Cho Seung-Hui's Plays (From his writing class)

AOL ^ | 17 April 2007

[merockstar]

I think your comment about liberals being their own God is very close-minded. Just because they are not right-wing extremists doesn’t mean they are godless. Just as we saw in the shootings, extremity is not a good thing no matter what the subject is.

[BJungNan]

You do not have or have never been around a family that has a family member with a mental health issue. So I can see how you would develop your view. But, what do you do with a family member like that?

Seriously, what do you do? Take them to the hospital and say, here, take him? Force a mental institution to admit him and keep him there against his will? Call the police and have them lock him up?

Actually, the police will more than likely release him as soon as they find out he is mentally ill because they don’t want to deal with them. As long as he has not committed a serious crime.

So I ask again, what would you do if you have a sister, brother, son or daughter that had a mental condition? I ask quite literally and hope you will provide and answer.

[laurabowser]

I am a therapist that works with children and young adults with Asperger’s Syndrom as well as other diagnosis on the Autism Spectrum. It seems that you are very familiar with this as well. When they described this person’s behaviors, I immediately wondered about Aspergers...

[teachmemore]

I have come to believe that there is not an autism epidemic. Rather all those children who somehow got through school without a diagnosis are either just lucky to have found themselves a supportive spouse and workplace or experiencing some degree of failure. For people who haven’t learned to cope or found help, the prognosis is very bad. Life can be a living hell. Included in the failed are the individuals who are being labeled depressed, narcissists, sociopaths, psychopaths. How can you not go crazy when it is hard to understand what is meant or wanted, when you can’t tell what other people know, need to know, or feel, when you take things literally and don’t understand abstract words and concepts, perseverate, have no empathy, misread social situations, like objects more than people, feel constantly put down, become paranoid. I do feel someone trapped with this kind of brain - without a proper diagnosis and treatment early on - is going to explode. Autism is described as “morbid self-absorption”. And don’t be fooled - many are loquacious when they feel like it. I am a big proponent of early diagnosis and treatment of children with learning and social problems for this reason. Not helping them can be dangerous to us all. I think that is the proper diagnosis for Cho. That his parents “keep to themselves” may indicate that one or both are one the spectrum as well but making it, sort of. They may not have thought their son was too quiet because they are. I do not believe they are monsters. We need better assessment tools as quickly as possible.

[pebbles5]

Well you are right just on the news Cho’s grandparents have indicated that he was diagnosed with autism when he came to America in the 1990’s. They indicated he did not talk to his mom or his aunt and he was ‘very cold’ which explains his aloofness.

I taught stage 1 violent SEBD autistic children for 2 years and it was a living nightmare. The abuse those kids used to level on me for just telling them to sit down for their lesson. I was bitten, kicked, hit, chairs thrown at me, head butted, scratched, and all we could do was restrain them. I taught elementary level and it drove me out of the teaching profession as I’ve never experienced kids like that before. I can understand now how Cho became that way if he didn’t receive any social skills training as a child then most autistic children cannot develop on their own as a normal child would through observation and repetition.

Anyway the article about him being autistic was found on the following website http://www.kwtx.com/home/headlines/7101526.html

Also he seems like a typical Christain terrorist as everyone keeps trying to find the muslim link somehow but he’s going on about Jesus on the cross and being crucified and Muslims don’t believe that Jesus died on the cross. They believe that he was taken up to God and God put another man to die on the cross and gave the resemblence of Jesus. This Cho had serious issues and his parents should have helped get him the treatment he needed as he was internalizing everything.

[Types_with_Fist]

"He also expressed disappointment in his own religion

Any mention on which religion that was?

[BurbankKarl]

That would be too controversial if they released that!

[teachmemore]

Thank you for that link. Very sad that no one was working with him. Did his college not know about the diagnosis? This should be the case that teaches us all that we have to diagnos autism much younger and work with them very early on. The characteristic that causes them to be so cruel is LACK OF EMPATHY. This is not something we should ignore.

[teachmemore]

I am very interested in hearing about your experience. For one thing, the school had to have been nuts to give you more than one or two at a time. Did they? My question though is: What is SEBD ? Thanks

[knews_hound]

Nice to see you again Lando.

Cheers,

knewshound

[Lando Lincoln]

Thanks knewshound.......... it means a lot.

[davidhs23]

I just read online of Cho’s sister’s work while interning at the US Embassy in Bangkok, and discovering the plight of Burmese migrant workers on a field trip from there. It aroused in her very deep feelings for their plight, which means that even though her family started off very poor here, they fostered in her great feelings of empathy, and as is the norm of numerous people I have met from S Korea over the years - not all of them, but certainly noticeably some or a good number of them.

Clearly the apple did fall very far from the tree.

