing glow of the accumulated wisdom dispensed across these digital pages like so many glowing torches in the dark, dark night.

MT

[Plutonia]

Has anyone suggested Munchausen by Proxy yet?

Munchausen by Proxy Syndrome, also called Factitious Disorder by Proxy, is a psychological disorder characterized by a pattern of behavior in which someone, usually a mother, induces physical ailments upon another person, usually her child (“Munchausen by Proxy Syndrome,” n.d., p. 1). The mother attempts to gain attention and recognition for herself by putting on the public façade of dedicated and loving mother. However, when alone with her child she will subject them to abuse, both physical and emotional, as she tries to deliberately make them sick. The website “Munchausen by Proxy Survivors Network,” offers an extended definition for the disorder:

The child is a victim of maltreatment in which an adult falsifies physical and/or physiological signs and/or symptoms in the child causing this child to be regarded as ill or impaired. The perpetrator who is usually a parent or caregiver intentionally falsifies history, signs, or symptoms in the child to meet their own self-serving psychological needs. Other member in the family may support and participate in the deception (n.d., p. 1).

http://allpsych.com/journal/munchausen.html

[DrEvil]

There is no prediction I would more gladly have been wrong about, WR, but there are few predictions I was more certain of.

But christ yes, no joy.

I hope Jani will live to write her own book and stay sane (she is and obviously always has been sane, so far) long enough to make it a good one, i.e., a truthful one.

The nerve of some people! Here we have someone who teaches writing for a living writing a book, trying to use this opportunity to support his family! How dare he!?

Oh, and remind to tell my schizophrenic friend that he wasn't actually sick when he tried torching the gas station or when he was communicating with the headlights of other cars. It was all just in his head

[MacCruiskeen]

And how unfortunate for young January that her monstrous parents appear unwilling to confess to their obviously countless crimes and abuses

Wrong, Jerky. He did in fact confess to those crimes and abuses. Indeed, he boasted about them, at some length and in some detail, on his blog. Then he tried to delete the evidence, which had already been saved.

All of which you would know if you had actually bothered to read his blog (which I did) or had even taken the minimal trouble to follow this thread, rather than just sashaying in smugly after 30-odd pages to fart in my general direction.

There is no prediction I would more gladly have been wrong about, WR, but there are few predictions I was more certain of.

But christ yes, no joy.

I hope Jani will live to write her own book and stay sane (she is and obviously always has been sane, so far) long enough to make it a good one, i.e., a truthful one.

The nerve of some people! Here we have someone who teaches writing for a living writing a book

I know, incredible, isn't it? And he gets away with it too. It's like a dalek offering elocution lessons and actually finding people who'll pay. There's a sucker born every minute.

trying to use this opportunity to support his family! How dare he!?

Beating and emotionally abusing your child, pressing for an absurd diagnosis, stuffing her full of dangerous and debilitating drugs, boasting about it in a blog and then glorifying your own heroic "struggle" [sic] in a book while stigmatizing that child publicly for life on national TV is not the only conceivable way of supporting one's family. Is it?

oh, and remind to tell my schizophrenic friend that he wasn't actually sick when he tried torching the gas station or when he was communicating with the headlights of other cars. It was all just in his head

Why should I remind you to do such a silly thing? Your friend clearly has precisely nothing in common with the child January Schofield. And of course you would know that if you had actually bothered to read her father's blog. (Not an easy task, I admit, but if I managed it* so can you.)

* Every damn word of it, god help me. It was a harrowing experience, and not just because of the quality of the prose. But maybe I should follow Mr. Schofield's pathbreaking example and coin in by writing an actual book about it. Like him, I could call it My Struggle.

Does anyone here have Oprah's phone number?

On Edit: typos corrected.

[DrEvil]

There is no prediction I would more gladly have been wrong about, WR, but there are few predictions I was more certain of.

But christ yes, no joy.

I hope Jani will live to write her own book and stay sane (she is and obviously always has been sane, so far) long enough to make it a good one, i.e., a truthful one.

The nerve of some people! Here we have someone who teaches writing for a living writing a book

I know, incredible, isn't it? And he gets away with it too. It's like a dalek offering elocution lessons and actually finding people who'll pay. There's a sucker born every minute.

trying to use this opportunity to support his family! How dare he!?

