The Psycholijay of School Shootings: Part 2 (What it is)

                All of you by now should know what does NOT make a school shooter, so I guess it’s time to look at the psychology behind how you create one. Now, bear in mind most school shootings end in suicide, fewer still end in suicide by cop. So this is based on inferences made based on psychology’s current understanding of human development and behavioural and social psychology.

                So, let’s start with the basics: Your brain, my brain, the human brain.
                Believe it or not, the prefrontal cortex (the part of your brain that is responsible for all your “higher level” thinking and essentially a big part of what makes up “you” as a distinct personality) does not finish developing until you are about 25. This essentially means a lot of your decision making processes and higher level decisions are handled by other parts of your brain, i.e.: the much more “id” parts of the brain that handle things like emotional impulses, hunger responses, and sex drive. This is why teenagers have a reputation for being reckless/horney/over-emotional; in essence they are still developing the parts of the brain they need to reign in their biological impulses. It also means they are susceptible to emotional manipulation and suffer from more extreme reactions to their emotions. This is demonstrated by the number of “activists” you see that tend to be in their teens or early 20’s. It’s rare you will see a 30year old screaming in a riot cops face, or engaging in histrionics over a political hot point.  That isn’t to say their emotions and feelings are any less real, they simply don’t have the capacity to deal with them in any other way (yet) it’s just part of growing up.

                In very young children this underdeveloped frontal cortex can lead to “Magical Thinking” the mind making sense of the world around it by applying odd supernatural rules that make sense to the child in order to explain the world around it. This isn’t “wrong” in developmental terms as it prepares the mind for more abstract concepts that build society, such as “justice,” “politeness” and “respect”. But it can lead to something very common in adolescents, something psychologists call “Personal fable”.

                A “Personal Fable” is when a person believes themselves to be “The hero of their own life story,” it’s very ego-centric thinking that generally views others as actors in the drama that is their life rather than distinct multi-dimensional humans with their own wants, emotions, and lives. Most people develop a sense of empathy in early adulthood before this becomes too much of an issue, but it generally explains why some teenagers tend to be self-absorbed and occasionally unthinking about the emotional impact of their actions on others. Failure to develop this can lead to “Antisocial Personality Disorder” or other forms of psychopathy.

                Now add to this mix: America.

                America is very much an individualistic culture. The ultra-capitalist nature of America, as well as its cultural emphasis on “lone heroes” and “the rebel” and other strong individualistic hero’s tends to have people think about lives in terms of themselves rather then consider the collective existence of the world around them.  This isn’t really a negative thing, but it does tend to lean on people to solve their problems for themselves, rather than looking to others for help. It also casually discourages people (especially boys) from seeking assistance as the unspoken rule is that a person should be able to handle their own problems.

                So; picture your young man, he’s being verbally, emotionally, and physically abused every day in an environment which offers no respite or escape. The “Zero tolerance” policy means that if he reacts in any way he faces punishment. What’s more kids are smart enough not to get caught, or if they are it’s down-played as “harmless fun”.  Parents are either absent, or unknowing of the situation, caring little for “kids’ stuff” they preach the much touted “Just ignore them” or “Tell your teacher”. If this were a fully grown adult, he could easily sue for workplace harassment, or have them arrested for assault. As it is? This is a school, so none of these things are an option. The victim is powerless, and has nobody to turn to. This has been going on for years, and will continue to go on for years yet, and the victim knows this.  The under-developed prefrontal cortex is struggling to cope with the sense of injustices, despair and hopelessness that comes every day.  Suicide becomes a regular theme to the child’s thinking.

                At this point, some do indeed kill themselves. Usually boys and young men, though young women and girls do it too. Outside of America this is the most common response to this circumstance. However, there is a strong sense of “injustice” that acts as an undercurrent to the self-loathing that now permeates this child’s life. Without the physical, political, or social power to fight back, one option remains to the American youth, use the power to fight back that comes from the barrel of a gun. In their “Personal Fable” the world needs to be set right, and since nobody else will do it the onus falls on them to see the matter through, strong social connections will break a personal fable and restore empathy, however; the first act of a bully is usually to isolate their victim and therefore such social ties are usually absent. Once this crisis point has been reached, the school itself is the target, the bullies will of course be the prime targets, but once this choice has been made all the school becomes complacent in the misery this child has lived through, and therefore equally deserving of their wrath. In order to protect itself the prefrontal cortex engages a sense of disassociation further limiting any rational thought to the shooter and in essence sinking them further into a state where they act with little to no conscious thought, but rather act on a pre-determined course that has already been decided upon. A decision to make the world “right” again in their mind, to tip the scales of justice back to “fair” by their own hand as none others would or could help them. This episode will end when the child indulges that self-destructive instinct, usually when the sense of disassociation ends and they are forced to comprehend their actions, they turn the gun on themselves, unable to face the reality of what they have done.

                To put this into context; A woman living in America with a husband who humiliates, abuses, and derides her for years on end can kill him in his sleep and be allowed to have her actions mitigated thanks to “battered wife defence”. A child who is trapped in a school with the same treatment with a mind less equipped to deal with it, from multiple people, with no escape has no such legal defence. And when they kill they are derided as monster, with people scrambling to find an easy scapegoat to blame in order to rationalise such a horrendous act. But the truth is, the child isn’t a monster, they’re just doing what most people would do when faces with situations so prevalent in the American school system.

                So now you know why this “problem” isn’t something that is down to “crazy,” “gun control”, “video games”, “white cis-normative hetro-patriarchy” or any other thing you care to throw at the wall-o-opinions to see what sticks. It’s down to the human condition, to the developing mind exposed to extreme environments, and to the world that America has created for its children. If it were a one-off, sure, it could be written off as “crazy”. But it’s not a one-time thing, is it? It’s a recipe that has been created to distil killers, and suicides from normal children.

                And you can’t fix this problem through “Blame”.