ÿþ<html> <head> <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1"> <title>OnlineColumnist®.com: Duke's Damage Control</title> <meta name="generator" content="Adobe GoLive 4"> <style type="text/css"> .style1 { font-size: x-large; font-weight: bold; } </style> </head> <body bgcolor="white" vlink="black"> <center> <table cool width="624" height="2719" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" gridx="16" showgridx gridy="16" showgridy> <tr height="79"> <td width="116" height="118" rowspan="2" valign="top" align="left" xpos="0"> <a href="081609.html"><img height="110" width="62" src="images/discobolos.logo.transp.gif" border="0"></a></td> <td width="24" height="118" rowspan="2"></td> <td width="465" height="79" colspan="2" valign="top" align="left" xpos="140"><img height="75" width="450" src="images/banner.GIF"></td> <td width="18" height="118" rowspan="2"></td> <td width="1" height="79"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="79"></td> </tr> <tr height="39"> <td width="182" height="39"></td> <td width="283" height="39" valign="top" align="left" xpos="322"><a href="aboutdiscobolos.html"><img height="14" width="267" src="images/divisionofNEW.GIF" border="0"></a></td> <td width="1" height="39"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="39"></td> </tr> <tr height="26"> <td width="624" height="26" colspan="6" valign="top" align="left" xpos="0"> <table border="0" width="100%" bgcolor="black" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td> <table border="0" width="100%" bgcolor="#99ffcc" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="4"> <tr> <td align="center"> <div align="left"> <a href="index.html"><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular" size="2"><strong> HOME</strong></font></a><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular" size="2"><strong> &#8226; <a href="articlesindex.html">ARTICLES</a> &#8226; <a href="books.html">BOOKS</a> &#8226; <a href="teflon.html"> THE </a><a href="teflon.html">TEFLON</a><a href="teflon.html"> REPORT</a> &#8226; <a href="mailto:letters@onlinecolumnist.com"> REACTIONS</a> &#8226; <a href="aboutdiscobolos.html">ABOUT DISCOBOLOS</a></strong></font></div> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> <tr height="1"> <td width="116" height="2574" rowspan="2" valign="top" align="left" xpos="0"><img height="172" width="111" src="images/johninframe3.jpg"></td> <td width="489" height="1" colspan="3"></td> <td width="18" height="2574" rowspan="2"></td> <td width="1" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="1"></td> </tr> <tr height="2573"> <td width="489" height="2573" colspan="3" align="left" xpos="116" content valign="top" csheight="2573"> <font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular" size="5"><b> <br /> <br /> Psychiatrist Goes Postal</b></font><p><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"><b> by John M. Curtis<br> (310) 204-8700</b><br> </font></p> <p><font size="2" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"><i>Copyright Nov. 6, 2009<br> All Rights Reserved.</i></font></p> <p><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</span><span class="style1">P</span>roving that mental health professionals are not immune to stress, 39-year-old Army psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan went postal, opening fire, killing 13 and injuring 30 at Fort Hood, Texas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>When the smoke cleared, Dr. Hassan committed the worst act of mass murder at a military base in U.S. history, sending shockwaves through the ordinarily sleepy town near Kileen, Texas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Before reporting for duty at Fort Hood in July, Hasan worked for six years at Walter Reed Army Hospital in Bethesda, Md, completing his residency in psychiatry and fellowship in disaster and preventive psychiatry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Despite his accomplishments, Hasan exhibited some  difficulties, requiring counseling and extra supervision, according to Walter Reed s training director Dr. Thomas Grieger.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Like so many other incidents of workplace violence, Hasan s supervisors missed the warning signs.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Giving clues to a festering problem, Grieger, who is bound by privacy laws, admitted that Hasan showed problems interacting with patients, describing the American-born of  Palestinian descent as  mostly very quiet. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> He swore an oath of loyalty to the military, Grieger said, adding,  I didn t hear anything contrary to those oaths, raising the old myth in a post-Sept. 11, where associations to terrorism eclipse what s well-known about a very specialized type of mass killer sometimes seen in neighborhood post offices.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Grieger s reference to loyalty oaths display the knee-jerk tendency to ascribe headline-type motives to garden-variety psychotic killers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Hasan fits the profile of postal-style mass killers, whose mild-mannered personalities erupt into unspeakable violence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>While there s a context to every murder, intolerable stress often precipitates violence.<![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>When Virginia Tech senior 22-year-old Seung-Hui Cho gunned down 32 students and faculty April 16, 2007 in the worst college mass murder in U.S. history, school officials took heat for not recognizing Cho s prior stalking incidents and history of mental illness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; Former </span>President George W. Bush signed a tougher gun control law July 5, 2008, permitting the National Instant Criminal Background Check System to include individuals treated for mental illness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Cho, like Hassan, was also described an introverted misanthrope, with no history of violent behavior.