Massacres in Westernized Societies

As America reels from the latest massacre of innocent men, women and children in a location meant for relaxation and enjoyment, so everyone tries to make sense of an action that seems senseless.

Everyone has a heated opinion, and the issue of gun ownership raises its ugly head again, and politicians, especially the two presidential candidates, are noticeably silent about what to do about the second amendment – the right to bear arms.  Officials engage in rhetoric to further their own cause (to own guns or not) and argue as to whether the absence of guns would prevent such hideous tragedies as the Colorado theater massacre.  It may, however, be more pertinent to focus not on the macro aspects of such events, but the mirco aspects – the psychology of the individual who commits such gross atrocities.

This article seeks to show how a seemingly ordinary young man, James Holmes, could either “snap” or deliberately plot over months to massacre as many people as possible. It uses Transactional Analysis to offer a meaningful profile of an individual living in a peaceful westernized society who could stoop so low as to do such a thing, and it asks the question that politicians should be asking, “What is going wrong in westernized societies that generates such individuals?”

Transactional Analysis (TA) theorists postulate that personalitiy is a combination of genes and socialization, (the way we’re raised – the nature versus nurture argument) and so researchers have sought to understand the impact of the family and parenting styles on personality development.  TA offers a theory that shows the basic fundamental aspects of personality are present by the age of six years old, and are moderated and refined during childhood and adolescence.  Neonatal research shows that newborn infants attempt to engage eye contact with their mothers, thus beginning the attachment/bonding process.  When mother and baby are attuned to each other the baby thrives, feels secure and his personality develops in a positive way.

Human beings are not born with a conscience and only develop one through a “conditioned response”.  For example, if a child is securely attached to its mother and does something “wrong” and incurs his mother’s anger, the anxiety is such that he will do anything to regain his mother’s love and reduce his anxiety.  The repetition of this conditioned response means that the child will assimilate an “internal code of conduct”, a conscience, and be accountable for his actions as he matures.  If a child is not securely attached to his caregiver, when he does something “wrong” he is less likely to feel the same anxiety as he has “nothing to lose”, and so does not learn to develop a conscience.  The importance of attachment to a mother figure in the emergent personality cannot be overstated.

In order for a child to receive the attention (Strokes) he needs, those who are securely attached don’t have to try to get their mother’s attention – she will anticipate his needs, teach him to tolerate frustration and he’ll develop in a healthy way.  The child who is not attached to his mother, (either through maternal depression, drugs or alcohol misuse, or merely due to intergenerational poor parenting skills) subconsciously adapts his behavior, and subsequently his beliefs about himself and the world around him, in order to get the attention (Strokes) he needs and must have.  These beliefs are assimilated into his sense of self and TA theory postulates that the child develops “conditional worth.”  For example, “I’m only okay if I’m perfect, if I try hard, be strong and please others.  So the four “life stances” are, Be Perfect, Try Hard, Be Strong and Please Others.  The child will typically, subconsciously adopt one of these stances on life.  As there is no rule book on parenting, most of us adapt to the life stances to some degree and that is not necessarily a negative thing.  A Be Perfect stance can be the motivation to achieve in school or in our careers, pleasing others helps us connect to other people, and to cope with life’s adversities we all have to try hard and be strong at times.  These stances on life only become pathological when the individual sees himself as falling short of that ideal and suffers psychological distress as a result.

The socialization of children begins from the moment of birth, and as babies don’t have language they learn what’s acceptable behaviors in their family through non-verbal communication.  When others smile and clap at a child’s behavior, he will repeat that behavior, likewise when others frown or shout, the child knows that particular behavior is not acceptable, provided the child is securely attached to the parent.  If not, the child doesn’t care that its parents are displeased and will learn that acting out will get him attention.  (This is known as Operant Conditioning or behavior shaping.)

