I watched them. Not particularly proud of it, not entirely sure the network made the right call. Not entirely sure they didn’t. Even though he was beastly dead, it felt like I was giving the man what he wanted, even as he’d taken so much – everything, in fact – from so many other people. But I wanted to know, wanted to see. Wanted to try to understand.
Wanted to know the beast, if and when he ever came round again. Wanted to be ready.
Not going to link to the videos. If you’ve found your way here, you’ve either seen them yourself or decided that you wouldn’t and I respect that.
The BBC contacted a UC Berkeley psychologist who had his own analysis – admittedly limited, based on the paucity of observation – from having watched them:
Steve Hinshaw, chair of the psychology department at the University of California Berkeley, told AFP news agency, that while it was impossible to accurately diagnose Cho from the brief set of video clips, his actions and words showed Cho could have been suffering from a severe case of grandiosity and possibly either bipolar depression or schizophrenia.
“He made a statement that he won’t be put down and this must be shown in a self-destructive but self-promoting blaze of glory,” he said.
There’s a good deal more there besides, including a longer treatment by Clemson Professor Robin Kowalski, who compares Cho’s behavior to others who have committed calculated lunacies on a grand scale.
But for my own part, I think James Lileks captures it the best:
There is nothing to learn from listening to the killer. From looking at him or reading his writings or poking through his background or sticking mikes in the face of anyone who saw him across a cafeteria. Maybe it’s just me, but when I first heard of the case I thought: sociopath. A modern word for the man without a soul, the man who either had it stolen by deed or smothered in the womb. I think you can make a sociopath, if you hurt them early enough in a way they can never get their hands around. Others are simply bad seeds from the womb on up, I suspect. No matter what you do, you get a vacant Narcissus with an infinite supply of masks, a clever manniken who cannot apprehend the humanity of others. He could only feel empathy for the object in the mirror, and it’s hardly surprising this example spent his last hours posing for the camera. It was the only thing that understood him, and accepted him for the glorious, tragic creature he knew he was.
Just so, although I think the slightly stronger – albeit more loosely defined – definition of psychopathy suits him better.
In current clinical use, psychopathy is most commonly diagnosed using the checklist devised by Emeritus Professor Robert Hare. He describes psychopaths as “intraspecies predators who use charm, manipulation, intimidation, and violence to control others and to satisfy their own selfish needs. Lacking in conscience and in feelings for others, they take what they want and do as they please, violating social norms and expectations without guilt or remorse”. “What is missing, in other words, are the very qualities that allow a human being to live in social harmony.”
Thus the terminus of moral relativism, the reductio ad absurdum.
End of the line. Everybody off.
ignore the narcissistic MSM and go here:
https://www.gavindebecker.com/books.cfm
Gavin De Becker personally knows what he’s talking about.
That’s a very impressive list of books that Mr. De Becker has on his site – and all of them couldn’t be more timely than now.
I’m tempted to watch the videos, if only to do as Lex says – “But I wanted to know, wanted to see. Wanted to try to understand.” But I don’t know that anything or anyone can ever help us understand such a monster as this. So, I’ve seen a few snippets on CNN and heard a few quotes on the radio – and that’s enough for me. Enough to know he really was a hideous “beast” hiding in the midst of bright promise.
I have also read about the theory of schizophrenia – and it does fit. Early onset, escalating over time. Untreated and undiagnosed and a mass murderer grows and acts.
One comment heard from NBC yesterday was something like “we showed them so people could help us understand why he did what he did.”
I thought that was an interesting cop out, for I would not think spreading the word via mass media is the best manner in which to find and gather the educated opinions of the finest psychologists and psychiatrists the population has to offer.
How about grabbing your experts, whisking them straight to the news office with the materials, set them up with coffee and plenty of donuts/Chinese/pizza and then have them evaluate the message. Put their talking heads up on the broadcasts to tell us what was going on….
Gezz..as Laura says, it was the “duck of the day” by NBC, merely justifying their exploitation of our obsessive habit of slowing down/pulling over to see the carnage of the latest car wreck.
