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How can we establish an understanding about what's going on in this play between two famous actors?
There are many frameworks or viewpoints: anthropology, history, law, and psychological science to mention a few.
Let's start with anthropology - the history of humans. Our so-called lineage started some seven million years ago (Pickford, 2006; Pobiner, 2016). Our genes are selfish and will do anything to survive (Dawkins, 1976).
For reproduction, female mammals approach male mammals for the purpose of trading food for sex.
This communication is mostly done by using body and facial language.
That means displaying a happy welcoming face as well as moving the hips
Link to source.
Verbal language. (Everett, 2017) suggests that proto-language, organizing symbols in a linear fashion, emerged with Homo erectus some two million years ago, whereas (Pagel, 2017) argues that grammatical language was established ~200 000 years ago. Mercier and Sperber (2011) suggests that language emerged as a tool to improve our standpoint so to speak. In conclusion, it's obvious that language plays a huge role in human society.
The recorded history started rather recently: ~6000 years before the present.
Law is said to have been introduced is Mesopotamia (modern day Iraq) by war-lord and king Hammurabi who ruled between 1792 - 1750 BC, that is ~2400 years after the introduction of recorded history:
The Hammurabi code of laws, a collection of 282 rules, established standards for commercial interactions and set fines and punishments to meet the requirements of justice (History).
Discourses remained the foundation for big thinkers like Socrates (470–399 BC), Plato (428/427 - 348/347 BC), Aristotle (384 - 322 BC), and Cicero (106 - 43 BC). The latter famous for his rhetorical skills.
Modern law schools still rely on Cicero as a raw model for rhetoric - the ability to persuade. But in her book SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome, professor Mary Beard paints a different picture of Cicero - a person who basically made post hoc rationalization his trademark (Beard, 2016).
Cicero had the men summarily executed, with not even a show trial. Triumphantly, he announced their deaths to a cheering crowd in a famous one-word euphemism: vixere, 'they have lived - that is, 'they are dead' (p 27).Cicero basically executed the people he "found" guilty. Then he used his rhetorical ability to rationalize his actions. In Mercier and Sperber language - improved his standpoint. Found is still the term used by people working courts, that is, judges.
In modern legal trials, argumentation, presented by advocates representing each part, is still in us. Like Hammurabi, a judge is assigned to listen to each part's verbal presentation. On occasion, there may also be some written references added.
Then the judge recedes to his or her chambers to contemplate and reflect about which discourse was the most trustworthy (has the best fit for the principles used of the court-personell). In the US, a jury is doing that job.
Most people understand that this approach is obsolete.
Steven Pinker, professor of psychology at Harvard recently wrote this on Twitter, with reference to a recent article about the language of law:
Poor writing, not specialized concepts, drives difficulty in understanding legal language (Pinker).To improve the understanding about the battle between the actors, we can also look at what psychology has to say. Developmental psychologists study how individuals grow from childhood to adulthood. A commonality in developmental psychology is to look at the home environment. For most of our species' existence, children spent their early life with a small group of people surrounding their mother. Men did other stuff, like hunting for food or other resources. That's why we as a species still act like hunters and gatherers. Recently that has changed, seeing men partake more closely in the upbringing of children.
The impact of male presence, seen for example in elephants, is normative (Macrae, 2021).
Among humans, parents play a huge influence on children's adjustment and development; children who grow up with both parents or only with their dad have better emotional and social adjustment compared to children growing up only with their mother (Österberg, 2004). Beside father presence having a normative effect (its implicit and therefore its very hard to describe all the decision rules in detail), communication style inside the home plays a huge role; kids who at 0-3 years of age experience academics reasoning between their parents are said to gain an astonishing 30 000 000 word perceptions compared to children who experiencing conflicting argumentation (Hart and Risley, 1995; Tina Rosenberg, 2013, The Power of talking to your baby).
Research into human memory concludes that episodic memory is not reproductive but constructive in a social manner (Schacter and Addis, 2007).
It's a known fact that people skilled in the art of persuasion can be very successful in convincing people that even false narratives are true (Konnikova, 2015).
There are also numerous mentala fallacies to be avoided (n ~ 200 or more), for example, as humans we are biased to treat men as perpetrators of violence and women as victims. Myside bias is another one (Mercier, 2017 Stanovich, 2021).
