Citation

Block JJ. Am. J. Forensic Psychiatr. 2007; 28(2): 5-33.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2007, American College of Forensic Psychiatry, Publisher R. Shlensky)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The 1999 attack on Columbine High School by two of its students resulted in 15 dead and 24 wounded. The death toll might easily have been over forty times higher. An attempt is made to understand the motivations of the two shooters and to explain the critical events that changed them into mass murders. The history leading up to the attack is reviewed. A theory is proposed wherein virtual reality, as experienced in computer games, can act protectively in allowing the non-violent processing of rage and sexual impulses. However, when implementing time or content restrictions, caution is warranted. If such constraints are too blunt, too dismissive, or too contemptuous, one might provoke a potentially dangerous crisis. Copyright 2007 American Journal of Forensic Psychiatry.

Language: en

Keywords

adolescent disease; bullying; computer game; fluvoxamine; fluvoxamine maleate; game; high school; hostility; human; mental disease; motivation; psychoanalytic theory; rage; review; serotonin uptake inhibitor; sertraline; sexual behavior; suicide; technology; terrorism; United States; virtual reality