Reply #51: Lynndie England: IQ [View All]

Lynndie England: Oxygen Deprived at Birth

http://talkleft.com/new_archives/010572.html

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I've always thought that Lynndie England's facial features suggested Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, which can lower IQ. It doesn't surprise me to learn that she has diminished intelligence. Perhaps I work with too many clients with mental retardation, but her work history alone -- working as a bagger in a grocery store -- has always suggested cognitive problems to me.

While it is true that folks with mental retardation know the difference between right and wrong, the core issue is that of impulsivity -- essentially, that they don't learn from experience. So, they tend to do wrong things because, even though in the past they may have learned the difference between right and wrong, they don't retain that learning. This is why you find folks with mental retardation doing "wrong" things over and over again. Folks with MR also are much more vulnerable to being led by others (see, e.g., Charles Graner) into wrong actions.

Now, is Lynndie England MR? Hard to know. Had this been a capital offense, she wouldn't be exempt from execution if her IQ weren't 70 or below. Since she was labelled as "learning disabled" (which isn't dispositive because lots of times schools use this label to avoid the "stigma" of retardation and to avoid paying for the extra services that MR kids require), it's probable that her IQ is above 70, but less than 90. That would put her in the borderline MR category.

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