The big question is whether one of the parties suffered from trauma during their relationship or if trauma can be traced to circumstances earlier in life. Third, and equally important. If trauma: which one of them is the victim?
There are at least three things a receiver of a message can do to improve the probability that the interpretation of the sum of information is as accurate as possible:
(1) Use Epistemic vigilance (Sperber et al. 2010); be suspicious about the information and ask questions about the purpose - why is the sender saying the things they say, and are there any references to back up the claim?
(2) use numeracy (Brooks & Pui, 2010), basically meaning, apply simple numerical concepts.
(3) apply disjunctive reasoning - use many sources before you make any judgment or decision (Stanovich, 2015).
Research on Domestic violence (DV)/Interpersonal Violence (IPV) shows that there's an even distribution between women's and men's DV/IPV. That means that women are perpetrators of physical domestic violence in at least 50 % of the cases. DV/IPV is also most common between 20 - 30 years of age (Archer, 2000, 2004; Bates, 2018; Bates, Graham-Kevan och Archer , 2014; Bates och Graham-Kevan, 2016; Bates, Kaye, Pennington och Hamlin, 2019; Thornton et al. 2012). Relational aggressiveness is typically a female behavior (Crick and Grotpeter, 1995). Women are also more neurotic compared to men (Weisberg et al. 2011). Neuroticism means worrying about the future, and often includes aggressiveness (Ode et al. 2008).
Listen to Dr. Elizabeth Bates: Dr Elizabeth Bates: Intimate Partner Violence.
Limor Gottlieb, who is currently writing her dissertation on the topic of intimate partner violence, writes:
However, research consistently finds that women in heterosexual relationships tend to perpetrate violence against intimate partners at least as often as men (if not more). According to the CDC, one in seven men in the US has been the victim of physical abuse by an intimate partner in his lifetime, and one in 10 men has experienced rape, physical violence, and stalking by an intimate partner. Recent data from the Office for National Statistics points out that of every three reported IPV cases in the UK, two victims are female, and one is male. These numbers may even be gross underestimations considering male victims of domestic abuse are less likely to view abuse as a crime and usually don’t report it to friends or the police. (Gottlieb, 2022).Now, another obvious obstacle is the media. Journalists, who are assigned to report on different matters, tend to spice up their stories on the famous premise - if it bleeds it leads (Pinker, 2018). So, as a reader, it's important to be cautious about the information presented.
Because the male in this case, Johnny Depp, is very famous, there are numerous media reports about his life. Anyone can delve into that information to get a picture about him. Since 2009 that picture includes his former wife Amber Heard. The couple met in 2009 and married six years later in 2015 (Nicolaou, 2022). One year after the marriage, a judge granted Ms Heard a restraining order against Mr. Depp, based on an accusation of domestic abuse (Woolf, 2016). Note. There was no reporting of evidence - the judge seems to have based the decision on hearsay and gender bias. In 2017, eight years after their relationship started, they divorced. They made a financial settlement but then Ms Heard had a change of heart - she wanted more:
Johnny filed legal docs saying a deal is a deal, and they already agreed on the $7 million settlement months ago. Amber recently filed legal docs asking for more, but Johnny says that ship has sailed (TMZ).Ms Heard's request was turned down by a judge:
In a hearing in a court in Los Angeles on Friday, the judge declined Amber's request to delay the finality of the divorce to take Johnny's deposition, reports TMZ (Tilly Pearce, The Sun).Now, that was January 2017. In April 2018, journalist Dan Wootton, based on information that Ms Heard has filed for a restraining order, wrote in the tabloid The Sun:
Overwhelming evidence was filed to show Johnny Depp engaged in domestic violence against his wife Amber Heard (Wooton, 2018).But the use of overwhelming is overwhelming itself, suggesting Mr. Wootton is likely following the principle If it bleeds it leads.
