Flawed writing, yet compelling enough analysis

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	• Inside the Mind of Scott Peterson Keith Ablow St. Martin's Paperbacks, 2005 - 352 pages average customer review:based on 87 reviews view larger image
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Not the best interpretation

Forensic psychiatrist Keith Ablow's thesis here is that "Laci and Conner lost their lives to a psychological 'perfect storm' that began gathering over the Peterson family over five decades ago and reached hurricane strength in the psyche of Scott Peterson." (p. 8)

In concrete prose (which is not Dr. Ablow's strength) the beginning of the storm was Scott Peterson's maternal grandfather being murdered by a disgruntled ex-employee. Following this his maternal grandmother gave her children to an orphanage run by catholic nuns. Jackie Peterson, Scott's mother, was then two years old. She endured a childhood filled with abuse. When she had her first child the father left her. She then gave up that child for adoption. Another man, another child. He left her too, and she gave that child up for adoption. A third man, a third child. He too abandoned her, and she would have given up that third child, but was persuaded not to by her pediatrician. And then along came Lee Peterson who stayed, and they had Scott. Shortly after his birth he contracted pneumonia and had to be placed in an oxygen chamber.

At this point Dr. Ablow remarks that researchers believe "that the roots of a sociopath's twisted personality...can sometimes be traced to early, sudden separation between an infant and his or her mother." (p. 39) He adds on the next page that "with the cold reality of masked nurses and doctors peering at you, their eyes filled with worry that you will die, your body pierced unpredictably and uncontrollably by needles, it should come as no surprise that you may wish to 'disappear' psychologically from the earth, to crawl back inside a womb..." This is the infant Scott that he is talking about, but one wonders what a newborn infant's eyes can see. They focus on faces as they learn to see, but (as Ablow should know) that takes months. It's hard to imagine that a newborn can read the faces of "masked nurses and doctors."

Ablow's argument is that Scott Peterson is a sociopath more made than born. This is crucial. At another point Ablow speculates that Jackie Peterson might have wondered (referring to Scott Peterson's half brother Don who was put up for adoption) if her "baby would be better off dead rather than abandoned by its father." He asks, "Did Jackie Peterson ever think that before she sent her baby boy away forever?" And then he asks the clincher: "Did Scott Peterson think that before he sent his baby boy to the bottom of the sea?" (p. 33)

The lurid prose aside, here I think Ablow is beginning to make the right connection. On page 89 he quotes Scott's half-sister Anne Bird as saying, "Scott and Jackie seem very similar to me...She was able to dispose of her children without much thought or emotion, and he followed suit. He disposed of his child."

At another point, Ablow quotes a "family source" as telling him, "Jackie lies about anything and everything." (p. 47)

This is the key: a genetic predisposition toward sociopathology inherited from the mother. Scott Peterson's sociopathic personality had nothing to do with his grandfather being murdered or with his being in an oxygen chamber after birth. It had everything to do with inheriting his mother's sociopathic genes and being raised by a mother who is a sociopath herself. That's nature and nurture working together: like mother, like son.

How did the other children escape being sociopaths? They did not inherit the same combination of genes, and their childhoods were not under the direction of a sociopath. It takes both a genetic predisposition and an enabling environment for the sociopathic personality to be expressed.

This is the weakest of the books on the Peterson case that I have read, although there is some interesting material about Scott Peterson growing up. Both Catherine Crier's and Amber Frey's are better, particular Crier's. The problem here is (1) Ablow's failure to understand sociopathology in evolutionary biological terms; his reliance on outdated psychologies that put too much blame on the environment and not enough on biology; and his overly rhetorical and speculative prose. As a final example of the latter he writes on page 150 imagining Scott Peterson moments after he had killed his wife and unborn son: "Then he stepped into the bathroom, looked at his face in the mirror, and smiled a defiant, unrepentant smile...He felt utterly and intensely alive."

Perhaps, but he might also have felt terribly afraid for himself since he had now done something that could not be undone, something he could not talk his way out of; and therefore there was the very real chance that he would have to suffer the consequences. I imagine that after he had murdered Laci, Scott Peterson felt sorry for himself.

Ablow's idea that Scott Peterson was unmoved by his plight when arrested and then when sentenced to death is almost silly. Scott put on a stoic face, but Scott Peterson cares deeply about Scott Peterson. All sociopaths care only about themselves, first, foremost and exclusively. Since they don't know how normal people feel (not having those feelings themselves) they are always acting in public, and Scott was acting when the sentence was announced. He was telling himself as he later told Anne Bird that he would get out on appeal and that she shouldn't worry.

Ablow's explanation for his unworried demeanor goes like this: "Scott Peterson had already been spiritually dead a very long time. He had walked among us as an emotional vampire feasting day-to-day on the life force of others, particularly women." (p. 17) Yes, Scott used women, but he did so with a great sense of entitlement and lust. And yes he can be said to be spiritually dead because he was never spiritually alive, but he doesn't care about that. He is a pure sociopath.

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Flawed writing, yet compelling enough analysis

Of the many bizare issues surrounding the Laci Peterson murder, the most bizare to me was Scott Peterson calling Amber Fry during his wife's disappearance playing the role of a European jet setter. How anyone could maintain this corny act while his wife was "missing" was incomprehensible to me. I found Ablow was able to make a reasonable convincing case for this unreal behavior.

Dr. Ablow traces the roots of Laci Peterson's murder to the murder of Scott Peterson's grandfather nearly 60 years earlier. This murder resulted in Scott Peterson's mother being raised in a orphanage where intimidation and abuse was the norm. This horrible upbringing led to
Jackie Peterson to give up her first two children up for adoption with little remorse for the consequences, and she considered giving up her third child for adoption as well. Lee Peterson, Scott's step-father, had an similar detachment to his children of a previous marriage.

Ablow argues that being raised by two unfeeling parents who were often creating alternate realities to suit their wishes, and who easily disposed of their own children, Scott quickly learned how to please them to avoid abandonment, while repressing his true feelings and desires. Thus, Scott Peterson was pretty much "dead" from his childhood, and thought at nothing of disposing his wife and unborn child, much the way his parents did with their children.

It is understandable that this book could provoke such an negative emotional reaction from so many reviewers. It is especially understandable since Ablow seems to implicate Laci Peterson as contributing to the conditions that caused Scott to murder her. But I found the analysis compelling enough. That Dr. Ablow considers Scott Peterson to be not guilty by reason of insanity, is not going to be wildly popular. Whether or not you agree with this conclusion, Ablow presents a pretty strong case for why Scott Peterson displayed such odd, inhumane behavior and could kill his wife and unborn child in such an unfeeling manner. I found much of it fascinating to read.

As for the writing, at times it is over dramatic and needlessly speculative. At other times, Dr. Ablow seems awfully sure of himself. The book is rather padded, with several chapters, requiring several blank sheets of paper to give "bulk" to a rather slim volume. Still, I kept telling myself "just one more chapter" several chapters in a row.

It's a flawed work, describing a compelling murder case, often with interesting explanations to behavior that is otherwise impossible to understand. Summing this up, I give this 3 1/2 stars, so I'll round this up to 4 stars.

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reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, page 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17

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