The non-verbal communication is referred to as psychological “permissions” or “injunctions,” positive and negative respectively.  Psychological permissions allow a child to thrive and grow and injunctions prohibit growth.  For example, if a parent is uncomfortable touching and holding, a child could assimilate a Don’t Be Close injunction.  If a child is shouted at or ridiculed when he falls over and cries, his subconscious may discern that showing his feelings is an unsafe thing to do, so could develop a Don't Feel injunction.  There are 12 such injunctions with which a child may perceive the world around him.  They are: Don’t Exist; Don’t Be You; Don’t Be A Child; Don’t Grow Up; Don’t Succeed; Don’t Be Anything; Don’t Be Important; Don’t Belong; Don’t Be Well/ or Sane; Don’t Think; Don’t Feel; Don’t Be Close.  These injunctions elicit opinions and beliefs that a child carries into adulthood, where they inhibit the ability to become an autonomic, mature, self-actualizing person.  Unresolved injunctions ruin relationships, fosters low self-esteem, and leaves individuals believing that they are “not okay” and others are “not okay” either, and they become stroke deprived.  This is known as “the despairing position” and is usually the precursor to suicide.

So it can be seen that the emergent personality has many facets originating from the early interaction between infant/child and his caregivers.  As we all assimilate some injunctions during socialization, and the majorities of individuals are “well balanced” and function positively in society, it seems that there are “buffers” that reduce the impact of injunctions upon the self.  For example, if parents have no motivation to succeed, another role model with drive and determination could prevent the child from assimilating a Don’t Succeed injunction.  It is only when a child has limited access to “balanced” care-givers that the likelihood of assimilating injunctions may occur.

TA postulates that there are three “ego states” and to be “whole” one should have accessible amount of energy in all three ego states.  The Parent ego state consists of overseeing the self, dictating to the self, being judgmental or permitting towards to self, and it also houses the conscience and empathy for others.   The Adult ego state consists of the ability to think objectively, appraise situations and recognize that each behavior has a consequence.  The Child ego state consists of feelings and the early decisions an individual makes about the self based on the assimilation of life stances, permissions and injunctions. 

While the vast majority of citizens of westernized societies would never contemplate murder, some individuals do, and psychologists seek to offer a profile of such individuals to explain what has gone wrong with their socialization process and thus their personalities.  TA offers a revealing profile of James Holmes to explain the internal processes he contended with on a daily basis.

James Holmes has a Be Perfect stance on life, has Don’t Succeed, Don’t Be Important, Don’t Think, Don’t Feel, Don’t Be Close and Don’t Belong injunctions assimilated into his personality.  He lives his life through the “despairing position” of “I’m not okay and others are not okay either,” which leaves him stroke deprived and emotionally isolated.  He lacks a functioning Parent ego state and a flawed Adult ego state, which suggest sociopathic and psychopathic tendencies.

The rationale for this profile is as follows: It is reported that he is very bright.  Indeed, anyone that reaches a PhD level of education is plagued with the need to get all the details right.  I know this from my own PhD experience.  However, as no human being can be perfect, so if his conditional worth was solely connected to this life stance, he would experience deep psychological disturbance when falling short of perfection.  He was an honor roll student throughout his education – why was he withdrawing from his PhD program?  I maintain that he harbored deep-seated feelings of being “not okay” and was afraid that someone “would find him out.”  So he tried to leave the university before this false “truth” would be discovered.  He was apparently a few weeks away from an oral examination, which would likely produce major stress, thus reducing his ability to think clearly.

The most obvious injunction that stands out is Don’t Succeed.  Why would he embark on such an arduous academic journey that goes on for years, just to opt out when success is insight?   The big question for me that reveals the most is, “Why didn’t he kill himself after the event, as so many massacre perpetrators do?”  If he had assimilated a Don’t Succeed injunction, being sentenced to multiple life sentences, as will surely happen, would allow him to feel some sense of fulfillment.  (TA theorists maintain that injunctions stem from an unmet need in one’s parent figures.  For example, a parent who has never achieved their full potential may spur on their child to succeed, yet “give off” subconsciously the psychological message, “Please don’t succeed, because if you do, I’ll feel a failure.”  No parent would actually say that, but non-verbal communication is more powerful than the spoken word, especially during early childhood when children pass through a “magical thinking” cognitive phase.) 

