In an effort to try and understand the Virginia Tech murders, the media (and I suppose, the public) will now spend the next few days dissecting Cho Seung-Hui’s personality, playing armchair psychologists (even while real psychologists help the media feeding frenzy by going on television offering their opinions too). You know it’s okay to do so, because none other than the New York Times has a 2-page article dissecting Cho’s life and his “quiet” personality. Entitled, “Gunman Showed Signs of Anger,” I suppose the writer and headline editor are trying to link “angry young person” and “quietness” with “murderous killing spree.”

I’m sorry, but this is just getting ridiculous. Someone who is quiet, angry or not, is not more likely to become a murderer. People with Asperger’s Disorder, for instance, are often quiet people who have trouble connecting socially. But so are many immigrants who came to this country after their birth, and spent much of their childhood in another country. This is not extremely abnormal behavior, and quietness is not something that would normally arouse suspicion (nor should it be).

What is disturbing is the lack of a comprehensive system of followup for the multiple teachers’ concerns about Cho. The police generally aren’t equipped to deal with this sort of situation. But guess who is? That’s right — mental health professionals, such as those assumedly found at the college’s counseling center. Despite referrals to the school’s counseling center, it’s not clear that anything ever came from that. This is a student who, given the concerns from multiple teachers, should’ve been followed-up with the equivalent of a school social worker.

The reality of most university’s counseling centers, however, is that they are not equipped nor well-funded enough to offer this level of care and service to their students. They are provisioned by and large only for mild life problems — procrastination, relationship issues, that sort of thing. Many have added psychiatrists to prescribe medications, but their focus remains on problems in living rather than treatment of mental disorders.

Even if this student was being seen by a mental health professional, it still wouldn’t have been a guarantee they could have forseen and prevented the Virginia Tech tragedy. Ultimately, only one person is mostly responsible for 32 people’s deaths — Cho himself.

Dr. John Grohol is the CEO and founder of Psych Central. He is an author, researcher and expert in mental health online, and has been writing about online behavior, mental health and psychology issues -- as well as the intersection of technology and human behavior -- since 1992. Dr. Grohol sits on the editorial board of the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking and is a founding board member and treasurer of the Society for Participatory Medicine.

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BeyondBehaviors.Com » Virginia Tech Shooting and Understanding School Violence (4/18/2007)

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    Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 18 Apr 2007
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