I read an article in Newsweek the other day, by a woman: I forget her name now. It dealt with the factors involved, that allow for a mass murderer to be identified, within some framework of characteristics–some more critical than others.
Not knowing what amount of thought others have given to this, and understanding: some of what was written could easily have been assumed reasonably with common sense, but to spell out some of the characteristics, that go into mass murderers: low activity in the frontal lobe only becomes an issue, with abuse(s) occurring in childhood. There typically is a long train of real, or perceived insults, which stimulate the aggression. Aggression will drive up levels of testosterone, beyond any level able to be reached with testosterone driving up aggression. Some people enjoy high levels of testosterone; either stimulated by aggression, or by whatever else might stimulate testosterone. He did have sexual behaviors that I believe were addressed at least, by one instructor.
Typically, addressing such a person more prone than others toward mass murderers with suggestion(s), doctors orders, etc. with counseling is usually futile, largely for the reason, that such persons suffer from what the doctor, who wrote “The Road Less Traveled” termed: character disorder, antithetical to neurosis–character disorder being the lack of willingness on the part of a person to acknowledge their own responsibility for what clearly are wrongs committed against either self, or others, or both self and others.
This character disorder in the case of Cho, when advised toward counseling resulted not only in the refusal to be counseled, but in the apparent incessant blame toward others, for all his suffering, which gave him the willpower to murder thirty-two or more students–all his problems were a consequence of somebody else to blame.
Paranoia apparently is the fundamental flaw replacing whatever healthy needs and the means to satisfy them ordinarily exist for people, that exist with the conflict of how to satisfy such needs as self-importance, a meaningful existence to self and to others, in addition to the obvious: food, shelter, clothing, and the medium(s) used in exchange for these, inclusive of safety, self-preservation, eternity, family, etc.
Culture seems an important element, that will curb any would-be mass murderer: attitudes toward weapons, the meaning of weapons in a persons life, violent/non-violent behaviors as solutions to problems–fundamental to a healthy person is the ability to be empathetic: to place yourself in the shoes of another, so-to-speak.
One problem, a major problem concerning character disorder and those “diagnosed” with it: it is incredibly time-consuming to break a person out of a character disorder, to encourage such a person toward recognizing, understanding, their own fault(s). Confession is never an option for those with character disorder, between man, or God, or both man and God.
No matter what may, or may not have been done for Cho by faculty, and administration: they would have had an uphill battle all the way, against him; though, it does seem there was a willingness on the part of Cho to communicate conflict in his life–given his plays, his videotape, his overt behaviors; though, it may only have been for the sake of communicating warnings, not a need for help, but for others to obtain safety for themselves, or to change their position in his life to be less threatening toward him, in whatever way, that he perceived them to be a threat to his own person.
Clearly, he believed: he had done the world a favor.
I have no idea why I thought that I would share the contents of this article–it seemed a good way to communicate others views, that attempt to understand, that other people in life simply find no way at all to be responsible, for their own problems–rather than everyone else’s.
