What’s Going On In Dottie Sandusky’s Head?

What’s Going On In Dottie Sandusky’s Head?, Not everyone is shocked that she seemed oblivious to her husband’s alleged child abuse. Sandusky’s wife arrives at court. Dottie “Sarge” Sandusky, wife of accused Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, took the stand yesterday in her husband’s sexual abuse trial, which ended today. Her demeanor was “nervous” and “often wide-eyed,” according to The New York Times, but she came to Sandusky’s defense by calling one accuser “a charmer,” “conniving” and “demanding,” and providing alternative accounts of several of the alleged incidents. Speculation has been rife as to her knowledge of events, and as to her responsibility for what took place.

Maureen Dowd writing in The New York Times described Sandusky’s statements as sounding like she was describing “a romantic rival.” Dowd cited an instance where Mrs. Sandusky claimed that one boy was “clingy” and ran across a room to jump into a La-Z-Boy with Jerry, when asked if she’d ever witnessed anything inappropriate between her husband and one of the boys in his charge. Other than that, Mrs. Sandusky seemed to think that Jerry’s relationship with his boys was just fine.

Mrs. Sandusky’s testimony comes after a week in which one accuser after another took the stand, detailing acts of abuse that they say took place over the course of many years in the Sanduskys’ house and basement, among other locations.

“From the perspective of a parent, you would be infuriated with Mrs. Sandusky,” Dr. Karen Ruskin, a Boston-based psychotherapist who specializes in marriage and family counseling told Yahoo! Shine. “The alleged abuse took place on her watch. You look at her and think, ‘What the heck happened there, mentally?’”

“It’s hard for us as humans with feelings to believe that a person can exist and not know,” Dr. Ruskin says. “But from a clinical perspective, yes, it’s possible.” Dr. Ruskin regularly sees women who, after the fact, find out that their husband was having an affair, hiding money, or in some cases murdered or molested someone, and they really didn’t know at the time. Though, Ruskin says, “You talk to them afterwards and some part of them did know.”