Last month I was in a law firm. Not because of a legal issue—I was there to discuss writing the content for their new websites. Two lawyers, who had been part of one firm, were setting up independent practices. One lawyer hired me. The other wasn’t sure, so he wanted to meet me. A week later I learned that the second lawyer decided he would write his website himself.
On Saturday, I was shocked to see a story in the local newspaper: The second lawyer, Seth A. Fuscellaro, who was also a public defender in Lower Township, New Jersey, was charged in a $15 million mortgage fraud scheme. The FBI actually arrested him in municipal court and escorted him out in handcuffs.
The lawyer was one of 11 people charged in the scheme. One man was also charged with attempted murder—he allegedly shot a witness multiple times. (The witness survived.)
As I read the article for the second time, I still couldn’t believe my eyes. When I met Fuscellaro, I saw absolutely nothing that might indicate any inappropriate behavior, let alone fraud on the scale reported in the newspaper. I had no reason to think the man might be anything but a busy lawyer.
Colorado movie massacre
People are having the same reaction, on a much larger scale, to the news that James Holmes, a shy neurosciences student who was working on his Ph.D., was arrested in the shooting massacre in the Aurora, Colorado movie theater.
People who knew Holmes, and knew his family, are stunned. Neighbors and teachers described him as “smart” but “quiet.” According to an article on CBSNews.com, “In high school, Holmes won a competitive position at a rigorous science boot camp and an internship in neurobiology at the prestigious Salk Institute.”
A video has emerged showing Holmes as an 18-year-old making a presentation to fellow students at a science camp, explaining “subjective experience—what takes place inside the mind, as opposed to the external world.”
Watch: James Holmes: First video of alleged killer released, on ABCNews.go.com.
Obviously, people want to know, “Is Holmes delusional? Does he have a mental illness?” It’s certainly too soon to know. But reporters are already asking the question:
Was this killer mentally ill?
“It says a lot about the type of prejudice we have when we automatically go to the presumption that a clinical mental illness was the cause,” says Praveen Kamban, a professor of psychiatry at the University of California-Los Angeles. “Even the surgeon general of the United States has said there’s very little risk of violence or harm from a stranger who has a mental disorder.
“Not all bad behavior comes from mental illness. Sometimes it can simply be bad behavior.”
Read Probe of shooting suspect James Holmes intensifies, on USAToday.com.
Syndrome of sociopathy (psychopathy)
Here is the point of today’s post: Just because someone behaves badly, even murderously, it does not prove that the person is a sociopath (psychopath).
Sociopathy is a pattern of behavior in which individuals manipulate and exploit others. It is a syndrome, which means the disorder is associated with several recognizable features, symptoms or behaviors.
As I explain on the Key Symptoms page of Lovefraud.com, Dr. Robert Hare identified the traits of a psychopath as:
- Glib and superficial
- Egocentric and grandiose
- Lack of remorse or guilt
- Lack of empathy
- Deceitful and manipulative
- Shallow emotions
- Impulsive
- Poor behavior controls
- Need for excitement
- Lack of responsibility
- Early behavior problems
- Adult antisocial behavior
Although James Holmes has yet to be charged in the Colorado shootings, let alone tried and convicted, he was caught at the scene and his apartment was booby-trapped with explosives. I think it’s fair to anticipate that he will go to prison.
Obviously, his actions were massively evil. Holmes planned his assault in a cold, calculated way. But is he glib, egocentric, grandiose or impulsive? Does he have a need for excitement? Did he have early behavior problems? Look at the video—does this guy at all resemble the human predators that we were involved with? No.
In my opinion, as heinous as this man’s actions were, he probably is not a sociopath (psychopath).
Joe Paterno
Here on Lovefraud, there was also a raging debate a few days ago about Joe Paterno. This case is a bit muddier, because we have learned, through the Freeh Report, that Paterno did lie, at least in reference to his knowledge of Sandusky’s behavior with young boys. We’ve also learned that he wielded incredible power at Penn State, used his power to protect his turf, and was willing to throw innocent children under the bus in order to avoid negative publicity and a stain on the shining image of Penn State football.
