No, really.
(EDIT: Scroll down to the bottom of the posting for video of the August 11 press conference with Rockefeller / Gerhartsreiter’s attorney.)
I’ve continued to follow the “Clark Rockefeller” / Christian Gerhartsreiter story over the past few days as it just keeps getting more convoluted, and as the subject’s apparent/alleged pathway between Germany and the USA starts getting clearer. (With some surprises along the way. Today’s bizarre revelation: “Rockefeller” may have to give back his $800,000 divorce settlement, because it appears that he and the woman in question may not have been legally married. Get this — )
The 48-year-old suspect married London-based based management consultant Sandra Boss in 1995 during a small ceremony in Nantucket, Mass. But there is no official record of the union in Massachusetts, and it’s unclear whether the couple provided a marriage license during divorce proceedings.
“They weren’t legally married,” Rockefeller’s lawyer Stephen Hrones said. “How can you divorce when you’re not legally married?”
(Boy, somebody missed something there. How did this piece of data not emerge during the divorce proceedings?? How do you get a divorce without producing proof that there was a marriage in the first place?)
Meanwhile I continue being fascinated as more data slowly adds itself layer on layer to the situation, and other people start to ruminate on where the truth of the case lies (mostly the question seems to be boiling down to: Is he crazy, or is he a con man, or both?) And on the first count — for a former psych nurse, at least — the temptation to play the Diagnosis At A Distance game is tough to resist.
The most interesting factor for me at the moment is Rockefeller’s / Gerhartsreiter’s purported memory loss. His attorney claims he doesn’t remember anything prior to 1993, except for fragments (“a Scottish nanny” , a “childhood visit to Mt. Rushmore in a station wagon”) — though if he is Gerhartsreiter, this would have taken place during a period when he had never yet left Germany). So is this real memory loss, or something else?
There’s a phenomenon known as “confabulation” in which the mind fabricates memories to fill in spaces it feels or knows “need filling”. Are these memories confabulation? Impossible to say at this distance, and without expert psychiatric evaluation and possibly also an MRI (some concrete physical causes for confabulation have been discovered).
The attorney elsewhere describes his client’s memory as “shattered”. It’s an interesting word. I’ve seen various internal crises produce this kind of spotty-memory result in patients, temporarily or over long periods — and sometimes the crises in question aren’t at all obvious, sometimes not even detectable. But then we have perhaps too much mythology in modern popular culture that suggests you need some kind of blatant, major trauma to cause an amnesic response (or similar broad-based mental unhinging).
The thing to remember is that the mind’s major priority is keep itself running as well as it can, and otherwise to preserve its own status quo, usually along the lines of the basic human existential position, “I am blameless!” . And I’ve seen parts of people’s brains run all kinds of just-forget-about-this numbers on other parts of their brains to keep them away from the dangerous, sometimes unbearable realization that they’ve failed, or done something wrong. Sometimes the wrongdoing / failures are surprisingly minor: sometimes very major indeed. But memory does sometimes fail, in small spots or big swathes, as a result of a prolonged imbalance or slow buildup of chronic issues rather than anything sudden — so that no other human being but the one most intimately involved may ever be aware of the event that starts the process of leaving the mind “overdrawn at the memory bank”.
(As of August 12, however, Rockefeller / Gerhartsreiter’s recall seems to be improving. His attorney reports that he now remembers some details from his 1990’s California life, including the couple from whom he rented the San Marino guest house, though he says he “hardly knew them”.)
What Rockefeller / Gerhartsreiter claims to be experiencing could indeed be real. The problem is that when criminal law starts getting involved, a certain amount of cynicism starts to intrude itself into the diagnostic process. In this case in particular, where there seem to be multiple aliases involved, a certain amount of intelligence and cunning, and a fair amount of manipulation (vide today’s story about a woman who claims the man married her strictly for the purpose of getting a US “green card”, then dumped her*), it’s hard to avoid the idea that this “shattered” memory is very convenient. (Scroll down in this article for more details about what he claims he can remember.) Especially when it seems likely that at least some aspects of the criminal proceedings surrounding him are going to involve the determination of his (mental) fitness to stand trial. …Though this may of course be just me getting the wrong end of the diagnostic stick — as is all too likely when working at thousands’ of miles distance and with fifth– or twelfth-hand data. So, verbum sap., caveat emptor, and other similar cautionary adages.
But what keeps bringing up the cynic in me particularly strongly is the fact that some aspects of the man’s history as now presented make him sound like a fairly in-control scammer who also has (or has been developing over time) a medium-strength dose of something like narcissistic personality disorder, with maybe a dash of one of the other so-called “cluster B” / “dramatic-erratic” disorders, like borderline and histrionic personality disorders. A lot of the news accounts I’ve seen over recent days — especially some of those coming out of the man’s (apparent) hometown in Germany — particularly suggest that he has routinely displayed some of the major traits or symptoms of NPD. People who housed him or knew him describe the self-importance and haughty attitude, the spinning of elaborate and grandiose origin stories about royalty or otherwise important and monied people in the family background, and the unpredictable on-and-off charm, coupled with an underlying sense among the people around “Rockefeller” that they were being manipulated — a sense that grew so strong over time that many of these people seem to have been glad to have the relationship dissolve.
