Monday, August 11, 2014

PBS Nova - Mind of a Rampage Killer

This is an excellent documentary focused on some of the rampage killers (almost all teenagers) over the last decade or so. PBS assembles quite a group of psychologists and neuroscientists to help us understand (as best we can at this point) why and how they young men become killers.

Mind of a Rampage Killer

Can science help us understand why some people commit horrific acts of mass murder?

Aired February 20, 2013 on PBS


Program Description


What makes a person walk into a theater or a church or a classroom full of students and open fire? What combination of circumstances compels a human being to commit the most inhuman of crimes? Can science in any way help us understand these horrific events and provide any clues as to how to prevent them in the future? As the nation tries to understand the tragic events at Newtown, NOVA correspondent Miles O’Brien separates fact from fiction, investigating new theories that the most destructive rampage killers are driven most of all, not by the urge to kill, but the wish to die. Could suicide–and the desire to go out in a media-fueled blaze of glory–be the main motivation? How much can science tell us about the violent brain?  Most importantly, can we recognize dangerous minds in time—and stop the next Newtown?



Transcript (scroll down)


Participants

  • Paul Appelbaum, Columbia University
  • Joshua W. Buckholtz, Harvard University
  • Cynthia Ebsen, Mendota Mental Health Institute
  • Paul Frick, University of New Orleans
  • John Keilp, Columbia University
  • Liza Long, Mother of "Michael"
  • Karlen Lyons-Ruth, Harvard Medical School
  • Michael Meaney, McGill University
  • Katherine Newman, Johns Hopkins University
  • Miles O'Brien, NOVA Correspondent
  • Steven Pinker, Harvard University
  • Andrew Solomon, Author, Far from the Tree
  • Moshe Szyf, McGill University
  • Martin Teicher, Harvard Medical School
  • Gregory Van Rybroek, Mendota Mental Health Institute
  • Jeff Williams, Andy Williams' Father

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