What happens when enmeshment doesn’t just ruin relationships—but pulls a family into crime? In this segment, Tony Brueski and psychotherapist Shavaun Scott dive into the Adelsons’ darkest dynamics, where loyalty has crossed into cover-ups, scripts, and manipulation.
We explore why some family members are willing to risk everything, even prison, to protect the family unit. Why does one sibling cross the line into criminality while another refuses? And how did Donna Adelson allegedly turn manipulation into a lifestyle—writing scripts for testimony, bribing with promises of money, pianos, and veneers, and pulling strings even behind bars?
Shavaun breaks down the psychology of narcissistic control, where scripting family members and dictating their roles becomes second nature. This control, she explains, doesn’t stop at the prison gates. Donna may continue to build “family” on the inside, manipulating vulnerable women the same way she controlled her children.
The conversation also looks at how juries perceive this kind of toxic family loyalty: is it recognizable to outsiders, or does it take expert framing to expose just how abnormal it is?
Finally, we ask the chilling question: what does Donna Adelson’s future look like behind bars? Will she deteriorate, or reinvent herself as the same manipulator she always was?
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