I worked with dying patients for a year. I learned that year, that if there is ANY dysfunction in a family or individual it will show itself at that time. And the inequity of life and death just cannot be explained away.
Having practiced in psychiatry for 25 years, I do know what passive aggression is. It is entirely possible the woman knew the child was driving the man up the wall and did nothing. Passive aggressive people make most anyone crazy. One time, I asked my PhD mentor how to handle the passive aggressive person. Her response, 'hit him in the nose.' Obviously she was joking, but there ARE behaviors that are crazy making behaviors. Bottom line: We don't know the complete story.
This guy got less than a year. It is likely that he will be out much sooner.
I agree we do not know the complete story. Further, your experience in the field of psychiatry serves you well when assessing situations such as the one in the OP.
Possibly, but Sunshine is assessing a person (the mother), whom she has never seen in her life and also has no idea how that woman acted in the time before this crazy man slugged her kid. She is also accusing the mother of making that already crazy man crazy, which is totally crazy in and of itself. Using Sunshine's logic/methodology, I could accuse any innocent bystander at any crime site of being passive-aggressive and therefore of having caused the crime himself.
That has nothing in the world to do with Sunshine's credentials. I am pretty sure she has the credentials she claims to have and assume that she is very good at what she does, but even so, armchair-coaching is probably not the best thing in this case.
Think about it.