Beating and emotionally abusing your child, pressing for an absurd diagnosis, stuffing her full of drugs, boasting about it in a blog and then glorifying your own heroic "struggle" [sic] in a book while stigmatizing that child publicly for life is not the only conceivable way of supporting one's family. Is it?

oh, and remind to tell my schizophrenic friend that he wasn't actually sick when he tried torching the gas station or when he was communicating with the headlights of other cars. It was all just in his head

Why should I remind you to do such a silly thing? Your friend clearly has precisely nothing in common with the child January Schofield. And of course you would know that if you had actually bothered to read her father's blog. (Not an easy task, I admit, but if I managed it* so can you.)

* Every damn word of it, god help me. It was a harrowing experience. But maybe I should follow Mr. Schofield's pathbreaking example and write a book about it. Like him, I could call it "My Struggle".

Does anyone here have Oprah's phone number?

I'm sorry. It was silly of me to think I know my friends better than you.
As for mr. Schofield - has it ever occured to you that he might just be an average guy trying to help his daughter, and when, after years of struggle they finally get some attention, and (banish the thought!) an opportunity to make some money? And who knows, maybe some help for their daughter? Last time I checked healthcare wasn't exactly cheap in the US. But hey, better to live on the street I guess (Or just let her jump out the window).
@Col. Quisp: On his facebook page he clearly states that he is giving away the money from the auction to other families with mentally ill children so they can pay their bills.

[Col. Quisp]

People say all kinds of things on FB. Doesn't mean he will actually donate money to others. Just another way of making himself look good.

Looks like no one was foolish enough to buy the book on eBay for that outrageous price.

Sorry I stirred the pot on this topic. I got a creepy vibe from the dad when I watched the documentaries, and remembered this long thread from a few years ago.

Munchausen by Proxy is a good theory!

[Elvis]

---

I hadn't seen this thread before, and just read the last few pages.

So, let me get this straight: the guy says,

Jani was barely registering my presence, I felt desperate and wanted to teach her, to try and engage her. I could feel her slipping away.

...he's desperately trying to engage her and he has the television on?

The violent animal-death programming is bad enough but what the hell is the Evil Eye doing on in the first place?

[DrEvil]

People say all kinds of things on FB. Doesn't mean he will actually donate money to others. Just another way of making himself look good.

Fair enough. I was just adding a bit of information that was missing from your original statement.
And I don't think you did it on purpose, just to make that clear.

@MacCruiskeen: I'm not saying that you're completely wrong. I just think that you should be extremely careful about accusing people of child abuse. For all we know these are flawed people who are honestly trying to help their daughter, and I don't think reading their blog is good enough to make such definitive statements as you have (To paraphrase Col. Quisp - "People say all kinds of things on blogs"). Having random people online repeatedly accusing you of abusing your kid when you really think you're doing your best to help isn't good. For anyone.

Edit: missing 'e' in MacCruiskeen

[Wombaticus Rex]

How blessed we are to have so many incredibly insightful, perceptive and well-informed pediatric psychiatrists and psychologists participating here at this message board, willing to dole out their expert opinions free of charge.

And how unfortunate for young January that her monstrous parents appear unwilling to confess to their obviously countless crimes and abuses made manifest in the blazing glow of the accumulated wisdom dispensed across these digital pages like so many glowing torches in the dark, dark night.

MT

Not about diagnosis of Jani: about the written record of Micheal. Please do not misunderstand, and please do not muddy the waters in the process.

Pre-emptive edit: Yes, other RI posters are debating and speculating about her condition without degrees, No, that does not have bearing on the allegations of child abuse which are sourced not from a medical diagnosis but from the written and internets-published testimony of Michael.

[DrEvil]

Oh yes, and the Department of Child and Family Services have been in touch with him after visiting his website. (For the record: It wasn't me who put them onto him, but I'm glad somebody did.)

I just realized why this thread pisses me off. If you're all so absolutely sure that she is being abused, then why the Hell didn't you call Child Services?

[psynapz]

Has anyone suggested Munchausen by Proxy yet?

Munchausen by Proxy Syndrome, also called Factitious Disorder by Proxy, is a psychological disorder characterized by a pattern of behavior in which someone, usually a mother, induces physical ailments upon another person, usually her child (“Munchausen by Proxy Syndrome,” n.d., p. 1). The mother attempts to gain attention and recognition for herself by putting on the public façade of dedicated and loving mother. However, when alone with her child she will subject them to abuse, both physical and emotional, as she tries to deliberately make them sick. The website “Munchausen by Proxy Survivors Network,” offers an extended definition for the disorder:

The child is a victim of maltreatment in which an adult falsifies physical and/or physiological signs and/or symptoms in the child causing this child to be regarded as ill or impaired. The perpetrator who is usually a parent or caregiver intentionally falsifies history, signs, or symptoms in the child to meet their own self-serving psychological needs. Other member in the family may support and participate in the deception (n.d., p. 1).

http://allpsych.com/journal/munchausen.html

I did, three years (and nine pages) ago, to the week:

Munchausen by Proxy Syndrome is unbearably resembled in this story.

