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Halifax journos need to stop using Simon Sherry as their sole mental health expert. I have major issues with this article. “The making of Nova Scotia’s mass killer” / THREAD https://www.thechronicleherald.ca/news/local/the-making-of-nova-scotias-mass-killer-533404/
2) Psychologists are trained to see every social problem as an individual pathology. This makes them useless when we actually want to understand how mass killers are ‘made’. Experts on this kind of violence identify SOCIAL structures and cultures as key factors in mass killing
3) Psychopathy is not in the DSM. We need to stop using this label as a crutch for understanding violence. Psychopathy refers to a wide range of emotional and behavioural pathologies. It is not a diagnostic label for ‘evil’. It is not a legit diagnosis at all.
A glaring omission from the article was an explanation for WHY some folks with trauma histories become violent (and others do not). A major factor is an overwhelming feeling of shame / humiliation in relation to the perpetrator’s experience of masculinity.
Widespread cultural acceptance of white men’s antisocial behavior. That is a major cause. White, rural and Christian communities that ignore child abuse and men’s violence (cuz it’s a private matter) coupled with something that makes a man feel ashamed (rape, unemployment, etc)
I have worked with killers for many years. Usually those who killed partners or family members. They always speak of the communities they were raised in and how they endorsed or enabled their wealth childhood trauma in the home.
Here is my response to HOW a killer was raised and created in our province: 1) we do not have a SINGLE community-based organization that focuses on healing men who are victims of sexual and physical violence. NOT ONE.
2) when we saY defund police, we mean FUNDING community-based healing centers and family social work that supports WHOLE FAMILIES to stop cycles of violence. Right now, we just seize kids and ignore parental need for healing. Ppl are afraid to ask for help. They fear arrest & CPS
When men are victimized in ways that wound their masculinity, they often compensate through the use of violent or militarized means (gun collecting, fighting, aspiring to be cops or soldiers cuz that is what we worship).
The Maritimes made this killer, too. The way we cheered up the province after his rampage? Military air show. Extravagant funeral for RCMP. Not a single victim got an extravagant public funeral. NS culture ignores trauma & worships men with guns.
Instead of pathologizing ‘personality traits’ in a pipe dream to try and predict violence, how about we invest in rural men’s mental health and stop ignoring that guy in our community who waves guns around and bullies others as if it is none of our business?
And PS: Simon Sherry and @chronicleherald — domestic violence researchers DO have the data to predict homicidal behavior. Choking, access to weapons, depressive behavior— he met ALL the risk factors for intimate partner homicide. We could have told you he’d try to kill his gf
This horrible tragedy was the unfortunate convergence of a (predictable) familicidal killer with significant antisocial patterns (which allowed for domestic violence to become a mass shooting). No one who knew the shooter was surprised that he was capable of violence.
It’s so important that we ask how killers are made... But we need to be honest. We need to stop trying to find genetic causes and look in the mirror. What services can we collectively fund that would’ve healed him before he chose to respond to his pain through terrible violence?
As a final point: family & partner killing emerged through and with Settler Colonialism and Industrialization. The emergence of late capitalism and the nuclear family (and associated gender roles) coincided with this kind of killing. Settler capitalism is harmful to all of us.
Preventing violence is gonna force us all to ask uncomfortable questions and work against norms that are deeply ingrained in all of us. Until we address the socio-cultural piece, we will not be able to stop this violence. We can start in our own families and neighborhoods.
