Sorry, I must disagree with you here, Sherlock. I fear suicide might still be on the books
One only has to look at what Gawd-awful people have done to Kates beautiful face to see the extreme pain etched on it. There is only so much pain that any one person can carry. Kate is very strong, but there might well come a time when the final straw causes her to give in.
Obviously that book and all the subsequent Amaral pontifications will have been detrimental to the search. The search for a living child would have far greater fire and spirit than one for a dead child. Also if people believe her dead at her parents hands, and they start to hate them, then they will lose interest in doing anything to help them.
And this, of course, is without considering the impact that Amarals book might have had on the PJ and Judicary. Fortunately most would know that he is a perjurer and liar as proven by the Courts.
I don't have a medical opinion on Kate's mental state, and it would have been nice if the psychologist testifying in court had been able to present one. If Kate was suffering from severe depression or was suicidal, there would be documented medical evidence of the fact, as we discussed here last week. For reasons best known to Kate herself, no such evidence was presented.
As for the search, again, why decide not to present to the court actual evidence that it was hindered by Amaral? At the time in question, the 'search' was being carried out by private detectives hired by the McCanns - and they didn't buy Amaral's theory. They were being paid to search for a live child - and boasted she was findable. The fact that they didn't manage to do so was because they were variously crooked and / or incompetent - not because they were influenced by Amaral. If specific aspects of their searches were believed to have been impeded by Amaral's opinions, the detectives, and the McCanns, would have rushed to have made this known.
The other aspect of the 'search' from the early days was obviously the publicity campaign driven by the McCanns. This very British aspect of investigating - appealing to the public for help and information - sometimes does give results, but in Madeleine's case, where her identifiability would preclude her from being permitted into the public domain, this route is unlikely to bear fruit - nothing to do with Amaral either. Yes, it is possible that certain people who would otherwise have been alert to Madeleine's presence were not interested in helping the investigation because they believed what Amaral was saying, but once again, how is this proven? How do you show that an unknown, imaginary witness did not come forward, and prove the reason why?
SY, for their part, have said that they do not buy Amaral's theory either - after having gone over all the evidence on this case that so far exists. They are clearly going down a completely different track, unless the statements they have made so far have been nothing but bluff. And if they have been hitting brick walls in their investigation owing to Amaral, wouldn't they have been good witnesses to the Amaral effect?
Finally Sadie, you mention Amaral's convictions and his reputation, in the light of which, why assume that everyone reading his book or hearing about his thesis gives credence to his opinions? Are we all brainwashed into thinking Madeleine must be dead because one person said so? While it is true that Amaral's professional status gave his work a bit more oomph, that surely is more than counterbalanced by his convictions.
People are at liberty to evaluate his book as they wish, just like any other book they read. Those who respect Amaral may or may not agree with the claims he makes. People who do not give him any professional credit will probably discard them. Why assume - and how would you prove - a blanket negative effect?
Having said all of that, there would appear to be a certain amount of common sense, on the face of it , to the McCann's fears that his work was influential. Just very hard to prove. And where certain things are provable - such as medical evidence of emotional damage, or specific ways in which the search was hindered - the McCanns are choosing to leave them out.