In a new paper to be published in Proceedings of the Royal Society A, a team of researchers has found that overwhelming evidence without a dissenting opinion can in fact weaken the credibility of a case, or point to a failure of the system (Gunn et al. 2016).Mr. Wootton's reference is a dead end; He links to a previous article published by the Sun. But a claim that something has occurred is not to say the it has occurred. It's a proposition that needs to be validated in a reliable way. Consequently, Johnny Depp sued The Sun, but a judge - Andrew Nichol - claimed he had found (that's when a jurist sits alone in his office and compare two discourses to find which of them fit the principles for which court-personnel are bound to follow):
... that the great majority of alleged assaults of Ms Heard by Mr Depp have been proved to the civil standard.But Mr. Nichol's findings are not based on evidence, it's an opinion.
Then in 2018, Ms Heard wrote an op-ed claiming, again, that she had been a victim of domestic abuse. Johnny Depp, again, rejected the accusation and sued Ms Heard for defamation. Part of the claim is based on this statement:
Like many women, I had been harassed and sexually assaulted by the time I was of college age. But I kept quiet — I did not expect filing complaints to bring justice. And I didn’t see myself as a victim (Heard, 2018).
During the incident Heard had called the police on the claim that Depp had thrown things at her. But during the trail the Police said:
However, LAPD officers who responded to Ms Heard’s call testified at the defamation trial and said they saw signs of crying but saw no signs of visible injury, which were prominent in court days later.No visible injury but signs of crying. Crying is the result of a strong emotional reaction and tears are know to contain certain pheromones; tears decreases sexual arousal in men but increases social bonding (Gelstein, 2011), a combination which is likely to trigger things like compassion or perceiving the crying person as a victim.
That's consistent with Heard own testimony - she have admitted physical abuse on Mr Depp:
She said: 'I f**king was hitting you... I don't know what the motion of my hand was, but you're fine, I did not hurt you, I did not punch you, I was hitting you' (Ashford, 2020).In 2016 Heard also testified abusing the man she lived with prior to Mr Depp (Khaled, 2022).
During the trial a recorded phone was played showing that Ms Heard had thrown things at Johnny Depp, with the consequence of him almost losing a finger. He was also hit in the head (Shamsian, 2022).
Because that abuse is validated, it makes sense to listen to Johnny Depp's description about the event.
Ms heard had taken a cigarette from the ash tray and stomped it at my face - here (Mr. Depp points with his hand).Here's pictures of him at the hospital after his finger been cut of after Ms Heard had throw a bottle at him, and the mark on his face of the alleged cigarette stomping.
Both Mr Depp and Ms Heard have assigned psychologists to perform tests on Ms Heard to decide if or when any trauma has occurred: Dr. Shannon Curry and Dr. Dawn Hughes, both specializing in what is called forensic psychology:
Forensic psychology is a specialty in professional psychology characterized by activities primarily intended to provide professional psychological expertise within the judicial and legal systems (APA).Both psychologist's presentation and hearing can be seen via YouTube:
Forensic Psychologist Dr. Shannon Curry Testifies (Johnny Depp v Amber Heard Trial Day 9)
Direct Examination of Amber Heard's Witness Psychologist Dr. Dawn Hughes (Johnny Depp v Amber Heard).
The short version of the assessments made by the forensic psychologists on Ms Heard point in two different direction:
Dr. Hughes concluded that Ms Heard suffers from trauma due to domestic abuse by Mr Depp.
Dr. Curry, on the other hand, concluded that Ms Heard suffers from Borderline personality disorder and Histrionic personality disorder that was present before the couple met. Also see: Zalewski et al. 2014. Addition: Ruffalo (2024).
Also important to take into account is the fact that fathers have a normative influence on children's emotional and social adjustment (MacRae, 2021; Österberg, 2004, in Swedish but the 18 statistical tables are readeable for anyone).
Which conclusion is most accurate?
If we listen to each of Dr. Curry and Dr. Hughes presentations, we note a difference. Whereas Dr. Curry presents the results from assessments, Dr. Hughes refers to things that she claims are 'are known' about domestic abuse. But what is known from a scientific perspective is that women are perpetrators of physical domestic violence in at least 50 % of the cases, and that they dominate when it comes to psychological violence.
Conclusion. First and foremost, episodic memory is not reproductive but constructive in a social fashion (Schacter and Addis, 2007). That means that so-called testimonies are opinions that do not provide evidence. Testifiers recall what fits the situation so to speak. Media reporting is of course not a valid source. But Heard's legal assistants used information from tabloids.
