Samantha is 1 1 years old, just over 5 feet tall, and her dark hair is wavy, which sets off her calm eyes. When I asked her about her favorite subject (history), Samantha smiled at me and asked her about her least favorite subject (mathematics). She curled her lips. Like all teenagers of this age, she is lively and cheerful. But when our conversation turned to the incident that brought her to this juvenile treatment institution 2000 miles away from home, Samantha began to hesitate, looked down at her hand and said, "I hope the whole world belongs to me," she continued, "so I wrote an encyclopedia about how to hurt others."
From the age of six, Samantha began to draw some killing weapons: knives, bows and arrows, poison, or plastic bags for suffocation. She told me that she pretended to kill her plush toy.
I asked her, "Do you practice on plush toys?"
She nodded.
"How do you feel about treating those plush toys like this?"
"Happy."
"Why does this make you happy?"
"Because I think that one day I will implement it on real people."
"Have you really tried?"
Silence.
"I pinched my brother's neck."
Samantha's adoptive parents Jane and Danny adopted her when she was two years old. They have three children of their own, but they think that accepting Samantha and her half-sister (two years older than Samantha) is driven by some inspiration. After adopting them, Jane and Danny had two more children.
From the beginning, Samantha was a wayward child, seeking attention with extreme arrogance. But which child is not like this? After losing her job and house, her biological mother was unable to raise four children and was forced to abandon her. But there is no indication that Samantha was abused. According to Texas government records, Samantha's cognitive, emotional and physical development is normal. She has no learning disabilities, no trauma, no signs of ADHD or autism.
But even at a very young age, Samantha showed indifference and meanness. When she was about 20 months old, her family lived in Texas. One day, Samantha had a conflict with the little boy in the nursery. The nursery aunt appeased the two and solved the contradiction. Later that day, Samantha walked up to the little boy who was playing, took off her pants and peed on him. You know, at that time, she had learned to go to the toilet. Jane said: "She knows exactly what she is doing, and she has learned to wait for the most appropriate opportunity to take revenge."
When Samantha was older, she began to use violence against her younger brothers and sisters, such as pinching, tripping or pushing them. If they cry, she will laugh. She will smash her sister's piggy bank and tear the money in it to pieces. When Samantha was five years old, Jane once criticized her for bullying her younger brother and sister. Samantha immediately went upstairs, went into her parents' bathroom, and then threw all her mother's contact lenses into the toilet and washed them. "She didn't do it on impulse," Jane said. "All this is well thought out, premeditated and planned."
Samantha showed Jane her graffiti, and Jane watched in horror as her daughter demonstrated how to strangle or suffocate those plush toys.
Jane used to be a primary school teacher and Danny was a doctor. They all think that the present situation is beyond their capacity. They consulted doctors, psychiatrists and psychologists. But Samantha's danger is increasing day by day. When Samantha was six years old, Jane and Danny sent her to a boarding treatment center in Montana. Before that, she had been in a mental hospital three times. A psychologist told them that Samantha would be fine when she grew up, and her current problem was only "emotional delay". Another doctor said that Samantha is prone to emotional impulses and can be cured by drugs. Some doctors also say that Samantha has reactive attachment disorder, which can be alleviated by active treatment. In all the doctor consultations, one of the psychologists gave a more pessimistic and typical view: he blamed Jane and Danny, suggesting that Samantha's behavior was a response to her strict and indifferent parents.
20 1 1 On a cold winter day, Jane drove her children home. Samantha just turned six. Suddenly there was a scream in the back seat. Jane saw Samantha's arm around her two-year-old sister's neck in the rearview mirror. The latter was trapped in the car safety chair. Jane separated them at once. As soon as she got home, she took Samantha aside.
"What were you doing just now?" Jane asked.
"I'm pinching her." Samantha answered.
"Do you know you will kill her? She won't be able to breathe and she will die. "
"I know."
"So what should we do?"
"It will be your turn."
Samantha showed Jane her graffiti, and Jane watched in horror as her daughter demonstrated how to strangle or suffocate those plush toys. "I'm afraid. I don't know what to do. " Jane said.
Four months later, Samantha tried to strangle her two-month-old brother.
Jane and Danny have to admit that the measures they have taken seem to have no effect, whether it is care, discipline or treatment. "I have read a lot of books, and I want to find a diagnosis that can explain her illness," Jane told me. "Which diagnosis can explain all the manifestations I have observed?" Finally, she found a seemingly reasonable diagnosis, but it was so rare and incurable that all the doctors she had seen before ruled it out. On July 20 13, Jane took Samantha to new york to see a psychologist, and then she was diagnosed.
"In the field of children's mental illness, this is the so-called incurable disease, and there is no treatment." Jane recalled that when she walked out of the doctor's office that afternoon, she was standing on a street corner in Manhattan, and passers-by passed by her, leaving a vague figure. A feeling swept the whole body, is it loneliness? Accident? It is hope. Finally, someone realized their family's predicament. Maybe she can overcome Danny's difficulties and find a way to help their daughter.
Samantha was diagnosed as "accompanied by ruthless conduct disorder". She has all the characteristics of developing into a psychopath.