My son has Asperger’s. He does not show lack of affect (frozen emotionless face). He talks with people. He doesn’t write sex-tinged violence. He finds these murders horrifying - he can’t imagine someone wanting to do this. Asperger’s does not lead to murderous impulses - just want to make that clear.
It could be a contributor to depression and alienation and is often co-morbid with other disorders like OCD. Some men with Asperger’s stalk women - creepily but harmlessly; they don’t know how to relate to women, so they track them but they’re not trying to scare them.
Cho may have had Asperger’s but I do want to stress that someone with Asperger’s is not more likely to be a murderer.
Mrs VS
Cho may have had Asperger’s but I do want to stress that someone with Asperger’s is not more likely to be a murderer.
Mrs VS
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I agree completely, and indeed the definitions of the various points on the “autism spectrum” are murky enough that I was careful to indicate that Asperger’s is only “an example”.
Murderous impulses are common to human beings, and the way they are amplified and acted out, or contained and suppressed is as variable as human beings are variable. Being aware of an individual’s capacities and inclinations is important to helping them acquire skills in self-restraint and other attributes of self-understanding. This self-understanding is a non-trivial problem no matter where one is on “the spectrum”. An interesting discussion of various modes of consciousness and means of recognizing oneself and others is found here:
http://artsci.wustl.edu/~probbins/knowingme.pdf
Here is some discussion by one who has apparently had some success at self-knowledge development:
http://iautistic.com/what-is-autism.php
http://iautistic.com/autistic-label.php
http://iautistic.com/autism-myths-theory-of-mind.php
http://iautistic.com/autism-theory-of-mind-revisited.php