Also, she's a genius, so at her age, she makes free associations with stunning creativity as it is. But then one day she learned that she's named after a month that happens every year and is a proper noun which everyone in the world uses all the time to describe a recurring period of time and has absolutely fuck-all to do with her. This had to be a rude introduction to not being the center of the universe.

So I can't help but notice these animal names are crossing associative boundaries in a way that sort of gives the finger to the structures and boundaries around her, and seems to be a nod to the mindfuck that which is being named after a month, where months are associated with numbers...

i'm sure lots of retardedly-named people lead mentally-balanced lives, but then on top of that, Daddy beats her into psychosis and then reinforces it with trauma-based mind control tactics such as the shark story (which wasn't the only time he's admitted to putting fucked up ideas in her head).

Hell yes 400 is her father. But any sufficiently neuro-atypical kid is going to have a rich inner world, possibly even giving it a name and filling it with personal archetypal icons of relevance.

What's that web site of the Aspie which documents a detailed computer-like game he's had inside his head his whole life?

I can't handle social work. This shit would make ME want to jump out a window just hearing about it.

Being right is the worst, innit? No joy, no glory, no consolation neither.

WORD.

If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they'll kill you.

[psynapz]

Oh yes, and the Department of Child and Family Services have been in touch with him after visiting his website. (For the record: It wasn't me who put them onto him, but I'm glad somebody did.)

I just realized why this thread pisses me off. If you're all so absolutely sure that she is being abused, then why the Hell didn't you call Child Services?

If you had read the whole thread, you'd see Mac and c2w imploring anyone in the LA area who knows anything about the relevant social services there to do something, and Mac noting subsequently that at least three RIers had PMed him to discuss doing exactly that. Who knows whether they did, all we know is that it had little to no practical effect.

[DrEvil]

If you had read the whole thread, you'd see Mac and c2w imploring anyone in the LA area who knows anything about the relevant social services there to do something, and Mac noting subsequently that at least three RIers had PMed him to discuss doing exactly that. Who knows whether they did, all we know is that it had little to no practical effect.

All well and good, but how hard can it be to look up a phone number and give them a call instead of just endlessly discussing it.
Or just google it, like this: http://www.google.no/search?q=LA+social ... =firefox-a

My point here is really simple : If you see someone in need you don't stand around discussing whether to help or not, or maybe just hope that someone else will come along and do it for you. You help the person in need, which in this case involves making one phone call.
And now, after three years, you don't even know if someone here actually did that. If this gets me banned, so be it, but that's just FUCKING PATHETIC.

[MacCruiskeen]

Thanks, psynapz.

Lots of people made an effort, to no avail. (I live on the other side of the planet, by the way.)

All those efforts were destined to fail because there are just too many vested interests making a tidy profit off Jani's "mental illness" and the "mental illnesses" of literally millions of other unfortunate children. The dependabilty of those profits is ensured by a whole series of unquestioned assumptions, recieved ideas, and entrenched social norms. For instance, it's perfectly normal (i.e., it is the norm) for Daddy to "discipline" his children simply for being children, and to make a medical issue of any resistance he might encounter while inflicting that hallowed "discipline". It's perfectly normal (i.e., it is the norm) for doctors and other Big Daddies to "deal with" unhappy and rebellious (i.e., "dysfunctional") children by stuffing them full of dangerous and debilitating drugs. It's perfectly normal (i.e., it is the norm) for the mass media to combine prurience with naked opportunism, and to sugar-coat that profitable mixture with a display of sanctimonious "concern" for the child and sentimental hero-worship of the parents who are so obviously responsible for her misery.

Hollywood has a lot to answer for. If it didn't actually create those iron norms, it certainly does a sterling job of reinforcing them, profitably.

In short, neither I nor anyone else actually succeeded in resisting Daddy Schofield or the massed ranks of Big Daddies in the pharmaceutical industry and the mass media. Nearly everyone still believes Daddy Knows Best. So Jerky and Dr. Evil can rest assured: all is well.