Readers know that I am always skeptical about labelling and diagnosing people with whom I have not sat and talked for quite a while. Every time a mass murderer goes on a rampage, though, we shrinks come out of the woodwork to opine.
Our friend Shrinkwrapped discusses the Binghamton murders in terms of Narcissistic pathology. It's a good, clear description of pathological narcissism (we posted on the "Narcissism Epidemic" last week) but, in one way, I find it disappointing.
Here's the problem: the world is full of pathological narcissists. Many of them are very successful in worldly terms (if unsuccessful in relationships). Most or all of them endure painful humiliations, failures, and disappointments in life (as does everybody - but narcissists are less resilient in the face of these things and are more likely to sink into rage or depression). Assuming that SW's speculative diagnosis is correct in this case, it still has no predictive power.
Thus my speculative, highly professional diagnosis of killers - whether mass killers or not or whether narcissists or not - is that they have a screw loose. Everybody feels like killing somebody sometimes, but very few do (in Western civilization).
SW did highlight something I had been thinking of writing about anyway. He says:
The Narcissist has a damaged self. When the environment (esp other people) support his self esteem, he does relatively well. He may be charming and charismatic and appear to be self assured and in command of himself. However, should the other fail him the pain of the assault on his self esteem is destabilizing.
True (although I would not say "damaged." I would say developmentally delayed, or genetically retarded, or something. Also, I do not understand what a "self" is despite much study on the subject). The larger point is interesting to me. Everybody has psychological frailties and weaknesses. Everybody wants the external world to compensate for those - to patch those holes and gaps.
We usually are able to find a way, to find a niche, to find supports we need (a devoted spouse is a good one - and so is some money) and, worst case, booze and drugs can paper over lots of cracks in our walls. Oftentimes, people are only made aware of their weaknesses when the external supports are removed.
I have seen many people for consultation who I believed needed psychotherapy but whose world insulated them (or who arranged a life such that the world would insulated them) from the self-awareness and the discomfort. I never try to talk people into treatment: they need to feel the need and the inner disturbance to get help. If old Mr. Reality eventually gets through to them, I know they will come back.
However, people with personality disorders are fairly well-protected from Mr. Reality: they live in worlds of their own imagination. Instead of finding a way to make the world work for them, they just invent a world that suits them - and live in it unless or until it unravels.