(ETA: And now we have the August 12th revelations, which complicate matters.Iis this reported “improved recall” genuinely the slow recovery of lost or trauma-buried memory which is slowly being stimulated by questions about something the person hasn’t thought about, or wanted to think about, for years? Or are we simply seeing a man trying to keep a decades-long, consciously built “house of cards” of false identities from coming down all at once, by surrendering it a little at a time?…)
…(shrug) At the end of the day, there’s still no telling where the case may go. (Like any other CSI fan, I’m wondering when someone will suggest DNA testing, and how long it will take to meander its way through the labyrinth of legal barriers that will doubtless be involved.)
We’ll just have to wait and see what happens…
(BTW, fellow CSI fans: how many bets that something like this turns up in the next season of one or another of the series? Their writing staffs will be breaking out ‘09 script ideas in the story rooms just about now…)
*ETA: some more detail has turned up about this —
The woman who actually married Christian Gerhartsreiter, Amy Jersild Duhnke, 49, of Milwaukee, was unavailable for comment. In a telephone interview Friday, her husband, Eric Duhnke, confirmed that the marriage took place, but he said it lasted only a day. Public records obtained by The Associated Press indicate Amy Duhnke waited 11 years before filing for divorce from Gerhartstreiter.
Eric Duhnke promised to issue a clarifying statement Friday, but it never materialized.
(Below is video of the August 11 press conference with Rockefeller / Gerhartsreiter’s attorney.)
Some of you will know approximately where we live in Ireland, so I am sorry to tell you that this story is locally germane:
Post mortems due on County Wicklow bodies
They were our neighbors. Not the kind you’re close to, perhaps (though they were close to many others), but they were the kind you’d always wave “good morning” to as you walked or biked past their property.
And now, suddenly, gone: they and their son. This is too odd, for our part of the world.
Meanwhile, I am already tired of the local media presence. You really don’t want the satellite vans double-parked down the road from you, and the people banging on your door trying to manufacture a story out of nothing.
(sigh) And I think about the family’s defensive but not deadly sheepdog, which used to run out at me when I was walking and threaten me to Stay Away From the Gate. Who feeds him, now?…
Thanks for your concern, everybody. I’m a little better. Won’t be able to get the ultrasound till next week, though. (mutter) I will be sorting out those last book requests today and tomorrow, though, so if you haven’t heard from me, you will shortly.
Meanwhile, though, there’s this to laugh about.
A team of University of Florida Engineering researchers have come to the conclusion that microwaving plastic scrubbers and kitchen sponges on full power can destroy practically 100% of the bacteria and viruses, parasites or spores collected on them. …[Gabriel] Bitton, leader of the study, … remarked that if people really wanted to sanitize their sponges and scrubbers they should use the microwave rather than the dishwasher which only cleans them.
…Sponges and scrub pads were ‘cooked’ in an ordinary domestic microwave oven for varying lengths of time. They were wrung out and the microbial load of the water was determined for each test. The findings were compared with water from control sponges and pads not placed in the microwave.The results were telling. Every contaminant but the spores were killed after two minutes. The spores took a little longer, between four to ten minutes to be exterminated as they are difficult to kill, being resistant to radiation, heat and lethal chemical substances.
…I might want to test my sponges first to make sure they won’t melt. But this sounds like it’s worth a try!
[tags]bacteria, spores, kill, clean, sterilize, microwave, sponge, scrub, kill the bugs[/tags]
After 16-year-old Jacqueline Cossairt of Markle lost control of a sport utility vehicle on gravel-covered Wells County Road 1050 North about 4:30 p.m., it struck an old hollow tree, rousting 80,000 to 100,000 honeybees inside.
By the time Ossian Volunteer Fire Chief Kent Gilbert arrived he found a black cloud of the insects swarming around the GMC Envoy.
“Those bees were mad,” he said. “I’ve never seen bees, especially honeybees, attack like that.”
And those angry bees turned what Gilbert said should have been a 10-minute extrication of the teen who was pinned inside her truck into 45 agonizing minutes as firefighters tried to figure out a way to safely work among the bees.
Cripes, what a nightmare.
[tags]Fort Wayne, Indiana, bees, accident[/tags]
I love it when things like this happen. Once again neuroscience gets stood on its ear…
Terry Wallis awoke from a coma-like state 19 years after tumbling over a guardrail in a pickup truck and falling 25 feet into a dry riverbed. Now doctors armed with some of the latest brain-imaging technology think they may know part of the reason why.
Wallis showed few outward signs of consciousness, but his brain was methodically rebuilding the white-matter infrastructure necessary for him to interact with the outside world, researchers reported yesterday in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.
…Using both Positron Emission Tomography scans and an advanced imaging technique called diffusion tensor imaging, the researchers examined Wallis’s brain after he regained full consciousness, and found that cells in the relatively undamaged areas had formed new axons, the long nerve fibers that transmit messages between neurons.
