EXCLUSIVE: Fear of being committed may have caused Connecticut gunman to snap

Foxnews ^ | 12/18/12 | Jana Winter

[TChad]

Neither do doctors and judges I guess.

If they are acting in their professional capacities, legal constraints and the crude realities of the family court system may prevent them from doing what they would personally prefer to do.

Friends and family are often more useful than the professionals. It helps for an adult without a financial motive to say to the kid, "I see exactly what you are going through. That sucks. Let's change that."

(Of course I do not know if that would have worked in Adam Lanza's specific case.)

[publius911]

That is the most inane psychobabble crap I have read in a long time. And I am very careful to parcel out measured use of that word.

Perhaps you should review the definition of insanity.

It is quite similar to the definition of cognitive dissonance.

[TChad]

That is the most inane psychobabble crap I have read in a long time.

Well, I hope you at least got a laugh out of it, as I did from your post. Of course all this is just speculation.

Perhaps you should review the definition of insanity.

I have no problem with the notion that Adam Lanza may have been clinically insane and completely unreachable. But I don't know, and insanity should be a last-resort diagnosis. It would not necessarily be a sign of insanity for Lanza to have reacted strongly to the threat of being committed.

[Does so]

It was an eye-opener...

≡≡8-O

[TigersEye]

That’s probably pretty much it in a nutshell. The one thing you left out was that he had some serious mental/emotional issues to begin with.

[TigersEye]

It would not necessarily be a sign of insanity for Lanza to have reacted strongly to the threat of being committed.

If by 'reacted strongly' you mean what he actually did I'll have to disagree with that. His acts were pretty much the definition of a psychotic break which is certainly a form of insanity.

[TChad]

The one thing you left out was that he had some serious mental/emotional issues to begin with.

Sure. And even if my guesses in post #7 are correct, most kids could have handled the stress.

[TChad]

His acts were pretty much the definition of a psychotic break

And if he had not been threatened with commitment, would he have had that psychotic break?

[TigersEye]

What difference does that make?

[TigersEye]

You know you already answered your own question in post #27.

[palmer]

Adam Lanza, 20, targeted Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown after killing his mother early Friday because he believed she loved the school “more than she loved him,” said Joshua Flashman, 25, who grew up not far from where the shooting took place

Did the mother work at the school? I've heard conflicting stories.

[palmer]

Where was the boy’s father?

I have not heard anything about him other than he had no contact except writing $25k / month checks. Not that there's anything wrong with $25k / month but money can't buy happiness.