Mental illness and disorders among Mass Shooters

Sabratha wrote:

dyonqqr wrote:

James Sheets (2003 Red Lion Junior High School shooting): Depression

Peter Langman suggests that:
Robert Poulin, Brenda Spencer, Barry Loukaitis, Andrew Golden, Eric Harris, Robert Steinhäuser, Charles Whitman, and Tim Kretschmer were psychopathic.
Michael Carneal, Andrew Wurst, Kip Kinkel, and Alvaro Castillo were schizophrenic.
Luke Woodham, Dylan Klebold, Marc Lépine, Thomas Hamilton, and Pekka-Eric Auvinen were schizotypal.
Peter Odighizuwa, Biswanath Halder, and Amy Bishop were either schizophrenic or schizotypal.
Edward Allaway, One Goh, Seung Hui Cho, Jiverly Wong, Bruco Eastwood, James Wilson, Wellington de Oliveira, Adam Lanza, and Kimveer Gill were schizophrenic.
Jillian Robbins was depressed and psychotic.
Laurie Dann as psychopathic and psychotic.

My observations:

Robert Steinhäuser is debatable. Given his life history, I'd rather suspect depression and the desire to "get away from it all". Of course I didn't know the man. He could have been both psychopathic and depressed, but it is an unlikely combination.

Adam Lanza... he seems to have suffered from ASD (autism spectrum disorder) and also from something else that caused psychotic delusions. Paranoid Schizophrenia is a possible explanation, but an equally good one would be DD (Delusional disorder). Lanza is a complex case, not because we lack facts (We know he was really doing poorly mental wise, but the sheer extent of symptoms suggests comorbidity).

Pekka-Eric Auvinen as schizotypal? Don't know where that assumption comes from. I've certainly never seen anything to suggest that.

Kimveer Gill - I haven't seen enough concrete evidence to allow me to make an assessment. Schizophrenic, schizotypal, DD... all are possible, but I would myself bet on the most simple explanation: Depression + low empathy.

Yeah Peter Langman always seems to wanna classify every shooter as one of his 3 little groups by using tiny bits of evidence that are highly debatable.I love his work but he needs to be more careful with his classifications.

Employer_Square wrote:

Sabratha wrote:

dyonqqr wrote:

James Sheets (2003 Red Lion Junior High School shooting): Depression

Peter Langman suggests that:
Robert Poulin, Brenda Spencer, Barry Loukaitis, Andrew Golden, Eric Harris, Robert Steinhäuser, Charles Whitman, and Tim Kretschmer were psychopathic.
Michael Carneal, Andrew Wurst, Kip Kinkel, and Alvaro Castillo were schizophrenic.
Luke Woodham, Dylan Klebold, Marc Lépine, Thomas Hamilton, and Pekka-Eric Auvinen were schizotypal.
Peter Odighizuwa, Biswanath Halder, and Amy Bishop were either schizophrenic or schizotypal.
Edward Allaway, One Goh, Seung Hui Cho, Jiverly Wong, Bruco Eastwood, James Wilson, Wellington de Oliveira, Adam Lanza, and Kimveer Gill were schizophrenic.
Jillian Robbins was depressed and psychotic.
Laurie Dann as psychopathic and psychotic.

My observations:

Robert Steinhäuser is debatable. Given his life history, I'd rather suspect depression and the desire to "get away from it all". Of course I didn't know the man. He could have been both psychopathic and depressed, but it is an unlikely combination.

Adam Lanza... he seems to have suffered from ASD (autism spectrum disorder) and also from something else that caused psychotic delusions. Paranoid Schizophrenia is a possible explanation, but an equally good one would be DD (Delusional disorder). Lanza is a complex case, not because we lack facts (We know he was really doing poorly mental wise, but the sheer extent of symptoms suggests comorbidity).

Pekka-Eric Auvinen as schizotypal? Don't know where that assumption comes from. I've certainly never seen anything to suggest that.

