Paranoid thinking in mass shooters

doi:10.1016/j.avb.2013.07.012

Aggression and Violent Behavior

Volume 18, Issue 5, September–October 2013, Pages 548-553

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.avb.2013.07.012 Get rights and content

Highlights

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Inspection of the writings of mass murderers reveals pre-shooting thought processes.
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Mass murderers appear obsessed with the status of a target group that rejects them.
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They perceive the group as superficial and as benefitting unfairly.
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They are painfully aware of their own outsider status.
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Their obsession with their mistreatment is consistent with paranoid thinking.

Abstract

Mass murderers, particularly school shooters, are depicted in the literature as either reacting with rage to taunts and bullying or as being psychopathic. However, examination of diaries and Web sites left by a subset of mass shooters (e.g., Eric Harris, Kimveer Gil, Seung-Hui Cho, Anders Breivik) reveals a different phenomenology than that typically proposed. This group greatly exaggerates the negativity of their treatment as reported by third-party school peers. They become and remain fixated and obsessed with rejection by what they see as an elite in-group whom they see as having unfairly achieved success. Instead of transcending the rejection, they formulate plans to annihilate the transgressors, which they justify as vengeance for the transgressions made against them. The self-exacerbating and obsessive qualities of these perceptions are more consistent with paranoid thinking than with psychopathy. The perceptions feed on themselves and, being part of a closed belief system, expand with time. In the rare cases where the perpetrator survives the mass shooting, they are diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenic. We focus on the pre-psychotic deterioration of their thinking.

Introduction

Civilian mass murder is front page news and a number of high-profile school shootings have led to attempts to diagnose and characterize mass shooters. Unfortunately, psychological “diagnosis” of mass shooters is often based on symptoms that are shared with other diagnoses. We argue that inspection of diaries or disclosures to psychiatrists made by some mass shooters reveal profound disturbances in ego-identity and paranoia.

Section snippets

Existing typologies

Verlinden, Hersen, and Thomas (2000) examined nine cases of multiple victim school shootings and developed a list of risk factors at four levels, based on information available in the Lexis/Nexis legal database. These risk factors were categorized as individual, family, school/peers, and societal/environmental. Among the individual level factors were difficult temperament, impulsivity/hyperactivity, psychiatric conditions, a history of aggression, substance abuse, and beliefs. Common individual

Eric Harris

Eric Harris (age 18 years) was the leading force in the Columbine killings in Colorado on April 20, 1999. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were high school seniors who shot 27 people at their high school, killing 13. They then committed suicide in the school library. Harris had been making pipe bombs, with the plan to blow up the school (these bombs failed to detonate) as well as shoot students. Harris and Klebold may have been part of a group (of self-identified outsiders) called the Trenchcoat

Diaries/Web logs

The phenomenology of the perpetrator in the weeks or days prior to the shooting is available in that some shooters kept diaries or Web blogs or, in Breivik's case, wrote a manifesto. A central theme that runs through these diaries is one of feeling rejected, dismissed, disrespected, and devalued by an “in-group” invariably depicted as “jocks and preppies” and of wanting vengeance for this mistreatment. The “in-group” is despised for being “superficial” and for getting unwarranted status.

Paranoia in mass shooters

There are several elements in the thinking of school shooters that suggest a paranoid personality disorder blended with what Millon calls “malignant narcissism” (Millon & Davis, 2000, p. 428). Paranoid personalities have a pervasive mistrust of others, are suspicious and hyper-vigilant for “disrespect,” and actively seek “evidence” (i.e., of expected rejection or a “lack of respect” where it may appear absent to others). According to Blaney (1999) they persistently feel wronged—a victim of

Threat/risk prediction

Both the press and social science writers tend to focus on symptoms as “explanations” for school shootings, for example, Goth culture, guns, need for mental health services, homophobic taunting, and/or psychopathy. In this paper, we argue that this approach does not work; most of the mass shooters we reviewed had been assessed by psychiatrists (Cho, Harris, Breivik). Harris was given “anger management” as a condition of release. The assessments appear cursory and do not attempt to diagnose

Conclusion

Not all mass shooters keep diaries so we cannot generalize to others based on those that do. Unfortunately, the ones that do not keep diaries provide little information as to their inner processes. They are standoffish and those who knew them superficially said they seemed strange but that's all we have. Michael Carneal, who shot eight students at school in 1997, had written a story (not a diary) about a boy who was teased at school by popular students and subsequently murdered them. Carneal