This is reprehensible. It is a betrayal of everything that the coach supposedly stood for. Still, based on what has been published about this affair, I doubt that any competent clinician would diagnose Paterno as a sociopath.
Keep in mind that not only is sociopathy a syndrome, it’s also a continuum. That means that a disordered person can have any of the traits listed above to a greater or lesser degree. To qualify as a sociopath, an individual needs high enough scores on enough of the traits to meet the threshold.
So perhaps Paterno would have scored high on “egocentric and grandiose.” But would he have scored high on all, or even many, of those other traits?
Quite honestly, I don’t know for sure. I never went to Penn State, never met Joe Paterno. I only have access to media reports, and they may be incorrect or biased. Many, many sportswriters have been coming out with articles saying, “I believed Joe Paterno and I was wrong.”
Bad behavior
Here at Lovefraud we’re learning about sociopaths, which is important not only for us as individuals, but for all of society. Millions of these predators live among us; they are incredibly destructive; and we need to watch out for them. The more people who are aware that they exist, the better.
Still, we need to guard against seeing a sociopath behind every bush. Not everyone who is power-centered, lies and steals, or even commits mass murder is a sociopath. As the psychiatrist quoted above says, sometimes bad behavior is just bad behavior.
sky, the comments on that article clarify the mother’s statement
“Joe2874
6:20 PM EDT
Jul 23, 2012
ABC should post another correction for this story. The lawyer for the family has now explained that when the mother was contacted by phone by ABC News and told the reporter, “You have the right person,” she meant “Yes, I am the mother of James Holmes of Aurora, CO,” not “Yes, my son is a killer.” Really sloppy reporting”
This seems more appropriate in the context.
Here’s an article from the Huffington Post with the lawyer’s declaration of the mother refuting ABC’s claim
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/23/james-holmes-mother-abc-news-colorado-shootings_n_1696319.html?utm_hp_ref=media
We don’t really need a witchhunt here. The witch has already been hunted. The killer is in custody. I will wait to see how it all unfolds. I truly hope there is something to be learned from this senseless tragedy.
My thoughts first and foremost are with the victims and their families. I cannot imagine the agony the mother of the 6-y.o. girl is going through. I’m hearing she may be a quadroplegic for the rest of her life on top of the violent death of her child. There are no words to describe the horror and sadness I feel for her.
darwinsmom,
ABC news stands by their report, as huffington reports at the end of the link you posted.
If ABC news had contacted me 20 years ago and said, “Are you the wife of Spath Spathiness?” I would have said, “Yes, what is this call about?”
When they said, “There has been a shooting in Spathville and the shooter’s name is Spath Spathiness.”
I would have said, “You have the wrong Spath. My husband, Spath, would never do a thing like that.”
There is no way, I would have answered “I can’t comment because I do not know if the person you are talking about is my husband, and I would need to find out.”
Maybe that’s just my narcissism but the idea that someone I love is capable of murder used to be beyond my imagination. I wouldn’t even ask the question. I would simply defend them until my last dying breath.
Almost did.
Sky,
The update was posted after I posted the link, but will quote it here
“UPDATE: ABC News stood by its account of the conversation. It said that producer Matthew Mosk had called Arlene Holmes, and that she had only said “you have the right person” after Mosk had informed her that her son was identified by police as the lone suspect in the Colorado massacre. The network also said that Holmes’ lawyer had asked before holding her press conference if there was a recording of the conversation. ABC News responded that there was no recording.”
ABC’s response does not negate the mother’s own explanation of her words. It only pertains to me an acknowledgement on identity, not a foreboding or pre-knowledge of her son’s disastrous actions.
And if I were called by the press around 5am in the morning while still deep in my sleep, I’m sure I might say ambiguous answers to ambiguous questions. And while ABC stands by their quote, I note they do not exactly quote the question she answered either. Now this is exactly the time to quote the question to remove any ambiguity. That they do not quote the question itself suggests that the ambiguity probably would only be confirmed and would verify the mother’s explanation of the quote.
