LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY gleef)

I know this case has been alluded to here before, but there have been some updates in the sad and strange case of the Carey family murders:

ATLANTA -- [November 2, 2005] A woman accused of helping her husband kill their daughter because they believed she was demonic has pleaded guilty to murder.

Valerie Carey, 29, has been sentenced to life in prison for the child's death at a downtown Atlanta motel last year. She's agreed to testify against her husband as part of a plea bargain. Investigators said Christopher Carey stabbed the child with a knife until it broke.

...
During the court proceeding, testimony indicated that the man and woman both suffered from dual psychosis, a condition in which they both believed and saw each other's delusions.

...
"We thought the rapture would take the four of us to heaven," a tearful Valerie Carey said to the judge during sentencing. "But I ended up in jail and a mental hospital. Everything I thought was real in my life proves to be false."

    -- From WFTV, Channel 9, Central Florida

I'm posting this for a few reasons. First is I know some people here are interested in the Carey case.

Also, this case underscores how dangerous some of the teachings of Dominionist churches are, particularly spiritual warfare and the fight against evil.

Most importantly, I wanted to discuss the bizarre and troubling meeting of the ways of law, religion and psychiatry that this case presents. I'm especially concerned with the testimony diagnosing the couple as having a "Dual Psychosis". They were following the teachings of many churches throughout the country, probably including their church, although perhaps a bit more actively and literally than most other followers. The psychosis angle strkes me as a way to deflect attention away from the religious nature, the potentially organized religious nature, of this crime. Does anyone know which side offered that testimony?

(snagged from halls_of_psyche)