Va. Tech shooting

[Cacia]

By the way, I don't think this man was schizophrenic...I see no flight of ideas, no blunted affect, no evidence that he hears auditory hallucinations or attributes his behavior to external agencies. He is either a sociopathic personality disorder or severely bipolar (he had severe depression, a Christ complex and often spent hours writing screeds).

This is important...schizophrenics are rarely dangerous (unless put in operating rooms or in a cockpit or something) and can be treated and lead product lives. Bipolar disease is also treatable and can be compatible with normal lives. Sociopathy and other personality disorders like borderlines are not really treatble and much more dangerous. Moreover, psychosis can be a legal defense, personality disorders don't qualify as legally insane--- they know right from wrong.

Personality disorders manifest early (killing animals as a child)...schixophrenia and bipolar disorder may not appear until the person is in their 20s or older. Thus, if this killer had a sociopathic personality (which I suspect he did), look for further stories of his aberrant behavior as a child and high school student.

One prediction: given his rants against Christianity, the fact that Koreans are all catholic, his ruminations over pedophilia...when things die down, his family is going to allege he was abused by a priest as a child. True or not, it might explain some of his writings and would give his family some shred or sympathy (and defense against litigation or even a chance for litigation themselves). In his play Richard McBeef he overtly mentions the pedophilia of Catholic priests...is his choking of his step father symbolic of some distant event.

Thanks, shakey, informative post.

schixophrenia and bipolar disorder may not appear until the person is in their 20s or older.

I was taking a stab at it based on that. So...you think he was NOT on meds, right?

I will guess his family will not defend him, and he will get a public defender. They have probably already cut him loose in their minds.

(I admit, I love guessing)

 

[shakeybrainsurgeon]

Chritianity is a minority in Korea. Protestant christians is 8%, Roman Catholicism is 6%. I wouldn't be too fast to point a finger at a catholic priest.

I stand corrected. Catholicism has its best foothold in Asia there, but it is still a minority. BUT...I didn't point a finger at anybody. I only speculated that the family might ALLEGE abuse at some point as a rationale, true or not. This man's writings contain numerous references to abuse, in particular by Catholic priests, so such an allegation wouldn't be out of left field. But as for me, I am not pointing fingers at anyone other than the murderer.

 

[Cacia]

how did he even get in? I doubt his performance in high school was nay better.

...ditto

Anybody with a cultural understanding of Koreans have a guess at how they will proceed? I really doubt they will mortage the dry cleaning business to hire Robert Shapiro. I don't see the sister at Princeton paying the price.

 

[RonFrank]

At the heart of the problem ... how to stop a suicidally depressed sociopath in a free society from going on a rampage like this, if not with a gun, then with a propane cylinder (see Columbine), or an SUV (recent), or a knife (as happened in England)?

Maybe by force! It's controversial, but killing someone in the process of murdering others seems like a rational solution. Now if only someone had the TOOLS needed to do that!

Ohh, and fortunately detonating a propane cylinder is VERY difficult. Had the 20lbs tank exploded in Columbine when being shot, it would have taken out a LOT of people.

The point is well made. This was premeditated, and it could have just as easily been a home made bomb.

 

[ReefHound]

...ditto

Anybody with a cultural understanding of Koreans have a guess at how they will proceed? I really doubt they will mortage the dry cleaning business to hire Robert Shapiro. I don't see the sister at Princeton paying the price.

What price? There is nothing to defend. The perp is dead.

 

[DavidPT40]

So is everyone that suddenly snaps and goes on a rampage a life-long psychopath? I can think of many examples of which people who were subject to frustration and ridicule became muderous/psychopathic for a moment, but then resumed normal, non-harmful behavior. The example that comes to mind first is Lt. Calley, the perpetrator of the My Lai massacre. He did not have a record of psychopathic before, nor has he had a record of psychopathic behavior since.

Note: I realize that psychopath/sociopath are not actual classifications, but are symptoms of anti-social personality behaviors.

 

[Cacia]

yea, I meant if he was not..

A lot of these diagnoses run a huge continuum, and on one end they might not resemble the other extreme.

Take autism for example, and look at the huge range of functionality.

 

[mdb]

What price? There is nothing to defend. The perp is dead.

The mind controlled perp is dead. Vince Foster, Columbine, etc. The "media" will bleed it for weeks/months. Time for the next "reality" show or Grindhouse or some other diversion.

 

[DavidPT40]

"I think Cho had a Social Phobia and a Schizoid Personality Disorder (DSM IV-TR 301.20) that was premorbid for either Schizophrenia Paranoid Type, or Mood Disorder with Psychotic Features (psychotic = murderous), the primary DX before the violence. Schizoid Personality Disorder looks like this, credit to the DSM:

A. A pervasive pattern of detachment from social relationships and a restricted range of expression of emotions in interpersonal settings, beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts, as indicated by four or more of the following:
(1) neither desires, nor enjoys close relationships, including family
(2) almost always chooses solitary activities
(3) has little, if any, interest in having sexual experiences with another person
(4) takes pleasure in few, if any, activities
(5) lacks close friends or confidants other than first-degree relatives
(6) appears indifferent to the praise or criticism of others.
(7) shows emotional coldness, detachment, or flattened affectivity

B. Does not occur exclusively during the course of Schizophrenia, a Mood Disorder With Psychotic Features, another Psychotic Disorder, or a Pervasive Developmental Disorder, or another medical condition

Anyway. If I fantasied I'd say either he always suffered from Schizophrenia but he was highly functional, or

H was an abused person, abused from early childhood, either physically, verbally, emotionally or sexually. Or he lived with someone who beat or abused someone else, perhaps a sibling or a parent. "

http://www.blogowogo.com/blog_article.php?aid=709062&t=12

 

[fisherdvm]

B. Does not occur exclusively during the course of Schizophrenia, a Mood Disorder With Psychotic Features, another Psychotic Disorder, or a Pervasive Developmental Disorder, or another medical condition

Sorry, perhaps I misread... I misread that called him a paranoid schizophrenic like others.

You might be right.