The interview with Dr. Hughes indicates that she uses vague language and bases her conclusions on gender bias (what she is convinced about). Now, many people believe that Domestic violence (DV) is a typical male thing, and this approach has been uses by the feminist movement. But remember that scientific studies about DV show that women are perpetrators of physical domestic violence in at least 50 % of the cases, and dominate when it comes to relational aggressiveness. And DV is typically occurring in the lifespan between 20 - 30 years of age. When the couple met, Ms Heard was 23 years old, and Mr Depp was 46 with two kids.
Dr Curry's presentation suggested that Ms Heard had at least two personality disorders, that is, had mental issues when she entered the relationship with Mr Depp. That is consistent with research about emotional and social adjustment during upbringing. Dr Curry's assessment also revealed that Ms Heard worried that Mr Depp would leave her.
It is likely to assume that Mr Depp wanted to combine his life with his new girlfriend with his children. It's equally likely to assume that Ms Heard was probably eager to move to the next stage - to have children of her own with Mr Depp.
Because of the tape-recordings that has been presented during the trial, including Ms Heard throwing a bottle at Mr Depp that cut his finger off, forcing him to visit the emergency room, he is the one that suffered trauma during the relationship.
I suggest that Ms Heard and her sister grew up with controlling mother who may have been a domestic abuser.
Here are videos that showed up on YouTube. That means that they are published here in temporal order:
Its seems that Ms Heard: used quotes from movies during her testimony
lied when claiming being hit by Mr Depp
Lied about make up and not being a fan of Mr Depp prior the their relationship
Ben Shapiro REACTS to CRAZY Moments From the Trial
Ben Shapiro REACTS to Ms Heard's Testimony
Mr Depp's security took photos because he feared Ms heard would make abuse allegations
More information that indicate that Ms heard had been a perpetrator Interpersonal Violence/Domenstic Abuse.
Johnny Depp & Amber Heard: The Truth and Timeline of The Case
New Proof Revealed: Amber Heard Is BLACKMAILING Johnny Depp
Camille Vasquez Makes Amber Heard Angry When She Gets Confronted About Her 30th Birthday Incident
Amber Heard EXPOSED For Destroying Evidence By Smashing Her Own Devices
BIG MISTAKE! Amber Heard Gets CRUSHED By Her Own Witness
Celebrities Reacting To Johnny Depp Winning Over Amber Heard in Court
Another BIG MISTAKE From Amber Heard Just Discovered!
Johnny Depp Reacts Amber Changing Her Stories And Dodging His Lawyers' Questions
Body Language Analyst REACTS to Amber Heard Cross Examination! What Happened with Johnny Depp?
Several statements on Twitter are in favor of Johnny Depp; one person claims she recognize Ms Heards behavior from another abusive women. Another comment is that Ms heard lies about being a victim (Twitter).
Amber Heard REACTS To Her Insanity Revealed In Court!
New Witness Was Worried Amber Would K*ll Johnny Depp
This video indicate, again, that Ms Heard is the domestic abuser.
AMBER'S LOSING IT! Kate Moss Testimony PROVES Amber Heard Is A LIAR! - Johnny Depp Trial
Kate Moss testifies and contradicts Amber Heard's claims.
Johnny Depp expert rips Amber Heard psychologist for 'misrepresenting' testimony | LiveNOW from FOX
BREAKING: Amber's Former Women Organization SUPPORTS Johnny Depp!
Johnny Depp expert, Dr. Richard Shaw, accuses Amber Heard psychiatrist of breaking rules | Live NOW from FOX
Studio head shuts down Amber Heard's claims her role in 'Aquaman 2' was diminished
Christopher C. Melcher has written a thread about Amber Heard
Very interesting! This perspective has been discussed in a text published in Quillette which mentions attachment styles and notices tat "By claiming that all women are victims of male dominance and suppression and will resort to violence only as a means of self-defense, we remove all responsibility from female perpetrators of domestic abuse. As a society, we should have zero tolerance for domestic violence no matter the sex or gender of the perpetrator." https://quillette.com/2022/05/21/why-the-depp-heard-case-should-change-the-gender-paradigm-in-domestic-abuse/
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