Donna Adelson's Scapegoats & Loyalty: Why Wendy Adelson Didn't Push Back
True Crime Today | Daily True Crime News & Interviews
Tony Brueski
4.2 • 612 Ratings
🗓️ 4 September 2025
⏱️ 16 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Why do some kids push back against toxic parents while others surrender completely? In this segment, Tony Brueski and psychotherapist Shavaun Scott dig into how loyalty is conditioned inside enmeshed families—and why dissent is often crushed early.
We explore how toddlers quickly learn not to challenge a domineering parent, fearing hysterical or angry reactions. This early conditioning often leads to adult children who never stand up to mom or dad—even when it destroys their independence. In families like the Adelsons, it creates stark roles: the golden child who exists to comfort and protect, and the scapegoat who rebels and gets cast out.
The conversation also turns to Wendy Adelson. Did she ever see her mother’s control as unhealthy, or was it always disguised as “love”? Now, under the glare of testimony, has Wendy finally begun to reflect on what her family dynamic really was?
Shavaun explains how fear of losing a parent’s love—or losing one’s place in the family—becomes more powerful than logic. Even when adult children suspect things aren’t right, they rationalize and keep quiet. Meanwhile, the family system thrives on control and conformity.
This discussion highlights how “tight-knit” can be a dangerous illusion—and how the psychology of loyalty explains why some families will cross shocking lines of morality to protect their own.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | A Better Help ad. |
| 0:02.3 | Lewis Capaldi partnered with Better Help to get word out about how important therapy can be. |
| 0:07.6 | I struggle most weeks to get up, get myself up and ready and go to therapy or whatever. |
| 0:13.0 | Even like to open the laptop to talk to, my therapist sometimes could be really difficult. |
| 0:17.4 | But I do it because I realise how important it is for me to continue to feel |
| 0:21.3 | good. Because I felt the best I've felt in a long time through therapy. |
| 0:25.6 | Learn more about online therapy at betterhelp.com. |
| 0:29.5 | A better help ad. |
| 0:31.5 | Lewis Capaldi partnered with BetterHelp to get word out about how important therapy can be. |
| 0:36.8 | I struggle most weeks to get up, get myself up and ready and go to therapy or whatever. |
| 0:42.2 | Even like to open the laptop to talk to, my therapist sometimes could be really difficult. |
| 0:46.6 | But I do it because I realise how important it is for me to continue to feel good. |
| 0:51.0 | I felt the best I've felt in a long time through therapy. |
| 0:54.8 | Learn more about online therapy at betterhelp.com. |
| 0:58.6 | This is Hidden Killers Live with Tony Bruske, Stacey Cole and Todd Michaels. |
| 1:06.4 | I mean, I'm sure there's a lot of people who are listening to this or watching this going, |
| 1:10.5 | oh, that sounds familiar. |
| 1:11.8 | And it may be for the first time in their life making that realization, or putting a name to it, |
| 1:18.2 | putting a, it's not just, you know, the family's really tight and I don't get along with them, |
| 1:23.4 | or they see things differently, or they're controlling. |
| 1:25.6 | There is a dynamic here of what a meshment is. |
| 1:31.4 | How does that then translate to folks who grew up in an environment like this |
... |
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