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Psychological problems such as narcissism, appearing together with social rejection, may predict aggressive behavior (Twenge & Campbell, 2003). Psychotic personality and developmental disorders, including depression, borderline, paranoia, schizophrenia, low self-esteem and anxiety, were also found with different mass murderers (Bondü & Scheithauer, 2015; Dutton, White, & Fogarty, 2013; Hoffmann, Roshdi, & Robertz, 2009; Metzl & MacLeish, 2015). In addition, fascination with guns, explosives, death, and violence can also be predictors for school shootings.
We investigated risk factors for school and campus rampages, using international case studies. The factors rejection (chronic/acute), psychological problems, fascination with guns and/or explosives as well as fascination with violence and/or death have already been found for U.S. cases in previous research. However, school rampages are not just a U.S.-American phenomenon. Therefore, we analyzed 20 international cases from six continents between 1999 and 2016 to investigate culturally independent evidence of these factors. In addition to the five risk factors, cultural characteristics of the nations involved were compared, including six universal dimensions, firearm possession rate, and the Global Peace Index. After examining non-U.S./international cases, our results also show evidence for five factors: rejection (chronic/acute), psychological problems, gun/explosives fascination, as well as violence/death fascination. These results can help to establish effective and efficient prevention of school and campus rampages all around the globe.
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This is predicated on the notion that poor emotion regulation, limited impulse control, and enhanced reactivity to mildly provocative emotional stimuli are instead viewed as more salient predispositions for reactive aggression than neuromoral impairment (Lickley and Sebastian, 2018), whereas an impaired moral sense has greater etiological relevance in the context of more proactive, predatory, and planned use of aggression that requires a stronger immoral indifference to the well-being of victims (Kempes et al., 2005). At the more serious level of homicide, impaired neuromoral circuitry is hypothesized in serial killers who have a callous disregard for their victims, and to a somewhat lesser extent in mass killers who are instead more characterized by mental illness and paranoid thinking (Dutton et al., 2013; Stone, 2015). In contrast, those perpetrating domestic homicide are more likely to have more severe mental illness (psychosis) and less likely to have prior convictions and antisocial personality disorder compared to perpetrators of homicide outside the home (Hanlon et al., 2016).
The neuromoral theory of antisocial behaviors argues that impairment to the neural circuitry underlying morality provides a common foundation for antisocial, violent, and psychopathic behavior in children, adolescents, and adults. This article reviews new findings in two research fields since this theory was first proposed: brain mechanisms underlying moral decision-making, and brain systems subserving antisocial behaviors. The neuromoral theory is updated to take into account new empirical findings. Key areas implicated in both moral decision-making and the spectrum of antisocial behaviors include fronto-polar, medial, and ventral prefrontal cortical regions, and the anterior cingulate, amygdala, superior temporal gyrus, and angular gyrus / temporoparietal junction. It is hypothesized that different manifestations of antisocial behavior are characterized by differing degrees of neuromoral dysfunction, with primary psychopathy, proactive aggression, and life-course persistent offending being more affected, and secondary psychopathy, reactive aggression, and crimes involving drugs relatively less affected by neuromoral dysfunction. Limitations of the current model, social contextual factors, neural remediation interventions, ascertaining whether the affective or cognitive component of empathy is most implicated, and directions for future research are outlined. One forensic implication of the model is that significant impairment to the neuromoral circuit could constitute diminished criminal responsibility.
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It is noteworthy that all but one of the perpetrators in this study were enrolled in primary or secondary schools at the time of their attack. More recently, research was completed that analyzed the diaries and online materials produced by a subset of mass shooters largely composed of perpetrators of school and campus shootings (Dutton, White, & Fogarty, 2013). It was reported that these perpetrators exaggerated the occurrence and severity of the negative social treatment inflicted on them by other individuals, and they may have viewed their violent acts as a means of righteous vengeance against the individuals and groups whom they identified as having persecuted them.
Threat assessment has been used in educational settings to assess and manage the risk of targeted violence for nearly two decades, and mental health professionals commonly serve on threat assessment teams. Despite how prevalent threat assessment has become, the extant literature on the psychological factors relevant to the assessment of targeted violence has infrequently distinguished between the types of institutions in which this form of intervention is employed. Furthermore, the unique considerations for mental health professionals on threat assessment teams have received limited attention. The purpose of this manuscript is the following: (a) to review existing research and knowledge regarding mental health and developmental issues prudent for consideration at institutions of higher education and explore the relevance of these findings to the practice of threat assessment, (b) to review professional practice issues commonly encountered by threat assessment professionals at institutions of higher education and establish best practice guidelines, and (c) to define the proper role of mental health professionals who serve on threat assessment teams at institutions of higher education.
American Academy of Nursing on policy: Recommendations in response to mass shootings
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These experiences induce a stress response among individuals and may contribute to traumatic symptoms, depression, substance abuse, antisocial behavior, and other negative mental and physical health consequences (e.g., changes in neuroplasticity and brain function) that can serve as risk factors for future violence (Campbell et al., 2002; Cook et al., 2017). Research on the psychology of mass shooters has described how exposure to adverse experiences, in combination with minimal bonding to people, not being involved in school, work or a community, and isolation, contribute to an internal psychological world filled with bitterness, resentment, rage, paranoia, and vengeance seeking (Dutton, White, & Fogarty, 2013; Reid Meloy, Hoffmann, & Guldimann, 2012). Repeated interpersonal failures, conflict, or frustration, accompanied by the inability to handle or resolve such situations, can precipitate violent events and lead to explosive behaviors.
Mass Shootings and Public Support for Gun Control
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View full text

Paranoid thinking in mass shooters

Highlights

Abstract

Introduction

Section snippets

Existing typologies

Eric Harris

Diaries/Web logs

Paranoia in mass shooters

Threat/risk prediction

Conclusion

Aggression and Violent Behavior

Aggression and Violent Behavior

Aggression and Violent Behavior

Clinical Psychology Review

2083: A European declaration of independence

Paranoid conditions

Columbine

Virginia Tech april 16 2007 Cho Seung-Ho. [Video file]

The psychology of genocide, massacres and extreme violence

Anger in intimate relationships

Messages posted to VampireFreaks.com

Eric Harris: Personality profile

Columbine Documents