Posted on 12/18/2012 4:12:14 PM PST by servo1969
Psychiatrist James Knoll told CNN’s Headline News today that Adam Lanza, the perpetrator of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, was acting in a “ritualistic” way during the horrific events. Knoll, who does research at the State University of New York Upstate Medical University, said in a recent report that killers like Lanza see themselves as “pseudocommandos … driven by strong feelings of anger and resentment, in addition to having a paranoid character. He plans out the offense ritualistically, and comes prepared with a powerful arsenal of weapons.”
The report continues: “[The pseudocommando] most often kills in public during the daytime. And has no escape planned. Pseudocommandos are 'collectors of injustice' who nurture their wounded narcissism and ultimately retreat into a fantasy life of violence and revenge."
Knoll wrote that killers like Lanza have an “obliterative mindset … his ‘self’ is already dead and … his physical death is of little consequence” in his own mind.
Knoll emailed HLN to let them know that psychiatry couldn’t do much about these sorts of people. “We think far too shallow about these events. We concern ourselves with metal detectors, security systems, 'profiles,' preventing 'the mentally ill' from obtaining firearms. This is shallow, facile thinking. Want to make a material impact? Think deeper. Cultivate a respect for how to teach compassion, nonviolence and personal responsibility in individual minds.”
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
Knoll wrote an article about "pseudocommandos." He pretty much owns the term and he's going to trot it out whenever something happens that has the slightest resemblance to his theory.
There's probably going to be a lot of controversy between those who play up the autism/Asperger's theory and those who are looking for other explanations. In an earlier article, Knoll mentioned those who saw Asperger's symptoms in Jeffrey Dahmer, but here he's going out of his way to avoid discussion autism.
The impression I get is that the psychodynamic stuff may have some validity, but this shooter was very, very distant from the rest of humanity and from ordinary feelings.
well said
No worries. (-:
“While I am not as far gone as some Asperger’s folks are I still have problems identifying social cues and I’ve often struggled with sarcasm and metaphorical alliteration.”
Please, I’m not trying to be a moron here, I’m trying to understand something about the behaviour.
In the show “The Big Bang Theory” Sheldon Cooper doesn’t get sarcasm and other social cues. He has trouble reading people.
Is this the type of behaviour that you’re describing?
If he were completely without the ability to feel pain I’d doubt he’d be very successful with any remotely physical activity, so that sounds like an exaggeration. Medication can provoke neuropathy, but there’s usually a sort of nonspecific aching associated with a surface numbness that is more specific. My father had it, nerve pain but his feet were numb, difficulty walking because he couldn’t feel iiregularities beneath his feet and it affected his balance.
Many low level autistics exhibit sympoms of personality disorder along with the autism. Within personality disorder, there are a multitude of variations including narcissm. His diagnosis sounds reasonable to me.
Sheldon Cooper is a caricature of a high functioning autistic, yes. The actor is a little too good at it to be entirely acting. Kind of like Ashton Kutcher playing a doofus, you know what I mean?
Please explain. What picture, and what about the picture?
“Kind of like Ashton Kutcher playing a doofus, you know what I mean?”
Gotcha’
Thank You
“I have Asperger’s and my brother had syndromal autism and was low functioning...”
Well, I don’t see how that makes you an expert. Plus, where do you get off using the word spectrum? /s
Thanks for weighing in, BTW.
with examples from the show
I wear glasses. That doesn’t make me an optometrist...
He seemed to be smart enough to destroy his hard drive.
I’d like to know if mom brought her children to church or enrolled them in religious studies. Anyone know?
http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/television/2009/02/mustgeek_tv.2.html
Asked point-blank in this video response on a Variety blog, though, actor Jim Parsons says that he was startled when fan questions led him to descriptions of Asperger’s syndrome that perfectly matched the character he’d been hired to play. So does Sheldon have it?
“The writers say no, he doesn’t. ...” Parson shrugs in his response, “[But] I can say that he couldn’t display more facets of it.”
Those are characteristics that are common with the disorder of Autism (High Functioning and PDD-NOS), as well as Asperger's Syndrome. There are other characteristics, such as needing strict routines, having a strong interest in one or two specific areas (one student I worked with was able to at age 7 tell me about every plant in a garden at his day-care provider's home with details on germination, planting season, etc). Difficulty with maintaining direct eye contact, or a complete lack of eye contact. Sensitivity to sound, lighting, fabrics, taste, or texture (we have students where I work who cannot handle the warning bells or fire alarms). They often are extremely rigid with rules, except that they don't always understand how rules apply to them. These individuals often perseverate on things. A middle school student I worked with had to complete any single task or project before moving on to a different task or project, and often they had to follow a particular order. He was working on a geography project where he was to identify regions of ancient Palastine. Jerusalem was a region on the assignment, but because Jerusalem was also a city he could not grasp how it could be a region. He perseverated on the fact Jerusalem was a city, and could not move past that fact.
Marking this for later read
Sheldon Cooper is a fictional character who isn’t exactly anything to me because he smiles too much and he’s inconsistent with his rituals. In one episode he’ll put his tea bag in his cup before he pours the hot water in the cup and then in another episode he pours the water in and then puts the tea bag in. That’s just one inconsistency.
Excessive literalism on a thread about aspergers? You made a funny, good for you, lol.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.