In Reply to: My take on Maria, aka "mama" posted by kinda gentler on July 14, 2004 at 16:43:29:
I hear what both of you are saying, and both are very plausible. However, I am inclined to think that Kinda gentler has a point about the good-cop/bad-cop routine. Many times her questions were overtly posed as "well, some might say..."
It rings very, very true. She may have also convinced herself that she's controlling people for their own good, but she is very manipulative.