Thursday, August 29, 2013
Andrea Yates Murder Case Analysis
1. Which level of psychological analysis is the most convincing to you? Explain why.
Andrea Yates suffered from a severe case of postpartum depression with psychosis. Shortly after her removal from her treatment of Haldol (Haloperidol), she drowned her five children in her family bathtub in order to save them from burning in Hell. The fact that she murdered her children a month after she was taken off of her medication leads me to believe that the neuroscience and behavioral genetics perspective is the most convincing of the three psychological analyses.
Since Haldol is used to treat people with delusional thoughts, Yates removal from Haldol seems to be an unwise decision in hindsight because drowning her children to save them from Hell appears to be quite delusional. Yates claims that she killed her children because if she had not, then "they would be tormented by Satan." In addition, although Yates' husband was an unfit husband and an unfit father of her children, he attempted to persuade the doctors to put her back on the Haldol. I believe he wanted the medication back because he noticed that she was acting strange and that she needed Haldol in order to maintain her sanity. If Yates had remained on the medication, she may not have committed the murders.
2. What important principle might this case reveal about the nature of psychology?
This case reveals that there are many levels of psychological analyses. Although I only looked at one perspective in the previous question, there are many perspectives that all contribute into answering why Andrea Yates murdered her five children. Psychology is different than other sciences in that there is no plain answer that explains everything, it must be viewed upon by many different fields of vision in order to determine a solution or reason.
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I find it interesting how you criticize the decision to take Andrea Yates off her medication. I wonder what caused that decision and how the doctors feel now. Even though there is no irrefutable proof of the medication preventing her actions, I must agree with you that there exists a correlation. I did some research on Haldol. I found that prolong use can increase the change of cardiovascular or infection problems so maybe the decision to take her odd her medication was for her own health. Haldol is used to treat schizophrenia. It is a dopamine inverse agonist which means it binds to dopamine receptors to create an opposite response. It would also be interesting to look at Andrea Yates from a developmental standpoint to find the cause of her mental problems. Of course, there could also exist some force from her subconscious that caused her to do this as Sigmund Freud would have hypothesized.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your criticism in the withdrawal of Yates' Haldol prescription; surely the doctor should have noticed Yates' dark delusions upon withdrawal. When considering the three forms of psychological analyses, the numerous explanations seem to stem from the neuroscience and biological perspective. Following Alex's comment above, Haldol, also known as Haloperidol, is not approved by the FDA for its side effect of death as an anti-psychotic medication (MedLine Plus, 2011). Her youngest child, two months at the time, was surely no excuse for the doctor to propose a change or revocation of medication. Even if the doctor ended Yates' medication for safety reasons, shouldn't she have had another medicine prescribed to alleviate the severity of her hysteria? Nevertheless, one must not forget the other factors that resulted in the horrific case. Psychology has no clear answer; rather, it revolves around several theories that draws us closer to the truth of the mind and its behavioral processes.
ReplyDeleteNick,
ReplyDeleteI quite like your discussion of Haldol, as I only mentioned it briefly in my own analysis. Medication directly serves as a fix for some psychological problems, and the decision to stop prescribing Haldol to Yates undoubtedly correlates to her actions. However, I think that her environment also played a huge role. Disillusionment with her family life and resentment towards her husband also played a part in prompting this heinous crime.
Nick I really like your argument of the removal of her from her medication. I spoke about the concept very briefly as Drew had done in his analysis as well. Although I did speak of the behavioral genetics to explain her actions. Also, personally I don't think the Haldol was the strongest reason as to why she acted the way she did but you pose an argument that can't be argued because like you said, she was taken off her medication her actions and mind set returned to her psychotic self resulting in the murder of her children. Lastly, as you were speaking about with her husband, I also agree that her husband may have been unfit to take care the children and be with Andrea but he did notice a change in her actions and mindset after she was taken off the Haldol so it wasn't just something that she made up to allow her to be found insane.
ReplyDeleteMr. Skiljan,
ReplyDeleteI too agree that taking her off medication was in hindsight a poor choice. (Imagine how the doctor must feel.)She was clearly unfit to raise a child, let alone five. However, I still see this as a poor to merely explain this as delusion for her psychosis. This case just begs further investigation. WHY did she believe that the Devil was out to get her children, and why did she think anyone else was responsible for how her kids emotionally developed but herself? While Yates is clearly unfit to answer for herself, I concur that her delusion needs further analysis from multiple perspectives.
Nick,
ReplyDeleteI also agree that taking her off her medicine was a major factor why Andrea killed her children. Medicine can only go so far though. If something is wrong with the brain, medicine can dilute the problem but not entirely fix it. Andrea should have put effort into changing and getting help; maybe even putting herself in a hospital for her own good.
Nick, I too chose the neuroscience and bahvioral genetics perspective for the same aforementioned reasons. Another thing to consider when discussing the Haldol is also the reason she was put on it in the first place, which clearly emphasizes her disasterous mental state. Another thing I find interesting is that she had no shame in defending that she was protecting her kids from the Devil, which further shows her remaining insane mental state after the incident.
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