tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post2157359598635271215..comments2024-03-26T06:17:49.527-07:00Comments on Had Enough Therapy?: Who Failed Adam Lanza?Stuart Schneidermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12784043736879991769noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-27056761190850235562015-01-20T23:10:54.714-08:002015-01-20T23:10:54.714-08:00Your analysis of the evidence is fine, but the evi...Your analysis of the evidence is fine, but the evidence itself is very, very flawed.<br /><br />Let me show you why.<br />https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PJNq8yP_64Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-22509077124603423932014-11-23T02:26:26.752-08:002014-11-23T02:26:26.752-08:00I hadn't thought about anorexia nervosa, assum...I hadn't thought about anorexia nervosa, assumed that was a girl's disease, and concern for appearances or control over one's body. <br /><br />I imagined Adam's case was self-neglect, hours on the computer and video games, but here it sayshe was also addicted to some sort of dance (video?) game.<br /><br />Part of me would prefer to limit second-guessing of his support. Or at least I imagine if you imagined a path of forced treatment, only justified after the fact, knowing what eventually happened, you'd end up with either identifying millions of other children with behavioral problems who will never participate in such shootings, and perhaps that's good, except for the fact that each of these millions will have their own special conditions and ideal treatment, so either you have to accept a need to spend hundreds of billions of dollars training more therapists and 24-hour life coaches to help these kids, OR assume a large fraction of them are dangerous and keep them confined in mental hospitals for the rest of their lives.<br /><br />Its just hard to see what middle approach exists. My own approach of course would be to keep guns away from people who express feelings of rage, but who gets to decide? The smallest step would assume 99% of of gun wielding maniacs do NOT result in deaths, so if you're willing to allow the 1%, then you could say anyone threatening another person with a gun, whether fired or not, can be brought under the law, and be judged unstable, and barred from owning a gun. <br /><br />But again, Adam is the 1% this won't work. He's like the suicide bombers, a rebel with a cause who's willing to die.<br /><br />So if we can't get rid of the guns, then we just have to accept there's going to be maniacs out there who will kill others, and themselves, and that's unavoidable.<br /><br />But a last question for me is how society should face mass murders. It seems possible and reasonable to categorically REFUSE publicizing ANYTHING about such killers. <br /><br />I mean maybe like the way Israel dealt with the suicide bombers in years past, you pretend it was a natural disaster, people died, and you can morn the victims, and ignore the killer completely.<br /><br />At least sucidal killers, it seems easier to ignore them, but harder if the killer lives, but even the court hearings perhaps could keep the killer's motives or narrative private, doing whatever it takes to dispossess the illusion that there can be any justification for mass murder.<br /><br />I know, we all want to know why, and professionals need some second-guessing, and somewhere there is a middle ground, where you can catch 10% of the killers before they act, at the cost of liberty for 90% of those who feel rage but never express it in mass murder, or whatever proper hypothetical ratio we select.<br /><br />It certainly is a lot of responsibility, and whatever authorities do, it will be judged wrong by someone.Ares Olympushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09726811306826601686noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-31530117067888823692014-11-22T23:48:24.865-08:002014-11-22T23:48:24.865-08:00Laurie Dann. N.IL. in the 80s.
Psychotic, tried t...Laurie Dann. N.IL. in the 80s.<br /><br />Psychotic, tried to kill her husband. an acknowledged threat to the community.<br /><br />Her wealthy influential dad thwarted every attempt to deal with the danger.<br /><br />Laurie shot several schoolchildren, then herself.<br /><br />Dad lived on, unrepentant. -- Rich LaraAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-47224768654510451682014-11-22T09:37:27.541-08:002014-11-22T09:37:27.541-08:00I wonder how much of this sad storyline was fueled...I wonder how much of this sad storyline was fueled by the threat of a lawsuits? Or, at very least, a fear of one. Between our litigious culture and all the mental health activists, we live in a paralyzed society, subject to the "Rule of Nobody" -- a vast bureaucracy and catalog of laws that protect no one and enable the worst and most clever among us (see Jonathan Gruber, et al).<br /><br />What we have is a citizenry hamstrung, unable to respond effectively. We can't do what we need to do beacuse we don't have the time, nor expertise, required to go through the maze of legal wranglings, and the lobbying by single-issue activists. We hear "Careful, you might get sued," and we stop in our tracks. As a result, we are left vulnerable to the Adam Lanzas of the world, and powerless in facing down the Nancy Lanzas of the world. We assume "the system" we pay for has our back. It doesn't. It can't. It's a bureaucracy, and bureaucracies are rarely held accountable for failure. Instead, they just grow... more expensive, more unaccountable, more ineffective. And they produce reports, like this one.<br /><br />Lanza's mother bought those guns. We cannot stop delusionsal parents from being sentimental about how "normal" their disturbed children are, or may become. Does anyone seriously believe that the average school counselor would stand up to Nancy Lanza's intransigence? No way. Adam's school performance masked his deep issues, and counselors have a couple hundred other students to manage. I do not say this to diminish the school counselor -- we all face a nameless, faceless "they," and come to the conclusion that resistance is futile. It is easier to do nothing. The alternative is to look at everyone as a psychotic risk, bringing on a different kind of bureaucratic paralysis. <br /><br />We cannot possibly prevent these kinds of atrocities when parents are in denial, enabling their children, plying them with firearms. No "system" can stop that, no school, no mental health professional. The remedies (taking away parental prerogatives, enacting blanket gun control laws, passing more toothless legislation) are worse than the problem, and unfair to citizens who have their $#%& together. Sad as it may seem, this is part of humanity, and bad things happen. I'm sure the families of the Sandy Hook victims are going through another cold, sad holiday season, again asking "Why?" There's no satisfactory answer.<br /><br />Who failed Adam Lanza? His mother. He killed her, too. But the bigger question is what allowed Nancy Lanza to resist efforts to support Adam for so long? I suspect it is the legalistic, bureaucratic system we've enslaved ourselves to. Who's accountable? In today's America, no one.Ignatius Acton Chesterton OCDhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18222603717128565302noreply@blogger.com