…Dr. Steven Laureys, a neurologist at the University of Liege in Belgium, said the findings will force doctors to reconsider the way they treat patients who are in minimally conscious and persistent vegetative states.
Damn straight it will. (And I’m afraid the repressed researcher in me is screaming, “Someone take a real close look at this guy’s DNA”!! — as another doctor cited in the article correctly points out that in the normal scheme of things, this man’s recovery is a one-in-three-hundred-million kind of thing.)
But the point in the article where I just had to laugh out loud:
In his last few years at Stone County Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Mountain View, Ark., Wallis’s family began to notice that Terry, a Ford enthusiast, would grunt when a Chevrolet commercial came on the television.
Sometimes serendipity dresses up in really strange costumes…
Now playing: Duke Ellington – Satin Doll
[tags]brain, neurology, rewired, coma, recovery, neuropsychiatry, white matter, corpus callosum[/tags]
And it makes sense, when you think about it…
In an interesting experiment a team from Newcastle University found people put nearly three times as much money into a canteen ‘honesty box’ when buying a drink, when they were being watched by a pair of eyes on a poster.
…The eyes it seems were more effective than a poster that featured an image of flowers and raises the possibility that people are encouraged to behave more co-operatively or pro-socially by putting up pictures of eyes.
…Although the eye pictures varied in the sex and head orientation all were chosen so that the eyes were looking directly at the observer.
And now I’m starting to wonder if pictures that aren’t staring at you are stolen more frequently than ones that are.
…It’s too early in the day for this kind of thing. I think I need more tea.
[tags]Newcastle University, eyes, honesty, psychology[/tags]
For those of us who can’t find the Beano:
Two strains of bacteria have been found to be the key to making beans flatulence-free.
Venezuelan researchers say the bacteria, Lactobacillus casei and Lactobacillus plantarum, can be added to beans so they cause minimal distress to those who eat them, and to those around the bean lovers.
Now playing: Marais-D’Anglebert-A.Forqueray – La Sonnerie De Sainte Genevieve
Makes perfect sense to me:
Infants as young as 18 months show altruistic behaviour, suggesting humans have a natural tendency to be helpful, German researchers have discovered….
…Many scientists have argued that altruism is a uniquely human function, hard-wired into our brains. The latest study suggests it is a strong human trait, perhaps present more than six million years ago in the common ancestor of chimpanzees and humans.
And the younger you are, the less chance you have for older human primates (i.e. adults…) to have talked you out of one of the behaviors that probably contributed to the survival of our species.
Boy, did G. K. Chesterton ever lose this round.
Dutch research suggests that eating or drinking cocoa appears to lower blood pressure and even reduce the death risks for older men.
…The researchers found that over a 15-year period, men who ate cocoa — including chocolate — regularly had significantly lower blood pressure compared with those who didn’t.
The sweet treat might even help ward off death. The researchers reported that 314 men died over the course of the study, with 152 of those deaths blamed on heart disease. Men who consumed the highest amount of cocoa were half as likely to die from cardiovascular disease, compared to men who ate little or no cocoa, the team found. In addition, men who ate the most cocoa were less likely to die from any causes.
…[the researcher] stressed that cocoa’s heart-healthy benefits only come from bittersweet dark chocolate and in concentrated cocoa beverages, which contain an effective dose of antioxidants, along with magnesium, arginine and fiber.
“This is not the case for milk chocolate, which contains potentially harmful saturated fats, or candy bars that dilute cocoa with a long list of other ingredients,” he said.
Peter will be disappointed that Mars bars definitely fall into this category.
…Anyway, forget Chesterton’s cranky poem: possibly this news will stir someone into writing another celebration of cocoa like the one that Stanley Sharpless came up with half a century ago and more. He saw an article on cocoa’s effects as a mild aphrodisiac, and produced the following:
Half past nine — high time for supper;
‘Cocoa, love?’ ‘Of course, my dear.’
Helen thinks it quite delicious,
John prefers it now to beer.
Knocking back the sepia potion,
Hubby winks, says, ‘Who’s for bed?’
‘Shan’t be long,’ says Helen softly,
Cheeks a faintly flushing red.
For they’ve stumbled on the secret
Of a love that never wanes,
Rapt beneath the tumbled bedclothes,
Cocoa coursing through their veins.
Dear, dear.
The fear of the spread of bird flu has resulted in French rugby fans being urged not to perform one of their most famous traditions when they arrive in Britain next month.For decades, French rugby fans have known for smuggling a cockerel, their emblem, into stadiums and releasing it onto the pitch at the final whistle.
With the confirmation of the H5N1 strain of bird flu in a dead duck in France, the British Veterinary Association is asking that that not happen this tour.
Although it would not necessarily be illegal to import a bird, the association says the public might think the authorities are not taking the threat of bird flu seriously if rugby fans were allowed to bring cockerels into the country.
Maybe they could bring a stuffed-animal cockerel? Or a dressed-up human mascot?
Or a big pot of coq au vin…
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