I also completely agree with what you've written here. From what we've learned about BK thus far it's slightly heartbreaking that this is a young man who tried so hard to get a grip and self-manage and control all his set backs. And he did so to great effect.
I think the tragedy is for people like BK that their emotional lack or differences in life can result in profound isolation and this is a huge set back for any living being. If he, like Elliot Rodger, became completely self-focused, bitter, resentful and started having vengeance fantasies at the same time his 'real' life was becoming untenable and all that he had tried to change and work for wasn't paying off, I can see this would be the perfect storm.
Of course it's all unforgivable and he must be served justice. It's just sad to see how some people's lives turn out and one wonders at what point they could have been reached or helped.
Your last sentence is pretty much the entire reason that I am interested in crime.
In the case of Kohberger, we have TapATalk messages where he says he's seen a specialist. Apparently a neurologist (but he's experiencing acute anxiety and depression and does not receive meaningful treatment for that).
And then, apparently, he goes to "rehab." After the heroin stint. And someone in his family said something about an eating disorder as well. This is in MSM, but the sources are a bit garbled. He was certainly socially isolated, per nearly every article about him in which reporters talked to classmates or "unnamed" family members.
Whether or not persons with these neuropsychiatric symptoms are more likely to be criminals, they are certainly facing challenges that others do not face, and IME, this leads to many negative outcomes.
The resistance of some people to receiving care for psychiatric symptoms is enormous and must be countered by those of us who know that (as in this case) certain brain conditions are beyond the control of the individual, and the sufferers can truly benefit from benign psychiatric intervention. By benign, I mean approaches that are medical and can be modified to suit most sufferers. I can't imagine living in a world of derealization or depersonalization, with or without the physical symptom of visual snow. Those are two very painful symptoms. Mental pain is real.
Kohberger may have been taught and believed that "will power" alone can change negative mental states. I wish that were true, but it's not. This worked for Kohberger until he found himself in a new setting, and in a very challenging real world situation. I think he ran up against his absolute mental limits and went berserk. A person with this ideation and this degree of animosity toward other people.
Four young people dead because of one person's inability to cope. He knew he had homicidal ideation - I wonder who else might have known, if anyone. If he had a therapist (which I doubt) he would have been teleconferencing with that person (and then decided not to mention that situation to the Judge when asked). I keep feeling a bit of shock that someone whose expressed the ideas that BK did in the TapATalk messages would not have been under longterm neurological and psychiatric care, given that his diagnosis warranted exactly that.
IMO. I know that no one can make another person seek help and it's ultimately all on him. I'm just thinking about the various ways that some of us (teachers in particular) can be more aware and helpful in situations like this one.
I'm not a psychologist/behavioralist/expert, nada.
Perfect storms like this are happening everyday all around the world. For most of us it's a good cry and too much ice cream. We know some self harm. Others may act out in violent ways. But a quadruple murder?
And many have it way worse than BK. He grew up in a middle class home, supported, access to school and services and health, he had it relatively good.
I'd imagine that you'd have to be a sociopath (is it a gradient?) to even be triggered to get to this point. The posts about VSS support that. He clearly says he has no feelings for anyone including his close family members.
I can't even look at a fly that's lost it's wing because it breaks my heart, have never lifted my hand to anyone my entire life, and most certainly have never described humans like BK did in those posts. And I've been down.
BK's behavior seems like it's extremely rare.
MOO
It is the only case of its kind that I can think of, although clearly this case is up there with many other inexplicable cases. The OJ case was not inexplicable. BTK is pretty much...inexplicable. Ted Bundy is another one where people have had near identical upbringings and not become serial killers.
There's so much we don't know about killers. There's also the Happy Face Killer (Jesperson) for whom it was purely opportunity - he started with rape, rapidly proceeded to murder, and when no one suspected him and he worked out a way of being nearly un-catchable, he just kept doing it. I believe that Jesperson is likely one of those with issues in the moral/decision-making part of his brain.
With Kohberger, it's still a mystery. I have this "he imploded" theory based on what I know of his life history - it's a very thin theory.
Why do we not all "implode"? I mean, I have gotten mad enough to stomp around the house muttering. Most men have clenched their fists and at least thought about punching someone, once or twice (even if they have to reach through a TV screen).
But what makes someone murder four young people, strangers or near strangers?
Mass murders of strangers are exceedingly rare and usually ideologically motivated, according to the research done using the US mass murderer database. A few are sexually motivated (like Speck's murder of the nurses, but that was likely also ideological).
Mass murders are usually either family annihilation OR attached to some bizarre political ideology (the Vegas shootings, many others). Some of the mass murderers are young (school shooters, etc). These murders have something of the "school shooter" to them - but with a knife. That's the only set into which I can (kind of) push Kohberger. And he's not that young, although his mental age is likely younger than 28, due to few enduring adult relationships outside his family.
This is all my opinion and speculation. One thing we do know about those whose brains don't process ethics/morality very well is that they need hard limits. They need to be told what's wrong and, well, punished for it. They DO care about themselves and their own comfort, and sometimes, they care about their immediate families as well - even if they are willing to hurt them in a terrible fashion, as Kohberger has done. When I think about him standing silent, even though I understand the legal reasons, I can't imagine what it would be like to be his parent in that moment.
IMO.
