Sara Whobrey
Professor McCrady
English 102
24 January, 2023 The Psychopathy Behind the Columbine Killer, Eric Harris
Psychopaths are people who are born unable to feel a strong emotion of humans, empathy. Empathy is the ability to understand and feel for others and their feelings. Lack of empathy is only one trait of a psychopath. According to Crego and Widiger, the trait most attributed to psychopathy are antagonism, manipulativeness, dishonesty, and callousness. (Crego and Widiger 1.) These traits can be seen in many people worldwide, but are also concealed by them. Their veiling of these traits makes it harder for those closest to them to identify these traits. One person with these traits is one of the Columbine killers, Eric Harris.
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Eric was a person driven and engulfed by hate and disgust for the human species. His disdain is one of the main reasons he shot up Columbine. His belief is that people are lower and their behavior towards him by making fun of him creates a built-up hatred in Eric. An example of hatred Eric wrote in his journal says, “I hate the fucking world, too much god damn fuckers in it.” (Langman 1, Harris 26.) Eric blatantly reveals it is not any specific group he hates, but merely the human species as a whole. When he had originally planned his attack he planned to bomb the school, then shoot any stragglers. He never targeted jocks, African-Americans, or people with white hats, but aimed to kill everyone in the school. Eric colorfully expresses his disgust many times throughout his journals, papers, and essays as well as to Dylan Klebold. Eric very descriptively describes his hate in many fashions from the world to humans, when overall he hates everything. In his journal, Eric states, “The human race sucks. Human nature is smothered out by society, job, and work and school. Instincts are deleted by laws. I see people say things that contradict themselves, or people that don’t take any advantage to the gift of human life. They waste their minds on memorizing the stats of every college basketball player or how many words should be in a report when they should be using their brain on more important things.” (Langman 3, Harris 26.)He believed that humans were awful, and did not hold them in high esteem. Since he disregarded them in such a manner he believed himself to be God himself, placing himself above everyone else. Eric’s hatred for the world was clear for all to see alongside his psychopathy, although some believe he was only just beginning to be a
They did commit the same crime, but they had different reasons why. Eric was full of hate. He only actually liked a handful of people. He had a very rough childhood, and didnt have that many friends throughout school.
However, it was a different story when it came to Eric Harris. Eric was the leader of the heist including when Eric, Dylan, and their friend Zach got together and ran “operations”. One other thing about Eric is that he had made it seem as if he was turning his life around after his acts of crime. His parents were fazed by his apologies and this gave Eric the chance to start planning out the attack on Columbine, during this time he was on prescription anti-depressants. The Columbine killers were two psychopath teenagers filled with rage and anger toward the
Unfortunately, this is not Guitars case. He attacks and kills random citizens in which he has no connection to, and duplicates a murder that had happened to a person of black decent. Even if the person being killed is random, the act is thought out and planned. Guitars racism and hate for white people has most likely been fueled since he was young boy. Within the time period, black people were discriminated against and this caused Guitar to hate white people and thinking all of them are terrible.
However, the two shooters seemed to be different in their own ways. They had may differe nt opinions and different motivates towrdas the shooting of Columbine High School. Eric Harris had been dreaming to shoot up the school because he believed in Natural Selection and was angry at the world. Then, Dylan Klebold had gone with the plan to shoot up Columbine since he wanted to kill himself. The plan at the end of the shooting was to kill themselves.
