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The Dangers of Bullying

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Mass Murders: An American Phenomenon
January 14, 2013, 8:55PM
by: Analiethia

This is a consultation with a colleague...

A young man kills 20 children and 6 adults in a town in Connecticut. But why? I have worked with many of my colleagues and listens to killers as an expert psychological witness in murder cases, I have spent a lot of my time over the last few years trying to understand how and why young men and women kill, maim, and attack others.

The mass murders like those in Connecticut, Colorado, Virginia are followed by shock, anger, and sadness. These are understandable first- hand reactions, but in the long run they accomplish nothing.

As long as the discussion does not move beyond labeling horrors like these events "senseless violence," we will never move closer to a place of deeper understanding. A greater understanding is crucial here, because understanding leads to more peace and less violence through preventive action. All the crime scene investigations in the world will not do this.

Although all our instincts urge us to dissociate from the killer, achieving better understanding requires us to put ourselves in his or her shoes no matter how frightening and distasteful that may be, that my friends is why I did what I did with that unsavory woman. I have done this over the past few years, and I have learned that it is the only way we can understand a fundamental truth: Although to the rest of us, the observers and the victims, extreme acts of violence seem "senseless," these murderous acts make sense to the shooters.

This is true whether it be Adam Lanza in Newtown, Connecticut; James Holmes in Aurora, Colorado; Seung-Hui at Virginia Tech; Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris in Columbine, Colorado, and the thousands of others who wage war against their society, either in the form of high-profile massacres, or the daily grind of shootings around the country that barely make the local news.

How do we go about this process of "making sense?" Do not confuse this as a way of excusing it, but rather as a path to understanding and preventing violence. We start by recognizing that many young Americans (and other young people around the world) develop and carry with them a kind of moral damage, which some have come to call "the war zone mentality."

No matter how it develops, they grow up with a damaged sense of reality. They view the world as if they are soldiers confronting a hostile environment that they perceive to be full of enemies. An example of that behavior being that they record everyone they speak with. Once they get fixated with their skewed world view, they may hatch the delusion that even teachers, and young children are their enemies. For Adam Lanza, apparently even his mother was an enemy who had to be destroyed.

There is no one cause. It is as if they are building a tower of blocks, one by one, that can get so high the blocks fall over, with innocent people dying. Some examples of these building blocks can be found in dangerous neighborhoods, or schools rife with bullying. They can be found throughout the Internet and mass media. There are many, many web sites and videos that promote paranoid views of the world, and validate violent action in retaliation. This site being one on that list.

You can find them in the pervasive and intense playing of video games, with the hands-on virtual violence that desensitizes young people to proxy killing. These games have become a psychological pathway to real killing by dampening impulses of compassion and altruism.

The blocks can also come from a culture that supports access to lethal weapons. As many states have little to no gun control the crazy availability of guns like the Bushmaster semi-automatic rifle used by Adam Lanza that are, in effect, weapons of mass destruction when turned against children at school, or moviegoers in a theater or shoppers at a mall have cost countless lives. These weapons have no place in the hands of mentally unsound civilians.

Moral damage and a misperception of reality, usually, are not enough to lead to murder. The typical killer is emotionally damaged and has developed mental health problems, perhaps exacerbated by being bullied and rejected by peers, or abused and neglected at home. He or she might be suffering from profound sadness, depression, despair, self aggrandizement and narcissism.

The mental health problems that result from emotional damage require more, not less, social support, and not just from parents, who may be overwhelmed and ashamed of their offspring. The children and young men and women can be socially isolated because their damage makes peers and the community turn away from them, and that only compounds their problems.

Couple deluded thinking and rage with the rationale of the war zone mentality, and the result can be a boy or young man ready to kill, sometimes with horribly spectacular results. This is more commonly seen in the "routine" killings that I consult on as a psychological expert witness in murder cases across the country.

The crucial point is that even "crazy" people operate in a particular culture, a particular society, a particular time and place, and within a certain world view of how to manage your rage, your hurt, and your sadness. While not uniquely American (it has happened in recent years in Europe and the Middle East), the mass murder that took place in Newtown, Connecticut, is especially an American trait.

Our increasingly socially toxic culture promotes paranoia, desensitization to violence, almost unlimited access to lethal weapons, opportunities to practice mass murder via realistic "point and shoot" video games, and games that justify violence as a legitimate form of vengeance in pursuit of an individual's or group's idea of justice.

That begs the question, what do we do? We can improve mental health services in schools and communities, and discourage bullies by supporting the ones being bullied even if you don't like them. Many parents are frustrated that there is nowhere to go with their troubled kids.

We can work harder at getting kids to share disturbing information with adults with the confident expectation that those adults will help not punish and stigmatize. We can get behind efforts to increase screening for people that wish to purchase guns.

We can step up efforts to prevent kids from having access to the point-and-shoot violent video games. We can work harder at creating emotionally safe schools where bullying and rejection are antithetical to school spirit. We can do the same for online sites as well. One part of this is teaching boys that being compassionate and emotionally expressive is part of manhood in the 21st century.

If we don't help, there will be more dead and wounded. It has become an American phenomenon, and an epidemic. Only by getting close to killers and finding out what we need to do to integrate troubled youths and young adults into society do we have any hope of preventing more carnage.



Some of the images and quotes belong to the creators. No profit gained from this mentorship.

Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.









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