Over the next few days to weeks, we will try to piece together what could have caused Jared Lee Loughner to attempt to assassinate Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, kill six and wound fourteen others.
We will learn of a long trail of "red flags," and questions as to why there was not some earlier intervention will arise. We will hopefully nail down whether this was the act of a lone individual or part of some conspiracy. Forensic and other psychiatrists will weigh in on this being the act of an untreated, mentally disturbed and psychotic individual. Political extremist groups will be -- if you pardon the bad taste -- targeted as contributing to what may have triggered Loughner.
And, of course, we will have the benefit this time of a living perpetrator, so we will no doubt learn a number of answers from Loughner himself. However, even when he opens up, we may learn little more than that we are dealing with a psychotic, paranoid if not schizophrenic person.
This situation and the information coming out about Loughner has caused me to try to understand what could have caused his action, drawing on my 30 years as a clinical psychiatrist and behavioral analyst.
From listening to many suicidal and rageful/violent people and hearing information similar to what we are beginning to learn about Loughner, I believe that four factors may have contributed to his actions. (This is not in any way to excuse his heinous acts, but to gain a better understanding of his psyche so that we might prevent such tragedies in the future).
Worse than being a "nobody" is feeling put down and pushed away, as Loughner may have experienced with the multiple rejections in his life. And when people with a disturbed mind such as Loughner feel put down and pushed away, they often find a way to get back in and get even.
*Many mental health professionals and others will say, "This is much more than a wayward imagination; this is delusional and psychotic thinking that requires treatment, including medication." That is all true, but the challenge is how to gain cooperation and with it, the willingness to comply with and then continue treatment and medication. Unfortunately, establishing sufficient trust with a paranoid individual to cause them to be williing to cooperate with treatment, especially when there will be many uncomfortable side effects, is often a painstakingly long and frustrating process. Much of psychopharmacologic research is aimed at finding medications that have fewer of those side effects so that there might be greater cooperation and compliance. My aim in laying out the four factors above is that they may enable a conversation to take place with these individuals that is sufficiently empathic to tip the scale towards cooperation. One of my mentors once told me, "When you get where people are coming from and care and understand them when you're there, they're more likely to cooperate with where you'd like them to go."
If you have any thoughts or solutions in 140 characters or less, please tweet them to me @MarkGoulston.
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Personally I think we are witnessing politics creeping into the space that was historically taken by religion. It is becoming the most "charged" topic of our time, and it isn't hard to see that if someone's brain isn't functioning normally, how it could lead to obsession. It is a distorted need to control.
He clearly suffered from the 4 examples given here. The 5th consideration: No one took the initiative to intervene and help him. Mentally and emotionally challenged, he operated from a delusional, victim or survivalist reality. Whether he would accept help is another issue. Arizona cut the mental health services by 50% in 2010, meaning, were they even available to him?
MerrieWay's Plea: Living in a society of lost ethics, with media centered abusive bully-pultpit-ing, demonstrates the lack of respect for everything of sacred value.
Let's stop badgering on bully pulpits. Can we boycott vicious media, slanderous outbursts, and politically charged hypocrisy? We the people are decent, it's time to model that strength of high-mindedness to our children. Peace.
Passing laws gives us the sense that we've fixed the problem, but laws don't enforce themselves. Passing laws excuses us of the responsibilities we've collectively neglected, but neglecting responsibility is what got us here in the first place.
Which is to say, where were the people close to him in his life? Where were his parents, his teachers, his friends? Didn't anybody feel like taking responsibility for him? Do we really think a policeman or clinician is a viable alternative? In a few cases, maybe, but overall no, because they don't care like family and friends.
And maybe that's what this was all about to begin with; detachment. They didn't care, so he didn't care.
"Anatomy of an Epidemic" and "Mad in America" by Robert Whitaker
"Medication Madness" and "Your drug May be Your Problem" by Peter breggin MD
Whenever we have one of these shootings , the media claims it to be a result of the shooter going off his meds. Thes drugs no not decrease violence . While many people feel worse after stopiing medication, these people are suffering from withdrawal just as heroin addicts temporarily feel worse when they stop heroin . You will be better off going through withdrawal rather than using these drugs indefinitely.
He had no job, no access to an education, no prospects, and no future. Any country where the "winners" are treated like gods and goddesses and the losers are treated like horse manure (and constantly reminded that it's their fault that they're poor) is setting itself up for these kinds of disasters.
If this guy had a job (a real job, not a McJob) or was going to school or was in a job training or job placement program where he was learning a skill, he wouldn't be going to a store to get a gun with a 30 round clip for the purpose of killing six people. Because when you're invested in the system and feel part of the system, and have that sense of purpose that a job provides, you don't have a reason to harm others.
Most likely, he got kicked from the Army recruiters (one of the few jobs with a real pension and benefits) because of his psych issues and/or drug history--likely related to his psych issues.
The crazy probably caused the asociality, not the other way around.
Additionally, it's often social connection--through family, friends, other networks, that allow people to get the "good job with decent pay, good benefits, [and] a pension plan". Although, the way the tax system is set up today, it doesn't pay companies much to offer a pension anymore.
(I'm not sure how you tied that into Reagonomics.)
Some people are simply different and don't respond to having a "good" social or economic background, regardless...
However, you mention the killer's paranoia about "the government". Where did this hatred and distrust of "the government" come from? Did it arise out of thin air? Did the killer come to hate and fear "the government" all on his own? Why would he have anything against "the government"?
The killer is 22 years old. Which means he was 4 years old when Bill Clinton took office. Since that time, our airwaves have been filled with constant, 24/7 hate speech---almost all of it directed towards "the evil government" and "the Democrats". This boy grew up hearing that "the government" was to be hated and feared. He leaned that "the government" was run by disloyal, corrupt people who are responsible for everything that is wrong in your country and in your life.
This hatred and fear of "the government" comes from the stench of vile, odious hate talk spewed out by well-paid conservatives on radio, Fox "News" and many, many other places, including much of today's Republican Party.
This tragedy wasn't an isolated, disconnected incident. It's directly related to the viciousness of today's political climate.
For those conservatives that still retain an conscience and some common sense, it is your responsibility to speak up and condemn those who would continue this madness.
Many people who knew Loughner in high school say he was fairly normal until he started taking drugs..
Technically, speaking, the killer was using a "semi-automatic" weapon, which is designed for one purpose only: to kill as many human beings as possible in the shortest time available.
This was a weapon of mass destruction and it was far from the first time that a semi-automatic weapon was used for mass murder.
At least stick to the facts, buddy, whether you want to defend what this guy did or not.
I saw the books Loughner included on his face-book. It is in my opinion that he got lost in distopian thought, and never made the decision to climb out of it, maybe it was because he was still so young, but, It doesn't really matter now. What is the proper way to bring one out of it?
There are so many things to read to remove one from reality, but reading and thinking for so long only about the darkness in things can lead a person to think that nothing in this world is good. There needs to be balance. There needs to be a desire to remove oneself from their own view of the world, instead of going further into it. This boy didn't grow out of the prison of his own mind, and it had consequences.
"The Mortal No: Death and the Modern Imagination", by Frederick J. Hoffman, is a insightful book. I would highly suggest it to Dr. Goulston, and everybody else.
This situation is a tragedy. The books that he may have read, aren't the only books. I'm certain that talk of guns and misgivings of government will permeate the other articles on the Huffington Post, I will only suggest Walt Whitman, among others.