A (Scathing) Review: Inside the Mind of Casey Anthony by Keith Ablow

Title: Inside the Mind of Casey Anthony: A Psychological Portrait

Author: Keith Ablow, M.D.

Genre/Audience: True crime, nonfiction, adult

Publication: St. Martin's Press, 2011

Source: Library

If you haven't heard of Casey Anthony, then you've more than likely been living under a rock. She is a young single mother who killed her two year old daughter, Caylee Anthony, in 2008, although the jury determined she was "not guilty." I don't buy it, for even one second. The evidence against her is astounding, and I was sickened when I heard she was let off. Anyways.

Keith Ablow is a very famous forensic psychiatrist turned author. In this book, he examines the case from a psychological perspective, examining Casey's past, family life, and more, to try and figure out why Casey did what she did (and I do believe she did it). While I am very interested in psychology, especially psychology of criminals, this book was incredibly poor written.

First, Keith was very sarcastic. I am an extremely sarcastic person and find it to be very funny, but in the case of a published book about a killer, I don't think sarcasm is appropriate and doesn't belong. This book came off very unprofessionally to me, and I found it hard to take the author seriously. He was also WAY. TOO. REPETITIVE. I got it the first 20 times you mentioned that Casey's creepy dad watched her give birth and therefore saw her naked. Yes, it is disturbing, but I understood that the first hundred times you brought it up.

Additionally, Keith was constantly interjecting with his own weird inner monologues. For example, he included excerpts of Casey's interviews with detectives, and at random times, goes, "I would have said this..." then goes on with long, weird things that he would have said if he was in the room. Um, no one cares, Keith, what you would have said. Just tell me about the case, please and thank you. See, my sarcasm is acceptable because I'm not publishing a professional book right now. Got it, Keith?

Lastly, this book almost exclusively places the blame on Casey's parents for her murderous ways which pisses me off. I understand that her parents are bizarre and mental, but I blame ONLY the person who killed that poor child. Even if Casey's upbringing messed her up in a psychological manner, as a grown adult, surely she knew it was unacceptable to murder her own child. Casey should be held most accountable for this crime, and Keith hardly blamed her at all. He also seems to assume a lot, rather than base things on fact.

While I did find some parts of this book to be insightful, such as the inclusion of interviews between law enforcement and Casey/her family, all in all, I was really let down. I held Dr. Ablow in a much higher respect before I read this book, but I also think his editors should have cleaned up a lot of the junk such as the sarcasm and repetitiveness. Ah, well.


My Rating: 2/5