Citation

Murray JL. Deviant Behav. 2015; 36(7): 581-588.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/01639625.2014.951570

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This article examines the role that suicidal-homicidal ideation plays in influencing mass killers and draws on the author's concept of transcendent fantasy theory. Although numerous researchers touch on the fact that 50% of mass killers commit suicide, few have traced and compared the suicidal person's fantasy process with that of the suicidal-homicidal killer's fantasy process. Suicidal individuals tend to be intropunitive. They internalize the blame for real or imagined failures, and they seek to escape from such failures, or to inflict punishment on him- or herself for the same reasons. Mass killers externalize the blame for their real or imagined losses. Due to their mordant bitterness toward self and others, these suicidal-homicidal individuals often fantasize not only about escaping, but transcending their feelings of inadequacy, self-doubt, and worthlessness by having society see them as powerful, clever, and superior for pulling off a massacre and making (in their view) oppressive people pay. © , Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Language: en