Thursday, September 15, 2011

The Anthonys: Denial Or Deception?

George and Cindy Anthony appeared on the Dr. Phil Show recently, as Dr. Phil landed the coup interview that many others would have liked to have landed.  As expected, the Anthonys lied, just as they did since the first time the media stuck a microphone in their faces.

The Anthonys lied to the public, to the media, and to law enforcement, both local and federal.  The Anthonys lied under oath, as well.

Thus far, in spite of the criminal behavior of lying to law enforcement (impeding a murder investigation) and lying under oath (perjury), no charges have yet been filed.

By lying, the Anthonys have not only profited financially, but successfully perverted justice for their murdered granddaughter, and cost untold thousands of dollars, both private and public dollars, including the massive costs endured by Tim Miller and Texas Equasearch, and the spending of needless man hours in phony and deliberately misleading 'searches' for Caylee, when they knew, from the summer of 2008 on, approximately where she was located. The financial toll is immense, with the emotional toll upon a nation immeasurable:  all because they lied.

They both quit their jobs in the summer of 2008 and now live in wealth.  For them, lying has paid off handsomely.  Yet, as Dylan sang, "with all of your money, you can't buy back your soul";  the bill of justice, in this life or the next, does come due.

Although George Anthony did not lie with the same impunity as Cindy on the Dr. Phil Show, acknowledging, even with minimizing language, that his daughter did kill his granddaughter, he still conspired to lie about his own involvement.  See Dr. Lillian Glass' commentary and analysis on their lies, at her blog.

Dr. Phil confronted, howbeit, gently, Cindy's lies and attempted to rebuke her when she excused the dumping of Caylee's body in the mud as Cindy replied that Caylee was to be "cremated anyway" as if this justified the attempt to dump the body.

Dr. Phil concluded, "Cindy is in denial."

Is this true?  Can we know if someone is in denial?

Is there a difference between being in denial and deception?   Statement Analysis gets to the truth.

Denial:  Denial is the inability to grasp or accept something in reality due to the emotional and psychological shock.  It is something many of us have experienced at one time or another; sometimes through grieving, or in a divorce.  When a subject is in denial, they deny reality.  We know this because they tell us so.

For example, the death of a child is one of the most traumatic experiences in life; especially when it is unexpected.

"He isn't dead, he is asleep!" I was told, firmly, by the brother of a little boy who died suddenly, and without warning.  What the brother said was not truth.  His parents said the same thing.  They were in a state of denying the truth due to overwhelming shock as their senses and instincts were stunned.

"He's going to start breathing now...you watch" his father said.

If I told you that NASA has just announced that our government has successfully landed a manned space craft on the planet, Mars, and you believed me, and told your co-workers, your words would not be truthful, yet they would not show deception.  Repeating a lie, when believed by the subject, is not lying (it is being misguided) and the words spoken will not show deception.  The language would be plain, simple, and straight forward.  If the topic under discussion is highly emotional or even highly painful, the honest answer will be without sensitivity indicators, no matter how horrid the question posed is.

This means that when the father said, "he is going to start breathing now..." he did not intend to deceive; he believed, via denial, his words.

Deceptive speech is intentional.

When someone speaks from the blunt trauma of denial, their words do not contain sensitivity indicators of deception.

Statement Analysis applied to someone in denial will not show deception.

Cindy Anthony's responses to Dr. Phil's questions show deception.

What does this mean?

It means that the qualifiers employed, and sensitivity indicators show that she does not believe what she is saying to be true, is aware that she is being deceptive, and is attempting to not be caught.  It is an exercise of her will.  She is not lying due to being mentally ill; nor is she delusional.

Cindy Anthony is not in denial; she is deceptive.  If she was in denial, her answers, even if wrong, would show veracity and not deception.

She knows that Casey murdered Caylee and that her lies helped pervert justice, with great success, from 2008 until the present and she knows that her lies so outrage the nation, that she will be rich, monetarily, from the infamy of being hated.

She laughs at Dr. Phil's assessment of "denial" all the way to the bank.

Dr. Phil or any therapist, counselor, teacher, principal, social worker, or anyone in the position of helping others, should know the difference between deception and denial, if, indeed, the professional wishes to help.

Without being able to discern the difference, the professional cannot assist the subject.  The professional must be trained to recognize that deception is an act of the person's will.  It is a deliberate decision to conceal, confuse, or manipulate the truth in order to best serve the subject's own interests.  

As a professional to conclude that Cindy Anthony is in denial, it is a failure to assist in making anything right.  To confront her with reality meant nothing to Cindy, as she skirted away his common sense questions.  It is not that she cannot see or perceive common sense or reality; on the contrary, she knows exactly what he says and what reality is, but is willful and deliberate in her answers in order to deceive.

Who is smarter, Cindy Anthony or Dr. Phil?  If she outsmarted him, the answer is plain; yet if he only told the public "she is in denial" because he was concerned about consequences for his career or the network if he called her a liar, the answer may not be as plain.


A professional who is unable to discern denial from willful deception is ill equipped to help facilitate change in a subject.

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