It’s called psychopathy. And depression. The author of this article has a very well-researched book about the Columbine shootings, and it makes the most sense out of anything I’ve read about Columbine. Eric was a psychopath. Regardless of the what drugs he took, how involved (or uninvolved) his parents were, or what punishments were doled out, Eric as murderer was probably an eventuality. He was able to use Dylan’s depression and utter rage to create the perfect partner in crime. His parents do seem rather clueless but his parents could not have changed the fact that their son was likely a psychopath. Psychopathy cannot be treated. The Klebolds on the other hand...
The problem with psychopaths is that they lack a conscience. Healthy moral decision making requires a rational component and a visceral emotional component. Despite the claims that we should make decisions rationally rather than emotionally, if you remove the emotional component, which is what creates a person's conscience, you get decisions that would be amoral or immoral to a person with a properly functioning conscience. This is also why emotional distancing is important in convincing normal people to go along with atrocities like genocide.
This isn't something that's a matter of choice for a psychopath any more than autism is a matter of choice. Their brain lacks a conscience to keep them on moral rails and rational thought doesn't provide a replacement. It doesn't seem to predictably be a result of obviously bad parenting or schooling or influences, though head trauma and early experiences may play a role in it. And it can appear in children as young as 9 or even 6.
There is a ton of information out there on psychopaths so why don't we hear more about in the mainstream media? I think the answer can be found in the article in the second link, above:
"There's still a lot of opposition -- some criminologists, sociologists, and psychologists don't like psychopathy at all," Hare says. "I can spend the entire day going through the literature -- it's overwhelming, and unless you're semi-brain-dead you're stunned by it -- but a lot of people come out of there and say, 'So what? Psychopathy is a mythological construct.' They have political and social agendas: 'People are inherently good,' they say. 'Just give them a hug, a puppy dog, and a musical instrument and they're all going to be okay.' "
If Hare sounds a little bitter, it's because a decade ago, Correctional Service of Canada asked him to design a treatment program for psychopaths, but just after he submitted the plan in 1992, there were personnel changes at the top of CSC. The new team had a different agenda, which Hare summarizes as, "We don't believe in the badness of people." His plan sank without a trace.
I wanted to add that part of the problem is also that nobody wants to hear that we don’t know why people become psychopaths and they don’t want to hear that we can’t cure it or fix psychopaths. It makes people feel helpless. People have a lot of trouble accepting that some things just can’t be predicted or avoided and that bad things can happen without anyone actually being negligent or wrong.
Had Klebold not fallen under the influence of a psychopath who manipulated him into going along with the killing spree, I doubt he would have ever become a killer. Humans look to other humans for moral confirmation and that's why a bad person can be a bad influence on otherwise good people and why otherwise decent people can go along with things like lynchings and genocide when other people lead them into it.
Having read quite a bit about psychopaths, I've come to believe that many of the elements of traditional society that we discarded during the 60s existed to thwart psychopaths and protect nice people from them. Things like courting, chaperones, dress codes, and so on are all things that impatient and self-centered psychopaths would have problems doing well. No psychopath is going to meet the father, go on a date with a chaperone, and get little more than a kiss out of it for date after date but sex on a first date and one night stands are right up their alley.
Thanks....your post explains a lot!