Police: Mom slashed 5-year-old son's throat(say he has demons)

[canada-man]

religious abuse of children continues:


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4677607...m-slashed--year-old-sons-throat/#.T2ejXNmx7xE


Texas police say the mother of a five-year-old boy was arrested Saturday after slitting his throat with a knife. Police say she believed her boy was "infested with demons."

Tamika worthy says her mother, Daphne Spurlock, is a Christian, a good mother and someone who would never do anything to hurt anyone.

"You don't hear cuss words coming out of her mouth. You don't hear her drinking, smoking. She's encouraging somebody," Worthy said.

But now, Spurlock is at the Montgomery County Jail, accused of slitting her 5-year-old son's neck with a kitchen knife and stomping on his head and chest.

Magnolia Police say they rushed to the Roy Street home after the victim's father came home to find Spurlock standing in the living room with a knife next to the child.

"He heard her saying, ‘You're gonna come out of him, you're gonna come out of him.' And so, he came back in and she was physically abusing my younger brother," Worthy said.

Investigators arrested Spurlock and asked her why she did it.

"She was reading the Bible with him and realized he was infested with demons, and had to release these demons from him," said Brian Clark, with the Magnolia Police Department.

The little boy was airlifted to Children's Memorial Hermann with severe injuries. Spurlock's daughter said she just found out Sunday her mother started having mental issues about two months ago.

"About two months ago, incidents started occurring. She started saying different stuff that didn't make sense that she wasn't supposed to be saying. But nobody called to inform us that this was going on. so we can't go and take action to see if she needed some counseling, some help," said Worthy.

The little boy is still in critical condition.

Police say Spurlock confessed. She's been charged with attempted capital murder.

 

[Aardvark154]

Religious abuse or mental illness?

Then we can move on to the fact that the woman is doubtless from the evangelical end of the Protestant Spectrum, had she been from one of the liturgical denominations is it not far more likely she would have called her Priest rather than tried “do it yourself?”

 

[kenpachi]

I wonder which is worst? Honour killing, or this?

 

[canada-man]

Religious abuse or mental illness?

Then we can move on to the fact that the woman is doubtless from the evangelical end of the Protestant Spectrum, had she been from one of the liturgical denominations is it not far more likely she would have called her Priest rather than tried “do it yourself?”

belief in demon possession is a mental disorder protestant or catholic. this is the 21st century advances in medical science, and neurology all debunk claims of demon possession

 

[Aardvark154]

advances in medical science, and neurology all debunk claims of demon possession

Most of the time, not always. This definitely sounds like "most of the time."

p.s.: the world is not divided into Protestant and Catholic at least as I'm reasonably sure you use the terms.

 

[fun-guy]

Religious abuse or mental illness?

There's a difference?

 

[Aardvark154]

There's a difference?

That one would think be obvious.

 

[Thunderballs]

Obviously some severe mental issues at work.

 

[rld]

belief in demon possession is a mental disorder protestant or catholic. this is the 21st century advances in medical science, and neurology all debunk claims of demon possession

Really? Which DSM diagnosis is belief in demon possession?

It is no more unrealistic than say...seeing racism where it is not, or rejecting what science tells us about circumcision....

 

[TGirl Nikki]

Really? Which DSM diagnosis is belief in demon possession?

I believe that would be paranoid schizophrenia... belief in "demon possession," as well as other delusions with heavy religious overtones, are quite common amongst religiously-inclined people who are afflicted by it. Sometimes it's a belief that one is the Second Coming of Christ, or that a child/partner/neighbor/random stranger is the Anti-Christ, but when this disorder manifests itself among people with religious backgrounds, it's pretty common for their delusions to mirror their other beliefs. In cases where the person is not particularly religious, beliefs in alien interference, or government attempts at mind control, are also common explanations for why the person takes these actions - think of the guy on the Greyhound bus a couple of years ago, it's essentially the same thing.

Because paranoid schizophrenia tends to appear later in life (during adolescence, or just afterwards) it's often hard to detect until something like this happens. Dopamine imbalances tend to correlate rather highly with paranoid schizophrenia, though the research isn't really clear if there's any causal relationship... either way, this is behaviour that is definitely typical of the disorder. Unfortunately, since so many offenders end up in prisons instead of treatment facilities, it's hard to get enough solid, empirical evidence to understand why things like this happen.

A tragedy to be sure, but the religious nature of the delusions driving the attack are incidental, and secondary to the neurological disorder that caused the behaviour. I wouldn't put this anywhere on the same scale as honour killings, which are flat-out murder.