In any case, I see no reason why the mother would first say she expected her son to do this which is contradicted in the same article by ABC by saying the whole of the family was in shock and had not seen it coming towards the end and then the next day by the mother herself of ever having implied that, unless her identification answer was misinterpreted.
Star,
You and I are friends. You know that I like you and am not trying to make you feel bad, but you also know that I don’t mince words. I’m pretty direct. So I have to ask you this:
I’m totally perplexed by this desire to “not judge” a mass murderer as a psychopath.
I do understand that there are many reasons why someone could end up killing large groups of people and plotting to kill more with bombs in his apartment. For example in a war. Or if they were convinced that others were trying to kill them. Also he could have been the victim of a mind control experiment –other spaths could have slimed him, or planted a seed in his mind.
What I don’t understand is how you judge the man who cheated on his wife and played head games with you and lied to the army, as a spath — but you don’t want to be too hasty judging a mass murderer.
I remember our discussion on LF about Phillip Glass, the liar who wrote fake stories for his newspaper. I ventured that maybe he wasn’t a spath, but maybe he just felt so insecure that he lied so that people would admire him. He didn’t kill anyone and he didn’t steal any money directly. He was simply a compulsive liar.
Everyone on LF came down on me like a ton of bricks for saying that a liar wasn’t necessarily a spath.
What I’ve seen consistently, here on LF, is that liars and cheaters are labeled spaths without question. But murderer’s like this guy and also the story about the old man who murdered his wife, for some reason, makes LF people stand back and say, “let’s not be too hasty” maybe he’s crazy.
I think the reason is, that we assume there is something about a crime of passion which makes it seem more “human” compared to a calculated liar/cheater, who obviously has no empathy.
Remember that this guy planned his murders over a period of 2 months or more. It wasn’t a crime of passion. He felt entitled to take other peoples’ lives because his own life was uncomfortable for him. Seems like a big red flag to me.
If your issue is that we keep pointing to people and calling out spath, well, that’s what the topic is about on this blog, so I’m not sure why you are calling it a witch hunt.
Jul 23, 2012 11:14am
James Holmes Gave No Indication of Violent Delusions
Colorado massacre suspect James Holmes gave no outward signs of mental illness or violent delusions, and mental experts said that is common among mass murderers.
Before Friday’s massacre, Holmes had no previous brushes with the law beyond a single traffic violation. Dr. Marisa Randazzo, a psychologist who studies targeted violence, told ABC’s “Good Morning America” that, surprisingly, a clean criminal record is not uncommon for people who commit acts of mass violence.
“In most of these cases, these are not what you would call a psychopath or a sociopath, as hard as it may be to believe,” Randazzo said. “These are often folks who often up onto this point have been functioning fairly normally but went through a series of events, a series of losses, ended up in absolute despair or desperation.”
Other psychologists told ABC News it’s likely that Holmes was living in an alternate reality driven by delusions, which may have fueled him as he bought weapons, 6,000 rounds of ammunition and riot gear in the months before Friday’s attack.
More details will likely come as investigators delve into Holmes’ recent past. But by most estimations so far, nothing about his early life was out of the ordinary. He grew up in San Diego, was a bright student interested in science and enrolled in a neurosciences doctorate program at the University of Colorado at Denver in 2011 before withdrawing in June.
No one who knew him has said he displayed any signs of abnormality. Randazzo told GMA that doesn’t mean he isn’t suffering from mental illness.
“One thing we do know about this age group, he’s 24, is that sometimes major mental illnesses, sometimes involving delusions, will develop in this age group,” she said.
Upon his arrest shortly after the shootings on Friday morning, Holmes allegedly told police that “he was the Joker,” a law enforcement official told ABC News, and he had dyed his hair red.
ABC News reported Sunday on “This Week” that police also found a Batman poster and Batman mask in Holmes’ apartment.
