Season 2 Episode 21: Darkness and Light

Arm Folding

While Foster says Lacey’s arm-folding is a sign of defensiveness, and some clinicians do make this claim, I don’t know of reliable scientific evidence to support this interpretation. Maybe… maybe not.

Justifiable Lie

Because of their fear that Molly is too fragile to know that her mother’s death was caused by the toys she left out on the staircase, the Lightman group decides it is justifiable to lie to her and tell her it was Amy who left the toys out. Amy agrees to the lie. Sometimes, I do believe, it is justifiable to lie, to save a life, to prevent terrible cruelty or psychological harm, as in this example. It is a dangerous move, because lying can become a habit. Or a lie may be told not to protect or help the victim of the liar, but to enable the liar to get away with something – for example the husband who believes his wife really doesn’t want to know about his affairs, wants him to lie to her about it. I wished there was a little more discussion about whether the lie was justifiable, but I am glad the issue was raised in this show.