Kimveer Gill - I haven't seen enough concrete evidence to allow me to make an assessment. Schizophrenic, schizotypal, DD... all are possible, but I would myself bet on the most simple explanation: Depression + low empathy.

Yeah Peter Langman always seems to wanna classify every shooter as one of his 3 little groups by using tiny bits of evidence that are highly debatable.I love his work but he needs to be more careful with his classifications.

I think overall Langman's ideas are valuable and that he was the first Psychologist who started making any sense when it comes to spree killings. Especially his distinction between shooters abused/traumatized as children and those who were not abused was very innovative at the time. Really helped explain differences between the "Jeff Weise" types and the "Kip Kinkel" types.


Which doesn't mean his typology neatly covers everything, but it is a good starting point.

If I would have to create an off-the-cuff typology of my own, it would be:


TYPE A: Depressed misfits, isolated from society often because of a secondary disorder that inhibited their social life (ie: selective mutism, social phobia asperger syndrome, schizotypal PD). Primarily internally-oriented (introspective, blaming themselves more than others) Examples: Dylan Klebold, Kimveer Gill, Randy Stair.

TYPE A+: Traumatized/abused as kids, which produced shooters who were lacking empathy, depressed and angry. Examples: Jeff Weise, Mitch Johnson, Asa Coon.
NOTE: In some sense you can view them as "artificially" created A types.

TYPE B: Grandiose, self-confident shooters devoid of empathy full of self-entitlement. Often can qualify for a diagnosis of Antisocial PD, Narcissistic PD or "Robert-Hare-style-Psychopathy". Examples: Eric Harris, Breivik, Elliot Rodger.

TYPE C: Suffering from a psychotic disorder, usually auditory delusions. They have little to none previous history of violence, and little intereste in previous mass murderers. Their attacks involve little to no planning and seem to happen 'randomly'. They either went undiagnosed, or stopped taking their medication prior to the shooting. Examples: Kip Kinkel, Michael Carneal, Kazimierczak.

TYPE AB (transitional): Primarily depressed and feeling themselves misunderstood and unappreciated, but at the same time having low empathy and the tendency to blame everyone around them, blame politics, religion or society at large. Self-consciously grandiose, often relating to previous shooters or engaging in copycat behavior. The difference from type A is that they are externally-oriented. Examples: Nick Cruz, Auvinen, Dylan Roof.

TYPE AC (transitional): Have all the traits of the A types, but also suffer from a psychotic disorder. Unlike pure C types, they are interested in previous shooters. They plan their shooting, gather weapons and tools in advance. Examples: Cho, Lanza.

In theory, the matrix would suggest the existence of a TYPE BC, as callous, grandiose psychotics. but I'm actually not aware of any examples. So it might be a null category.

This is the exact kind of conversation I came to this forum for. I quite like that typology, it's more encompassing of subtleties than Langman's, especially that it shows attackers on a spectrum between different motivations and psychological profiles instead of all one thing.

(On an unrelated note, Nathan Gale (Columbus nightclub shooting) was a paranoid schizophrenic.)

dyonqqr wrote:

This is the exact kind of conversation I came to this forum for. I quite like that typology, it's more encompassing of subtleties than Langman's, especially that it shows attackers on a spectrum between different motivations and psychological profiles instead of all one thing.

(On an unrelated note, Nathan Gale (Columbus nightclub shooting) was a paranoid schizophrenic.)

Thanks. If you ever want talk psychology, I'm the person you need. Disclaimer: I've studied psychology, but don't work in that field and am not considered a professional by any means.

Unfortunately, some of my more interesting psychology-related threads have disappeared with the old Danny Ledonne forums (yeah I'm old).

James Fairweather (2014 Colchester Murders) - Autism, Dyslexia

Steven Kazmierczak (2008 Northern Illinois University shooting)-  diagnosed with  social anxiety and obsessive/compulsive disorder.

James Holmes: OCD