If James Holmes had assimilated a Don’t Succeed injunction, then being “taken alive” after slaughtering innocent human beings would allow him to “succeed” in this endless cycle of the opposing dictates, “I’m only okay if I’m perfect, yet I can never succeed in being perfect,” because no human being can be perfect.  What better way to feel a sense of subconscious psychological “satisfaction” than placing himself in a position where he will never succeed as a neuro scientist, and also never succeed in being important (evidence of having assimilated a Don’t Be Important injunction)?  The “evidence” of a Don’t Succeed injunction would be forever present having been convicted of multiple murders, wasting his life and spending the rest of his life behind bars.  What better way to hurt his family?   James Holmes had long since given up on himself – his internal processes were so conflicting that deep down he longed for someone, or some institution (the judicial system) to put boundaries around him, to take away the internal conflict raging within him.

TV reporters say that Mr. Holmes was a “loner”, so it was likely that he assimilated Don’t Be Close and Don’t Belong injunctions, both would only compound his “stroke deprivation” and reinforced his perception that he was “not okay” and others weren’t okay either. The likelihood is that he didn’t believe that he was worth any attention, and would reject it anyway as no one else could possibly meet his “Be Perfect” standards.  Yet each rebuff or rejection, although “set up” by his behavior and attitude, would confirm his belief that his stance on life was correct. 

The next injunction that Mr. Holmes most certainly has is a Don’t Feel injunction.  This seems obvious, for if his self-esteem was very low, he would block out the painful sensations, and refuse to feel anything.  He shows no empathy for others, or indeed himself.  The inability to feel empathy is correlated with the profile of a sociopath and also shows evidence that he had a non-functioning Parent ego state, meaning that he was unable to control himself.  He exhibits signs of a flawed Adult ego state also.  There is no doubt that throughout his life Mr. Holmes has used his Adult ego state continually in his pursuit of academic achievement, but his inability to process the consequences of performing an atrocity indicate the assimilation of a Don’t Think injunction.   If he had a Don’t Think injunction and a flawed Adult ego state then Mr. Holmes was “acting out” beyond awareness, subconsciously, what TA theorists call, his “Life Script.”  It means that he formulated opinions about himself in infancy and early childhood, tested his theory during adolescence, and then followed his Life Script as an adult without giving it any thought.  It’s like being on “automatic pilot” – no thought needed.

This article sought to ask and examine, “What is going wrong in westernized societies that generate such individuals who could commit massacres?”  It has shown how the personality develops using Transactional Analysis theory, and how inadvertently through the assimilation of injunctions, personalities may become pathological and cause individuals such psychological distress that they would do almost anything to reduce the internal conflict raging within them.  This article does not seek to “blame” parents for the quirks in their children’s personality.  Most parents do the best they can while they are young and prior to processing through their own injunctions.  What it does seek to highlight is the absolute importance of bonding with a newborn infant so that the child becomes securely attached, develops a positive self-image and high self-esteem, and most importantly, develops a conscience.  All the time that women give birth without the rudiments of parenting skills, this deficit in personality development will continue, causing at the very least psychological misery and failed relationships.  At the very worst, inadequate parenting skills can produce individuals who are so internally conflicted, without empathy, who are sociopathic and psychopathic, and who are capable of carrying out the atrocities that occur in every westernized society.  Basic parenting skills should be taught in schools, and attitudes towards “mental illness” need to change.  Personal growth, where individuals explore their sense of self, and resolve their own assimilated injunctions, elicits “mental health”, and personal growth classes should be available in schools also.  It is only then that mothers will be able to parent from a healthy position and produce stable, secure children who go on to become stable and secure adults.

James Holmes had the instinct to know that his psyche “wasn’t right” yet didn’t have the language or knowledge as to how to heal himself.  TA would have given him that language, and I have no doubts, especially with his high functioning cognitive abilities and his willingness to study “subjective experiences of the brain,” (a quote from a speech he gave at the age of eighteen) that if he’d been given that knowledge and the means to help himself, he would never have given in to the internal conflict/dictates that led him to “not succeed.”  The Colorado theater massacre will mar history and could so have been avoided.  It is indeed a tragedy at every level.