Wednesday, July 25, 2012

I know that this is a technical issue

And I'm no trained mental health professional, but in discussing whether James Holmes is suffering from a particular psychological illness or "just faking it", this comment struck me as yet another bizarre statement:
Marissa Randazzo, former chief research psychologist for the Secret Service, told Good Morning America that Holmes could either be in the middle of a psychotic episode or coming down from a period of mania. But she didn't rule out that he's faking it.
It's possible. It is possible. We'll leave that open ... Let's keep that in mind that he was studying neuroscience. He was studying exactly the type of brain issues that we're going to be talking about throughout this whole case.
On the other hand, Randazzo explained that criminals who fake these symptoms are sociopaths, and Holmes' history "does not suggest sociopath at all."
Yeah, no history of being a sociopath at all...other than killing 12 people and shooting 59 others.

Again, I'm sure someone who is a trained professional knows more about these things than I do, but that sure reads weird.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm not an expert, but I believe sociopathy is one of a few specific psychological diagnoses--it's a personality trait. What he did was certainly sociopathic in the popular sense of the word, but unless this kind of disregard for the values of others was a persistent aspect of his personality, it isn't sociopathic in the psychological sense.

The Times had this fascinating article on psychopathic kids recently.

Anonymous said...

Normally, I'm against capital punishment, but in this case, I say--- Colorado, go right ahead and fry this hateful prick.

If he's sane enough to plan a crime like this, he's sane enough to pay for what he did.

I only wish they could fry the asswipes that sold him the weapons and the NRA asswipes that shill for the 'right' of delusional nutjobs to own dangerous weapons.

Anonymous said...

A person who is psychotic and kills people because they are delusional and have lost touch with reality is different from a person who is a sociopath. Not all sociopaths commit violent crimes, and they can be sane. You make the mistake of thinking that ALL crazy or violent acts are sociopathic. That is not the definition of that word. A shizophrenic can be quite insane and do very violent things, but they would not be a sociopath.

Harry R. Sohl said...

Well, in the easiest explanation, his "history" didn't include this event.

As Piers Morgan might have stated, the time to talk about this was yesterday (before the shooting); so no, he apparently didn't have a sociopathic history.

pansypoo said...

even an expert can be full of shit(park dietz), but sorta typical male crazy pants.