Skylar,
As I stated in this article, from what is known at this point, James Holmes does not fit the profile of a psychopath. Yes, his actions were cold, calculated and premeditated. But not everyone who kills is a psychopath.
The only way he would be considered a psychopath is if he had a late onset of the disorder, which is possible. Some people do get it in their 20s. However, one would have to know more about his recent behavior in order to determine that he has the syndrome.
One or two traits do not make a psychopath. It is a group of 15-20 related traits and behaviors.
Given how close Stargazer is to this situation, I’d say a bit more understanding is in order.
Sky,
I’m sure not everyone who lies is not necessarily a spath. But at the same time ever since that discussion about Phillip Glass I’ve been hanging out at the Compulsive Liar help forum about once a week reading up on personal stories… most cases brought up sound like spaths to me most of the time: lying about everyting, blaming, manipulating, cheating and financial messes or cons, lovebombing, sometimes drugs, etc. Anyhow I’m the first to admit I don’t really understand how a compulsive liar is different from a spath. Professionals claim it’s out of guilt and fear, but it’s quite possible that spaths would make up those excuses when cornered into therapy by a partner threatening to leave unless they go to therapy, and often the partners seem to stress for couple counseling (and we know abusive issues have a high risk of getting downplayed by the couple counselor). Very personally, I have strong suspicions that a compulsive liar is often a misdiagnozed spath.
The lying is often so apparent with spaths and seems so senseless if you don’t know a spath’s brain that it’s one of the first clues victims try to pinpoint as the real problem or cause of the relationship issues. Meanwhile those partners who fully stand by a CL being only CL and say their manipulative behaviour of guilt-tripping only SEEMS manipulative (duh?) but isn’t meant that way at least also say that a CL will always be a CL and will never stop lying. Again sounds very very spathy to me, and the whole difference between a CL and a pathological liar with a personality disorder leaves me scratching my head.
So what is the difference between compulsive liars and mass murderers. We know that all spaths lie, but not all spaths murder. Mass murder of strangers aren’t passion crimes to me, but there are mental disorders that aren’t personality disorder that can lead to mass murder.
I think it’s safe to say though that a mass murderer has some disorder or mental problem at least, including a mental problem that may have developed in a short time before the crime and was not noticed by other people, because the mass murderer hid the symptoms.
I guess it doesn’t bother me to label people spaths because I have compassion for spaths. It’s not forgiveness, it’s compassion. It’s a feeling that God gave them this burden they struggle with, this lack of feeling attached to the human race and they are handling it by lashing out at all those who embody the opposite.
When I say spath, that’s what I mean. It’s not a witch hunt.
Yes, I am frustrated by all the spaths in my life who want to kill me. Some I hate, some I don’t. I still have enough cog/dis in my mind that I don’t actually hate my spath most of the time.
I know some people disagree with me about shame being the same as bypassed narcissism, but that is why I feel compassion for spaths.
In this case, this young man was shy (an indicator of shame), he was a high achiever who was beginning to fail (shame again). His family members are high achievers too. (fear of not belonging/abandonment). So he lashes out at the community.
Trying to figure out whether he fits a label is not the same as lacking compassion for him. I’ve not been one who says he deserves the death penalty or that he is a monster or anything negative about him at all. Just saying I think he’s a narcissist who went off the deep end of the continuum when things got tough.
When I was 14 I had to face for the first time, that school was hard. It had been a walk in the park before that. I’d never been challenged academically. I took an advanced algebra class taught in the most absurd manner by a man I detested. (turns out that he recently was accused of child rape, so I’m kinda vindicated, but anyway…) My reaction to not being able to handle the class was similar to this young man, though not as extreme, obviously. I rejected school completely. Didn’t do homework, Failed all my classes on purpose, left the private school system a year later and even stopped attending school for a couple of months. My life changed completely.
Learning to handle failure should be taught early on. It’s hard to learn it when you get older. I’m glad I learned it.
Never mind.