Susan Smith and Her Children: A Reasoning Dialectic

Human judgment and decision making has been demonstrated by several contemporary researchers to be comprised of both rational and emotive/intuitive cognitive systems; a single decision can involve both rational thinking and intuition. In the present article, a narrative approach is utilized to analyze the Susan Smith case, and this is interlaced with contemporary decision theory in an attempt to more fully understand the seemingly nonrational act (murder/attempted suicide) committed by Susan Smith in October, 1994. The ethical, legal and social implications of using an approach of this nature are discussed.