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Those fitting the profile of explosive mass killers lack the social skills and support systems to contain a seething caldron of rage and frustration.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Hasan s  loyalty oath had nothing to do with his growing dangerousness that eventually exploded into the latest preventable episode of violence and mass murder.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Hasan s deranged internal world outed itself on the Internet with bizarre postings equating suicide bombers with soldiers falling on hand grenades to save innocent lives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Hasan shared his opposition to the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, seeing an attorney to help extricate himself from his expected Mideast deployment and military service.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Federal authorities seized Hasan s computer at his flat in Kileen, hoping to shed light on his motives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Hasan s aunt, Noel Hassan of Church Falls, Va., told the <i>Washington Post </i>her nephew was harassed for being Muslim since Sept. 11 and wanted out the Army.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> Some people can take it, and some cannot, she said, implying that Hasan cracked under the stress.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>While tempting to accept such explanations, acts rage and mass murder involve more than grudges.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>They involve a breakdown in rational thinking, where ordinary restraints give way to psychotic impulses.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Federal authorities won t find the broken down human being driven psychotic by intolerable stress and a mental breakdown.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Whatever the breaking point, Hasan showed warning signs that should have been heeded by his supervisors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>When federal authorities noticed his peculiar Internet rantings, they should placed him on stress leave and ordered a psychiatric evaluation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>If his own aunt speculated her nephew couldn t take the stress, surely Hasan s medical supervisors should have taken notice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> You wouldn t think that someone who works in your facility and provided excellent care for his patients, which he did, could do something like this, said Col. Kimberly Keslin, deputy commander at Fort Hood s Darnell Army Medical Center, showing the same kind of naivety blinding authorities to the warning signs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Hasan s ranting about the Iraq and Afghan wars should have raised red flags.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Forecasting violent behavior isn t rocket science.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>It takes some common sense and guts in a litigious atmosphere, driven more by political correctness than protecting the public from violent incidents.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> Retired Army Col. Terry Lee, who worked with Hasan at Walter Reed, told FOXNews that Hasan frequently argued about the Iraq and Afghan wars and tried to stop his Mideast deployment and exit the Army.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Add to that federal authorities identifying disturbing Internet comments about suicide bombers and someone should have taken notice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>When law enforcement gets done with Hasan s computer, they ll conclude he went postal, like other garden-variety psychotics who crack under intolerable stress.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Psychotic personalities don t react well to religious fanaticism, where otherwise socially inept individuals allow rage and violent impulses to get the better of them.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><b>John M. Curtis</b> writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news.&nbsp; He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of <a href="books.html">Dodging The Bullet </a>and <a href="books.html">Operation Charisma.</a></p> </td> <td width="1" height="2573"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="2573"></td> </tr> <tr height="1" cntrlrow> <td width="116" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="116" height="1"></td> <td width="24" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="24" height="1"></td> <td width="182" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="182" height="1"></td> <td width="283" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="283" height="1"></td> <td width="18" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="18" height="1"></td> <td width="1" height="1"></td> </tr> </table> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="2" width="597"> <tr> <td><font size="1" face="Arial,Geneva,Helvetica"> <hr noshade size="1"> </font><a href="index.html"><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular" size="2"><strong> Homene.net" target="_blank">img height="30" width="138" src="images/cmelogoANIM.gif" border="0" align="absmiddle"></a></font></p> </div> <p><font size="2" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular">&copy;1999-2002 <a href="aboutdiscobolos.html">Discobolos Consulting Services, Inc.</a><br> (310) 204-8300<br> All Rights Reserved. </font></td> </tr> </table> </center> </body> </html>