How the murder occurred The beginning starts off a little odd. The case starts when Eric Smith explains to the press he was never raised in a good environment, stating he was bullied for his glasses, ears, short, red hair, etc. In the morning he was already feeling angry, stating that he found out the recreation program he was planning on going to wasn’t open
They had been planning since their freshman year. Both boys had mental illnesses that made them want to kill people, but neither of the boys acted on their instincts until their senior year of highschool. Eric and Dylan went through a series of events that eventually pushed them over an edge and caused them to act on their murderous instincts, which led to them acting out their plan. A sociopath is a person with a personality disorder that manifests itself in extreme antisocial attitudes and behavior and a lack of
The Columbine school shooting was supposed to be a bombing but the bombs did not go off so the shooters started shooting the students and staff instead. Many conspiracy theories surrounding the shooting arose. Harris was seen as a brutal mastermind while Dylan was seen as a depressed hot-headed. Many believe Harris was a psychopath and a great manipulator. Eric Harris was manipulative because he could manipulate Dylan Klebold into helping him blow up Columbine
Eric nonchalantly told his peer that he was simply just shooting people. (Cullen 168) For Eric to respond without any reaction or change of tone demonstrates how Eric was not fazed by the environment he had created. He had created an environment with immense terror and brutality, developing the act of something horrendous to achieve the notoriety he strived for. He intentionally left behind his journal pertaining to the mockery towards society and authorities that they will never know his
It is important to understand that at the time of the Columbine shooting, psychopathy was just beginning to be studied, primarily in adults. While many teenagers may go through a period of rebellion and misbehavior, Eric Harris’s actions were an extremity. Dr. Frank Ochberg describes the big indicators of a psychopath being a lack of empathy, guilt, and remorse (Stenson 3), which is displayed through various accounts of Harris’s life. Although many professionals do not like to diagnose children as psychopaths the large amount of evidence on Eric Harris’s motives, relationships, and activity points highly to a full-fledged
One of the ways he does this is by focusing on the recent murder of Trayvon Martin and the older murder of Emmett Till, two African-American teenagers that were villainized and accused of committing a crime that they did not commit. And talking about how their deaths were not only racially motivated, they were carried out by their white counterparts, and both deaths triggered black liberation movements. Lebron states that “Our racially lopsided incarceration rates have led the scholar Michelle Alexander to dub our period the New Jim Crow” (Lebron, NYTimes). The relentless illegal killing of blacks at the hands of individuals meant to protect them like the recent one that left 18 year old Michael Brown lying dead in the middle of the street for hours off an assumption, goes back to previous murders of other African-Americans (Lebron,
He wrote about feeling like he didn't belong and was trapped in his own mind. His anxiety may have made him feel like there was no other way out of his situation than to engage in violence. Overall, it appears that Klebold's anxiety played a significant role in his involvement in the Columbine shooting. His feelings of isolation, powerlessness, and frustration likely contributed to his decision to participate in such a tragic event. It is a reminder of the devastating consequences that can result from unaddressed mental health issues and the importance of seeking help when struggling with anxiety and other mental health
Journalist and author, Dave Cullen, in his book, Columbine, redefines how his readers understand the Columbine tragedy. His purpose is to illustrate the misconceptions Americans have of the shooting by explaining how these misconceptions came about and became rooted in Americans’ minds, although they were so unbelievably wrong. Cullen creates a blunt tone in order to get straight to the facts to show who Eric really was. Through his use of rhetorical devices in this passage, Cullen unravels that Eric was not a bullied outcast like so many believe, but a psychopath.
Even the prosecuting attorney for his case stated, “I don’t doubt for a second, never have doubted, that had he not been caught, Eric Smith would have killed again,” (When Children Kill By: Diane Kratz Feb 11, 2013 Aside) According to Phil Chalmers, a teen violence and youth culture expert, there are usually specific reasons why teens kill. They include being bullied at school, depression, lack of guidance or discipline and even mental illness are just to name a few. (Inside The Mind Of a Teen Killer; 2009 Nelson, Phil Chalmers). Eric Smith appeared to have many of those
Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold are the two teens that were behind the Columbine shooting. After years of planning April 20, 1999 was the day that Eric and Dylan killed fifteen people including themselves. No one knows why they did it, but some knew that Eric and Dylan were not stable boys. Eric labeled as a psychopath knew how to control his fate, and Dylan labeled with depression did not care about life anymore. Did Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold show signs of their labels, and did they have a chance to move on from it?
Introduction I. Look around this school and think about exactly how many students are here daily. How would you feel if I told you that one out of every twenty five people are sociopaths(Pratt 2006).The fact of the matter is that not everyone who is a sociopath is a serial killer but oddly enough it has been proven that all serial killers are sociopaths. II. I have chosen serial killers that I found intriguing and that I thought not many people would know a lot about.