I’m interested in the case of George Sodini: the lonely 48-year-old who shot up an LA fitness club. His blog posts, while not exactly sane, are easier to relate to than the misogynist psychotic rage mass murderers usually leave behind. Most analysis has focused on his relationship with women or his family, but as Alex noted, it seems like his problems had as much to do with friendship, aging, work, etc.

I came across this blog written by someone who is well-read in psychology. Apparently one of the themes is diagnose behaviour that is antisocial but not sociological nor psychopathic as Narcissistic Personality Disorder (or at least narcissistic personality spectrum). The author did a detailed reading of Sodini’s blog that got a number of interesting comments including this existential analysis [layout edited]:

“I guess some of us were simply meant to walk a lonely path…Some were simply meant to walk a lonely path in life.”

Intellectually he seems to understand a simple truth in life. But emotionally he couldn’t accept it and so this giant fountain of a blog before the final act. How many people live analogous lives but learn the acceptance because the alternative is … what? Annihilation?

The blog goes on to offer a psychological profile of Sodini, arguing that Sodini was not mysoginistic and women were not really his focus. Interesting comments, mixed with some trolling, continue, including this Nietzschean analysis:

[His] problem is a lack of functioning power process. I refer to the noted philosopher Theodore Kaczynski on this one. Essentially, [he felt] like no matter what efforts [he] put in, [he couldn't] achieve success with women. A lack of self-efficacy, and trust me this is both well identified and perhaps over-appelated. Rewards are not commensurate with action, so while you can’t condone pulling into a fitness center and shooting up the place, you can certainly understand it. Because these women symbolize some failure to act on the world, they are targets for dislike and hate. OK, fair– but you have to decide whether to act on those feelings or try to remove their source.

And the final word goes to this simple observation: “He killed people that didn’t notice his suffering.”