[eweissenbach]

I was an education major and a psychology minor, which means I am no more qualified than anyone else to make a diagnosis of the young man who killed these children. I am however, interested in the case and willing to speculate, so take it for what it's worth. It is my opinion and observation that most of these mass murderers are people who have few friends and live primarily within themselves and their fantasies. I think they have little interaction with other people, thus the familiar "he kept to himself and was really quiet" response by those with whom they into contact, in so many of these cases. By living within their own world and their own fantasies, and perhaps within fantasy worlds provided by diversions such as movies or video games, they don't really understand typical human emotions and interaction. Right, wrong, love, hate, empathy - all things we learn from parents, teachers, religious leaders, peers, through socialization, they miss out on. If their minds are obsessed with dark and deadly fantasies, there seems to be no social check on that through the process we might describe as conscience. It seems that they can rationalize what they do because they have no ability to feel empathy for other people and no moral compass. How do we tell who the next killer may be? I don't think there is any way to tell, because we can't break into that dark place in their brain where these fantasies materialize. Most of us can't understand these things quite simply because we have no frame of reference to understand them - the dark recesses of their minds are impenetrable.