[nolongerthere]

> If him showing no emotion was a factor in the conviction does that mean that you're not safe with the law if you have self control?

It means humans expect to see what they perceive to be human responses. 99% of people when faced with an accusation of murdering their own child will have an emotional response, not only is it not normal not to, its not admirable and is unhealthy. Its not called self control to not exhibit distress when you're accused of being a monster, that is a time where its very rational to show emotion.

[smolder]

Dissociation under massive stress IS normal, for a significant quantity of the non-monster people among us. I don't think framing it as "self control" was a good characterization by the grandparent, more like shock... a failure of emotional processing.

[r2_pilot]

Lord forbid you ever have an abnormal emotional response during a stressful time.