When the Nick Berg thing happened, one of the conservative talk show hosts said something like this of the video: “If you understand how evil it is to hack off a human’s head with a dull knife, then you don’t need to watch it, you know. If you aren’t sure if it’s evil, then you do need to watch it, so you will know it is.”
Personally not interested.
That package should have gone to the police. Only they should have viewed it. And NBC knows it, but the ratings are more important than doing right, right?. What possible thing can the rest of us learn about the deranged mind we don’t already know? IMO, having it available will just spawn copy-cats and other freaks to act.
The cost of his actions are all that matter. Better time to be spent on the victims if one must.
I like Jimbo’s take on the Evil fugg’s care package to NBC:
http://www.blackfive.net/main/2007/04/no_blaze_of_glo.html
His grandparents back in Korea are right.
b2
I don’t need to know what a rabid dog is thinking. It isn’t going to make sense to me anyway.
Actually, I think the video proves (thank God) that the grandparents *aren’t* right. Everyone with believable psych credentials seems to think he’s just crazy as a sh*thouse rat, not an autie.
I read a lot of, and participate in some of the autie-aspie blogs and boards, and I can tell you that there have been comments like “OMG, I hope they don’t think he’s one of us!” and “OMG, I hope he isn’t one of us!”
So, do y’all think maybe now is not a good time to wear that “Autistic Gun Nut” t-shirt I’ve been considering having printed? :-
My smily got truncated! You’ll pay for that!:-)
Oh, yeah, what Pogue said, generally.
What’s funny, is that over in the Asperger’s LJ community, someone mused on what would be the Meyers-Briggs type of a guy like that.
Someone else responded with something like:
“Obviously, IMFU!”
The jump to “understanding” the twisted psycho vice spending even half of that time learning who the victims were is what gets me. Why do we give this fool more than a few sentances describing who he was. If you can’t see the evil in the acts, you have bigger problems that I can imagine. No, NBC et al aired the crap purely out of a desire to increase ratings. Why they don’t put forth that effort on the families of the victims, and the good young people who were all seemingly on a very good path towards benefiting society is what fascinates me. I’d watch that video… I don’t really care much what happened to Cho. Whatever made him tick, doesn’t really matter all that much now. And don’t give me that crap about understanding so we may predict the next one, hah, we will NEVER be able to predict it. This was just so much slowing down to rubberneck the crash scene on the freeway…
Mr. Hicks, though he promised he’d drink the STFU and not wallow in this, just couldn’t (like the rest of us, it seems) help himself
and has posted again on this sordid subject: http://bradhicks.livejournal.com/329515.html
There are some good insights in some of the comments thereto, as well, some of them all contrary and disagreeable, er, disagreeing.
If it bleeds, it LEADS ! (It might not be right, but its fact)
plain old fashioned possession. ask the evil in, and it will oblige.
and schizophrenics almost never commit violence. at least to my knowledge.
I don’t see psychopaths and sociopaths as mentally ill, as such. Mental illness usually involves not understanding that actions are wrong. They know it’s wrong, they don’t care.
better quit rambling, or someone will measure me for a white coat.
about my post above…
when I say “you” I mean to those that feel the need to be that “you”…
I don’t mean “you”…
Do you get what I mean?????
My daughter, a psychologist, treats people like Cho occasionally in her practice. She sees that they cannot identify other human beings as having any worth, because they themselves feel worthless. This is the classic sociopath who has no empathy for other humans. It is the classic “I’m not OK, therefore you’re not OK” type scenario. That is what makes it easy for them to kill. They are essentially devoid of empathy. The less dangerous sociopaths use people by scamming them, robbing them, humiliating them, etc. They are dysfunctional, but not insane. They know what they’re doing and carry out organized plans to make others miserable or, in the worst case scenarios, torture or kill people.
She always knows when she meets one of these clients that it is going to be extremely difficult to make any progress or promote any change. They are very difficult to treat, usually ending the treatment after only a few sessions. If the client seems bent on violence she can report him/her to the authorities, but, as in Cho’s case there may not be much done.
IMO we need to do more study of this type individual. Psychology professionals and law enforcement need to work together to identify these people and track them. They should especially be identified as unfit to own weapons of any kind.
Will this happen? IMO, not likely.