Aggressively sadistic, poor wee soul!

Philosophy Forums Psychology and Mind
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Cathy Cassidy is a popular UK children’s author. She writes about the social/emotional aspects of growing up e.g. about children coping with their parents’ divorce. Cassidy’s books are intended to be educational. So, for example, her novel “Scarlett” is a “book for anyone who has ever felt angry”.

There are several aspects of the book that are unrealistic. Some of these concern the portrayal of Scarlett.

Scarlett is a 12 year old whose character underwent a transformation as a result of the breakup of her parents’ marriage. One minute she was a model daughter and school pupil and the next, an extremely angry, highly aggressive bully and troublemaker.

This is totally unrealistic. Somebody who has never displayed anger or aggression in her life will not know how to display anger or aggression. Further, a good girl would find it extremely disturbing to display anger or aggression. Where one sees anger or aggression bursting forth unexpectedly in a person, it has been there already and the person is practiced at anger and aggression but has just controlled themselves in front of you. So unless Scarlett was suffering from Multiple personality Disorder, the scenario portrayed in the book would be impossible.

Another unrealistic aspect of Scarlett’s character is that she is portrayed as a normal, healthy 12 year old when the portrayal indicates that she is, in fact, seriously sick. The transformed Scarlett is somebody who enjoys causing suffering in other people. She is gratified to have been the cause of her father’s distress when she runs away from home. When she throws school desks across a class room, when she brandishes a scalpel in front of her teacher’s face, when she instigates pupil riots, when she sees the blood drain from the school secretary’s face at the mere sight of her, Scarlett feels satisfaction. In other words, she enjoys inflicting fear in other people. This is not healthy. No healthy person would do this. (A normal person might hit out at others if they themselves were hurt, but far from enjoying the effects, they would feel regret at having caused any distress in others.)

Further, the author states of Scarlett that “……. she attracts the wrong kind of attention at school”. Further, she states that it is not Scarlett’s fault.

Scarlett is portrayed as highly emotional. Excessive emotionalism attracts trouble. The correct interpretation of the fictional situation is that Scarlett’s excessive emotionalism attracts trouble. If such a child were to calm down, s/he would that s/he ceased to be a magnet for trouble.

These books are intended to offer children an education on emotional and psychological issues. However, the author has displayed her own confusion and ignorance and therefore these books, far from assisting children, will only leave them more confused and misinformed than they already are.

Ultimately we are expected to sympathise with a character who can only be described as aggressively sadistic. Thus sadism is called anger and is excused on the basis that it has been brought on by the distress caused by the breakup of her parents’ marriage. This licences every child to practice whatever immoral, cruel or vicious behaviours they choose and to justify these behaviours by claiming themselves to be some sort of victim or in some sort of distress.

Finally, the cure for Scarlett according to Cassidy is love and being made to feel special — trite or what!!! — the giveaway really, if one needs one. What is Cassidy REALLY about? Answer: money. She offers a facile but fashionable view of children which is as false as it is fashionable. But fashionable sells. She has spotted a modern trend and cashed in on it.

In conclusion, it is advisable that these books be kept well away from children. But perhaps they might be used as educational tools firstly by discussing the author’s misunderstanding of emotions and psychology, leading to a proper understanding of these topics. And secondly as a warning to children that they should not believe everything they read.

Also, Cassidy is actually a good and entertaining writer. For that reason, she is worth reading.

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The primary thing here is for parents to read the book before handing it to a child and to talk with your kid about books they read. Its parenting 101, Many fail this.
I am glad to say the above practice has been a generational one in my family, Dr Suess was even a part of discussions. So many authors fail to see what they write.

3

A student threatening teachers with scalpels and instilling fear in school personnel? What kind of a school is that? :laughing: . Have they never heard of police? Also, what about other classmates, do they just watch and do nothing? The whole book sounds like a joke, a 12y old girl threatening adults with a scalpel and throwing around tables? :laughing-rofl:

4

I take it yo0u haven’t been in schools for a long time nor read the papers nor had gangs of children rampaging around the streets during the school holidays. Police are in our schools nowadays on what is called “community” policing. But the way things are going nowadays, a child could threaten a teacher with a scalpel and by the time the headteacher or a policeman got there it would be the child who was being threatened by the teacher — the tables would mysteriously, miraculously have turned and the poor teacher would find herself being disciplined for child abuse.

I recently watched the remake of the film Footloose. Its attitudes are very modern. There is a scene where Ren is chased into the school tiolets by a teacher who has seen him carrying drugs. Ren flushed the drugs down the toilet before the teacher could catch him. When Ren was interviewed by the headteacher about this incident, Ren’s response was to accuse the teacher who chased him of being a paedophile — after all, why else would the male teacher have chased him into the toilets? Logic rules ok. Reality doesn’t come into it!

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Dragon, your example about the kid with the scalpel seems highly implausible. Can you link me to some data on that kind of thing or are you just conjecturing to flatter your own view?

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Here a couple of kids at different schools at different times went into schools with a knife, one was high school one was elementary. I really blame the news media as well as the parents. The media sensationalizes such things, its like a cheering section for crime.

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You took it wrong then, as I am STILL in school. I just didn’t get the impression from your post that the girl goes to school in a bad neighborhood, the way I understood it is that she is one of the troublemakers in an otherwise decent, average school. And the story is set in London, right? So it isn’t exactly an utterly shitty place with gangs rampaging the streets.

I’m just saying, when I went to elementary school things were different. School staff wouldn’t let themselves be terrorized by 12y old girls with scalpels. You make trouble, your parents are called, you make bigger trouble, police is called.

8

The example about the scalpel was from a book. However, there are now children in schools who are diagnosed as “having no sense of danger”. Thus the scalpel example is possible — they just don’t seem to be aware that some implements are dangerous and others not. I’ve had a child throw a desk at me. I am totally certain that if some other implement such as a scalpel had come to hand, that would have done just as well. In a fit of temper, the child is not thinking, they are just lashing out with no sense of danger. Also, at a school I was in recently, one of the classroom assistents was also a parent of a child at the school. This parent said to me that when she first got employment at her child’s school, it was a complete eye-opener for her. She was shocked at the way children behaved. She said to me that until then she had no idea what sort of environment she was sending her child to, and what sort of environment her child was having to cope with on a daily basis. (This school was considered a good school.)

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Things are different now and changing still. Child power. The balance of power in the classroom is shifting ever more towards the child.