Reading, taken together all the bizarre sexual allusion and pun in his play, much of it so transparent that it could have been thought up by a kid in the eighth grade, it has me really wondering, with the highly intense ideation and obssession he expresses in his writing. Is his family Roman Catholic? Not that only priests from there are the only religious staff or educational capable of doling out sexual abuse, and especially to one who from the getgo was as vulnerable to God knows what influence as Cho was. There have been a number of priests in the northern Virginia area implicated in the recent or still current scandal, one who prominently had to give up he cloth for a more secular counselling service, and in which he also started messing around.

Cho’s family worked hard here, very hard, to have it some other way for their son. They, especially his father, may not have had the adequate time to be around, are to be attentive enough to some disturbing signals or influence form outside, but now is not the time to judge the family at all. Especially after the release of the videos, I can not imagine how much they are suffering this week, not to mention for the thirty-two who died at his hand. What I’ve read about them so far bears this out really quite well and convincingly.

[davidhs23]

Reactionary indeed. I just had a little or really a very real epiphany here, as I walked away from my pc then returned to it.

Accuse me of having really stepped off a ledge here or betrayed a little mild ideation of my own if you like, hahaha!, but I see in his Cho’s manner, affect, writing, and especially remindful one or two of his photos, something that is as much post-Abu Ghraib as post-Columbine about what happened at Va Tech now. Expert theory has it that Cho was not suffering a psychotic episode when he set about the killings on April 16th. I can now begin to also understand the level of intimidation he posed each classroom he entered in Norris. If I had the better physical strength than I do for this situation, had I been there, it might not have frozen me in my tracks, and one professor did try to take him on in the hallway and paid for doing so with his life, but I hope I have made one begin to see here a parallel between the intimidating interrogation procedures in our secret prisons and how Cho set about his actual killing.

All the business about Ishmail X, the theory about which I would most likely subscribe if I had to being the one how Moses and the Jews got it all wrong, as according to the Qu’ran, who should have picked up the inheritance at the end of the day, Isaac or Ishmail. That is, unless Ishmail AX is the brother of Emmanuel Ax (pianist and playing partner of Yo Yo Ma - bad joke!) ... The self-hatred that of which Cho was capable I think is more than any of us can fathom too.

How do readers feature here how close or far apart Bush’s official response is now, regarding violence in our schools, as how we should handle it, with that of Craig Scott? Hmmmmmm?

I can not quite entirely account or be responsible for how p.c. the post I have submitted here. :-), but, I guess, one aims to please, you know.

[justa-hairyape]

..but I see in his Cho’s manner, affect, writing, and especially remindful one or two of his photos, something that is as much post-Abu Ghraib as post-Columbine about what happened at Va Tech now.

If you do not mind me asking, which of his photos have tweaked your interest ?

Concerning the Abu Ghraib connection, what specifically about Cho caused you to make a link to torture at Abu Ghraib ?

[crysdel2001]

I cannot believe someone would be so ignorant as to suggest this sick SOB could have done any of this due to Autism in any of it’s many forms. As the mother of 2 Austistic twin sons, I find it reprehensible as well as insulting to say that. Show me in your links where it said an Autistic person has ever done something like this or that they are even prone to extreme act of violence like this. Research before you say something so offensive.

[Blue_Ridge_Mtn_Geek]

“I cannot believe someone would be so ignorant as to suggest this sick SOB could have done any of this due to Autism in any of it’s many forms. As the mother of 2 Austistic twin sons, I find it reprehensible as well as insulting to say that. Show me in your links where it said an Autistic person has ever done something like this or that they are even prone to extreme act of violence like this. Research before you say something so offensive.”

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

A form of autism runs through my family too. I did not say “due to”; that is your reading between the lines. Like other members of the human family, people at various points on the autism spectrum have violent tendencies, some well restrained, others not so well. Acknowledging that fact is only offensive to those in denial about human nature.

I suggest facing up to the general occurrence of violent impulses in humans, autistic or otherwise, and recognizing that a deficient awareness of the challenges of communicating effectively with autistic persons may have contributed to the situation that led to the VT events. This is a more constructive approach than ignoring the possibility, or reacting with indignation at the suggestion. That which is not recognized tends to get overlooked or even neglected, until it becomes impossible to keep looking the other way, as in Cho’s case.

For some references, I suggest you start with:
http://www.netwellness.org/question.cfm/34318.htm
http://www.healthboards.com/boards/showthread.php?t=16075
http://www.pta.org/bb/viewtopic.php?t=324&;
http://www.mukibaum.com/Parents/TWheatley.html
and then do some more Googling of your own.

[A knight without armor]

I bet it won’t be long before sickos are actually presenting these on some filthy stage somewhere.

[Blue_Ridge_Mtn_Geek]

Abstract of another article probably worth perusing if this is a concern of yours:

http://www.jaapl.org/cgi/content/full/33/3/390

[Blue_Ridge_Mtn_Geek]

An example of what I call the “constructive approach” in posting #96:

http://thiswayoflife.org/blog/?p=49