Through newspapers, television, and social media, we all hear about the tragedies in this world. For example in Santa Barbara on the weekend of May 24th, Elliot Rodger stabbed three people in his home and went on a killing rampage never UCSB. What causes someone to do such a thing? And is there a psychological reason behind it?

For years psychologist and doctors have been trying to find a “cure” for insanity. These psychologists and doctors have come to believe that someone who is psychotic can be cured. Nevertheless, what people think of when they hear the term ‘insane’ is probably close to what is meant by psychosis. Psychosis can be part of different psychological disorders, like schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder or schizophreniform disorder. Being psychotic doesn’t mean you are a murderer, being psychotic is a loss of contact with reality that usually includes delusions or hallucinations. People have come to believe that most serial killers are psychopaths. Psychologist and doctors question the amount of control these serial killers have. It seems to come down to this one basic topic, self control and the lack of it.

Isaac Ray, a hospital superintendent, founded the discipline of forensic psychiatry with his publication in 1838 entitled “A Treatise on the Medical Jurisprudence of Insanity.” His ideas influenced the defense team during the 1843 trial of Daniel M’Naghten, a British case that inspired the insanity “rule” still used as a defense throughout most of America today. Being a fan of the popular television series “Law and Order: SVU,” I have seen examples of how the defense attorney might plead insanity so that the defendant won’t have to go to jail for as long of a time. Moral insanity is referred to as a type of mental disorder consisting of abnormal emotions and behaviours in the apparent absence of intellectual impairments, delusions or hallucinations. This is similar to being psychotic, but saying someone is “psychotic” isn’t a proper argument in court.

Scientists who study the brain are finding new clues about violent behavior. In an interview with Dr. Adrian Raine he says, “We have for the first time been able to look directly into the minds of the murderers.” Dr. Raine, a neurobiologist, is becoming well known for a study that compared brain scans of 41 convicted murderers. He found measurable differences between the brains of violent and nonviolent people, mainly having to do with the frontal lobe of the brain, the part just behind the forehead. “Murderers, as a group, had poorer functioning of the prefrontal cortex. In a way, the prefrontal cortex is like the emergency brake on a car. Murderers as a whole lack that emergency brake. They’re not able to stop themselves careering out of control when they act out on an impulse.” -Dr. Adrian Raine

When asked if a brain scan could reveal a person’s capacity to kill, he states that he could not. He says “The reason I say that is I’ve had my own brain scanned, and it looks exactly like that of a serial killer. Now the last thing I want is for brain scans to be used to go out into the community, brain-scan people and diagnose people as a serial killer and lock them up.”

Dorothy Lewis, a well known psychiatrist shares some of her insight on this topic also: “If the area for judgment and self-control is impaired, then does that person carrying that brain have as much free will as you or I? And I would argue that they don’t and that it’s a fantasy to think that the person who is, let’s say, the serial killer has the same free will as the president of the United States. Evil is a mindless concept as far as science is concerned. From our work, you would have to say that any one of us, if we had been traumatized, let’s say physically, the same way that these murderers had been, we too would do that. Now you have to ask yourself then, are you evil?”

If Dr. Lewis and Raine are right, murder may have more to do with damage and medicine than morality and evil. The legal, moral, and religious implications are profound.