Evil Deeds

This week, yet another angry young man went on a murderous rampage near the Alabama/Florida border, killing a total of fourteen victims: his mother, grandmother, uncle and two cousins, four dogs, and five random strangers on the street. It was the worst multiple murder in state history. Twenty-seven-year-old Michael McLendon was heavily armed with two military assault rifles, a handgun and a shotgun, firing more than 200 rounds before it was all over. So far as we know right now, there was reportedly no relationship breakup. No known criminal record. And no apparent previously diagnosed history of mental illness. As in many such cases, the perpetrator was posthumously described as a "quiet kid, no trouble. He was always polite and nice." A former co-worker called McLendon "shy, quiet and laid-back." What leads to such dangerous and deadly states of mind? What motivated this incredibly evil deed? And how might these increasingly common acts of absolute madness possibly be prevented? Read More

Following in the footsteps of fellow PT bloggers Drs. Jared DeFife and Judith Beck (Dr. Aaron Beck's daughter), I'd like to offer a response of my own to Dr. Ryan Howes' interesting and revealing series of interviews on the "Seven Questions."

 Anger, despite its primitive and primal nature, is possibly the most complicated of all human emotions to manage, especially in our "civilized" society. True "anger management" must assist people to perceive the difference between appropriate and inappropriate anger or rage. What is neurotic, pathological or inappropriate anger? Where does it come from? How does anger, a natural, necessary, instinctual, existentially appropriate affect become problematical? What is this insidious and dangerous process? And how can such anger mismanagement be most effectively minimized or reversed?

Joran van der Sloot is the now twenty-year-old young man suspected of being involved in the 2005 disappearance and probable death of Natalee Holloway in Aruba. Since being released by Aruban authorities with no formal charges pending against him, Joran has presented at least three different versions of what happened that night to Natalee on a dark, deserted Caribbean beach in the wee hours of the morning.