It's an easier pill to swallow, perhaps? After all, the idea that someone who is "
normal" could do something so evil, means that anyone... your neighbor, mine, anyone... could do this. I also think that is why people think they can detect evil on the face of (wo)man. Or, mental illness, for that matter. Helps them to sleep better at night. Whatever way we lean, whether we think the guy is mentally ill, just plain evil, or somewhere in between, people still want to know why.
We want the "
tells."
It's our nature, after all. It's how we managed to make it to the top of the food chain. That is, being able to detect and deter danger. We're really good pattern matching machines. And what that means is that we can, for the most part, go about our daily lives without having to attend to tons of distractions. Distractions that have been unconsciously filed away as "
non-threatening." For example, the train whistle that no longer wakes us at night after having lived in a place for awhile. So, when something deviates, we are immediately alerted and can respond appropriately. Get out of harms way... or defend, if necessary.
When tragedies like these occur, however, they shake our world. Make it feel less safe. So, we look for tells. For a way to return to equilibrium. And sure, in hindsight, we may think we see them... you know, the warning signs? But in reality, most of the so-called tells are still nothing more than empty speculation that is not backed up by science. Even so, we demand "
signs." Explanations. When there rarely are any. We (
the universal we) have been trying to identify "
evil" for ages. Literally. Since the days of Aristotle, in fact. (
link )
As for mental illness speculations wrt this case. Here is what one forensic psychologist has to say. (
link )
Our field is positioned to help the public separate the wheat from the chaff. We can discuss the complex admixture of entitlement, alienation and despair that contributes to these catastrophic explosions.
[...]
But we should also recognize the limitations of our disciplines micro focus on the individual, and encourage the public to grapple with the larger issues raised by this cultural affliction of the late-20th and early 21st century. As I commented last year in regard to the media coverage of the Jared Loughner shooting rampage in Arizona, journalists need to train a macro lens on the cultural forces that lead disaffected middle-class men -- like canaries in a coal mine -- to periodically self-implode with rage. Disciplines such as sociology, anthropology and cultural studies have much to contribute to this much-needed analysis.
