“A lot of people are very emotionally (or religiously) resistant to the idea that something like genes or a medical condition can determine your behavior.”
I read today (NY Post article, I believe) where, in addition to the autism/Asperger’s problem, Adam Lanza had some kind of physical condition which prevented him from feeling pain (at least some types of pain).
I also recall that in high school, they kept an eye on him in the tech club because they were afraid he might burn himself with a soldering iron (and not be able to feel it). I also recall reading where his mother had problems with his trying to burn himself with a cigarette lighter (perhaps in a quest to find out “what a burn felt like”?).
It’s almost as if his nervous system wasn’t “internally wired” properly to the brain...
Which came first chemical imbalance or unbalanced thought processes? I would guess either or, as one would lead to the other and vice versa. The way one thinks affects the physical as much as the physical affects the way one thinks. And out of all this comes behavior. Then there are the outside factors and all together this creates either mental health or mental illness.
The pain condition alone doesn’t make someone evil or mental, tho. A few weeks ago there was an article on FR about a girl with that condition and she seemed overall like a nice, happy person who just had to be a bit more careful in her daily life.