{"id":649,"date":"2004-04-21T14:41:25","date_gmt":"2004-04-21T18:41:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=649"},"modified":"2024-10-27T18:00:04","modified_gmt":"2024-10-27T22:00:04","slug":"psychological-profile-of-columbine-killers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=649","title":{"rendered":"Psychological Profile of Columbine Killers"},"content":{"rendered":"

An extremely interesting article about the Columbine killers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A couple things I want to say before you comment (should you feel like commenting):<\/p>\n

There are those of you out there who have no interest in knowing “why” a certain killer\/terrorist\/whatever does what he does. You think that that is indicative of shuffling off responsibility, and trying to find a “root cause” to put all the blame on.<\/p>\n

But from my point of view (and maybe it’s the actress side of me, the writer, the person who wants to get inside other people’s heads):<\/p>\n

“Why” is THE question to ask. Not to get rid of blame, not to look for someone to blame other than the killers themselves, but to ask “why” because it’s freaking fascinating, that’s why. Without asking why, there is no possibility for change or understanding.<\/p>\n

Here are a list of psychopaths I am fascinated by, the people I always want to know more about:<\/p>\n

— Charles Manson<\/a>\"\"
\n— Jeffrey McDonald (the Green Beret who murdered his family)<\/a>\"\"
\n— Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkle, Leslie Van Houten (the Manson killers<\/a>\"\")
\n— Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge<\/a>\"\"
\n— Stalin<\/a>\"\"Stalin
\n— Hitler<\/a>\"\"
\n— The Red Guards
\n— Any mass murderer, in general
\n— The Menendez brothers – I’m fascinated by them
\n— Ted Bundy
\n— David Berkowitz
\n— Idi Amin
\n— David Koresh
\n— Jim Jones<\/p>\n

I don’t ever want to meet any of these people, but I want to get inside their heads. See how they see things.<\/p>\n

What drives someone to be a dictator? What drives a postal worker to start shooting his co-workers?<\/p>\n

I am already anticipating many of you saying, “Who cares why? Does that mean they shouldn’t be punished?”<\/p>\n

You are mis-reading me if that is your response. You are also boring me to tears. <\/p>\n

I am thinking of one exchange I had with a couple of you about Goldstein, the guy who blew away the Muslim worshipers at the Tomb of the Patriarchs. I wanted to know what his affiliation was, how his beliefs were formed, and I was met with a barrage of “He’s a terrorist fuckhead, that’s what he is.” End of story. Intellectual laziness on the part of many of you, a dangerous lack of curiosity. Moving on. I prefer people who are curious, in general.)<\/p>\n

I know the “I was a victim” defense is completely out of control in this country, with McDonalds being blamed for the fact that many of us are big fat fatty fats. That’s ridiculous. I am not against personal responsibility. But cults\/totalitarian societies\/control-freaks in charge of large groups of people\/religious fanatics and psycho\/sociopaths are HUGE passions of mine. <\/p>\n

Some of you like to collect stamps. Some of you are fascinated by outer space. I am fascinated by the psychology of mass murderers.<\/p>\n

What does it feel like to be brainwashed? What does it actually feel like inside a psychopath’s head? How does he\/she perceive the world? What exactly is a psychopath? How is it different from a sociopath? <\/p>\n

It’s part of the reason why this website <\/a>is so hypnotic to me (I am apparently brainwashed by a website devoted to cults – not a good sign!)<\/p>\n

I’m just going on and on like this because I want to explain where I am coming from, and I really don’t want to get into any exchanges like: “Harris and Klebold were murderers! And THAT’S IT.”<\/p>\n

Maybe that’s it for you, but it’s not for me. And I am glad of that. <\/p>\n

For example, from the article about Harris and Klebold<\/a>:<\/p>\n

In popular usage, almost any crazy killer is a “psychopath.” But in psychiatry, it’s a very specific mental condition that rarely involves killing, or even psychosis. “Psychopaths are not disoriented or out of touch with reality, nor do they experience the delusions, hallucinations, or intense subjective distress that characterize most other mental disorders,” writes Dr. Robert Hare, in Without Conscience, the seminal book on the condition. (Hare is also one of the psychologists consulted by the FBI about Columbine and by Slate for this story*.) “Unlike psychotic individuals, psychopaths are rational and aware of what they are doing and why. Their behavior is the result of choice, freely exercised.” Diagnosing Harris as a psychopath represents neither a legal defense, nor a moral excuse. But it illuminates a great deal about the thought process that drove him to mass murder.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And:<\/p>\n

Because psychopaths are guided by such a different thought process than non-psychopathic humans, we tend to find their behavior inexplicable. But they’re actually much easier to predict than the rest of us once you understand them. Psychopaths follow much stricter behavior patterns than the rest of us because they are unfettered by conscience, living solely for their own aggrandizement. (The difference is so striking that Fuselier trains hostage negotiators to identify psychopaths during a standoff, and immediately reverse tactics if they think they’re facing one. It’s like flipping a switch between two alternate brain-mechanisms.)<\/p>\n

None of his victims means anything to the psychopath. He recognizes other people only as means to obtain what he desires. Not only does he feel no guilt for destroying their lives, he doesn’t grasp what they feel. The truly hard-core psychopath doesn’t quite comprehend emotions like love or hate or fear, because he has never experienced them directly.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In my curious bones. What is it like to not comprehend love or hate or fear? Are people born that way? Are people born<\/b> lacking certain emotions? Or do they lose the ability to feel certain things after terrible events, or total rejection? Was Jeffrey Dahmer born without compassion? Killing animals as a small child is a clue, but did he have moments of regret, compunction? Was violence irresistible<\/i> to him? Like someone else being addicted to porn, or gambling? <\/p>\n

These are things I like to contemplate. <\/p>\n

More discoveries in regards to the psychologies of the Columbine killers follow<\/a>.<\/p>\n

(found Slate article via Cut on the Bias<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An extremely interesting article about the Columbine killers. A couple things I want to say before you comment (should you feel like commenting): There are those of you out there who have no interest in knowing “why” a certain killer\/terrorist\/whatever … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=649"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16105,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649\/revisions\/16105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}