One of my trades is that of mental health professional. Former, but I still have my license, and my interest, and I've seen a LOT. So I can't help but venture into armchair psychoanalysis. Forgive me. I've sat here for a long time bored, going though the plays that Cho wrote, and I've listened to some interviews with his classmates and roommates, and reading news articles to catch up on all that... What I keep seeing is "Oh, he wrote disturbing stuff. People getting killed. Weapons. Threats under what he wrote. Twisted violent stuff..." And I have to groan. There's thousands of screenwriters, playwrights, novelists, ect., who produce some very graphic and violent work. 300. The Grudge. Saw. Saw II. Stephen King. Anne Rice. Mel Gibson. Castlevania. Doom. Ad infinitum. And there's some artists out there that paint pictures of people
dead, dying, and bleeding. Like me. Don't you think that if everyone that produced graphic, violent art was crazy and in danger of being a 'shooter' that we'd not have NOTICED it by now? No, the media has this one wrong. While it is true that I've seen alot of really disturbing letters, plays, poems, ect....it is rarely the violence that is expressed that is the problem. It is the disorganization. I can't think of a single mental patient that would have ever got an A on a paper we put in a chart - put it that way. One very common thing you see is writing all over the page, into the margins, between lines, just totally disjointed mess. Sometimes writing over other writing. It is a sign of a disorganized mind. Sometimes you will see very real, detailed fantasies. Usually against someone in the person's past, or someone that they know in reality. But these people are dysfunctional. They are hospitalized, or incarcerated. This shooter was not dysfunctional with his living skills. He was clean they say, neat. He was living in a dorm and going to college, and he knew how to buy a gun. No, two. He could type, and use the computer just fine. He could navigate online. He was pretty organized mentally. Where his organization broke down, in his writing, was where the focus of his violence was. If you read the plays, look for his lack of focus with his anger. All the characters seem mad - not just one. There's no focus, so it all just gets caught and bounces around everywhere. There's no place for it to get out. But again, this is all looking at it hindsight. Surely thousands of people write violent material everyday. Art is a FORM of sublimation - it is a HEALTHY release for feelings of all kinds that you can't really deal with otherwise. Studies show that already boys in particular are feeling frustrated in their imaginations and creativity in school - art teachers constantly grapple with what images to allow. But in full disclosure, one of my final projects was a guy tied to a tree disemboweled with ghost faces in the trees bearing witness. Glad no one thought I might turn into a school shooter, and glad no one sent me to the school shrink over that! I'm not sure if I want an English teacher (any more than a memestreams writer, lol) calling the police to me because of my particular art! If that had happened, wow, I'd have been MAD. It reminds me, somehow, of a faint ring of calls that all children should have mental health screenings. I hope that no one goes off on that tangent; that writers and artists in certain genres should be suspect, but they already are. There's probably a hundred articles up implying that should happen in some form in the general media already. They are all looking for some clue they, the authorities, the experts, can spot to prevent it. Right. Like anyone can prevent random violence in a person that good at keeping their plans quiet, and yet having the organization to see their plans to fruition. I read the plays - his anger was so disjointed, so inappropriate - bouncing around from character to character so that it didn't really make sense and the violence had no place to get out. It seemed disjointed, and inappropriate, even for graphic violence, and especially for a college senior. What an incredible reflection. But I do hope the witchhunt stops soon. Art is considered the best coping mechanism of all - sublimation - and I'd hate to see it taken away from people that happen to go to a school. See
Wiki-sublimation for quick informal reference. __________________ His writing dripped with anger....GROAN | 
