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Dr. Larry Barton, Dr. Willard Gaylin, grievance collecting, grievance collector, school violence, Violence, Violence in the Workplace
No one can predict the next mass murderer, but a grievance collector is a loaded gun
The next mass murderer will likely:
- be male
- be a loner or recently have become more introverted
- have a mental health issue
- have an interest in violence or violent acts
- have easy access to guns and ammunition
- experience some kind of trigger incident
- be a grievance collector
Despite the ability to identify key traits, no one can reliably predict a mass murderer before they act. The warning signs that predict a violent tendency can be found in millions of people but very few will actually go to the extreme of harming another person.
However, the last trait, “grievance collecting,” is consistent enough among mass murderers that the public should be aware of its significance in predicting violent behavior. In case after case, the person pulling the trigger in a mass public shooting has kept a list of ‘wrongs’ against him and has difficulty in moving past the grievances he has with his employer, his co-workers, his family, his government, his life, and/or his God.
Dr. Willard Gaylin, psychiatrist, author, bioethicist
In his 2004 book, Hatred: The Psychological Descent Into Violence, Psychiatrist and Bioethicist, Dr. Willard Gaylin describes the Grievance Collector:
A grievance collector will move from the passive assumption of deprivation and low expectancy common to most paranoid personalities to a more aggressive mode. He will not endure passively his deprived state; he will occupy himself with accumulating evidence of his misfortunes and locating the sources.
Dr. Gaylin continues:
Grievance collectors are distrustful and provocative, convinced they are always taken advantage of and given less than their fair share.
Dr. Gaylin also points out that a grievance collector may have been truly wronged, which is oddly comforting because it confirms his overwhelming belief that his lot in life is to be the loser. In some cases the grievance collector has followed a process of appeal, which may be less about achieving resolution, but rather is an opportunity to confirm the list of wrongs against him culminating in the loss of the appeal. Workplace and family violence can sometimes occur soon after a legal or appeal process has reached a conclusion.
To prevent a grievance collector from becoming the next mass murderer, people should be sensitive to the friend, co-worker, or acquaintance who seems preoccupied with the unfairness of the world and how he has been made a victim. Critical warning signs could be a heightened interest in guns, and/or discussion of committing a violent act (even if it is delivered as a joke.) In some cases the person might withdraw from friends, co-workers, and family. This could be a sign that the person is contemplating violence and is in a spiral of self-justification that avoids an independent perspective on the situation.
Dr. Gaylin also suggests that the grievance collector often has a history of feeling inadequate that may have originated in family dynamics with a skewed distribution of love and attention to some children, but not others. Because the root of the issue may track back to childhood, the grievance collector may lack a basic ability to recover from a new injustice without extended psychological counselling. Ultimately, treatment may be the only option that avoids a body count.
(A special note of thanks to Dr. Larry Barton, Crisis Management and Violence in the Workplace expert. While not specifically quoted, much of my awareness of violence in the workplace issues has been thanks to countless hours on the road with him and role-playing in his seminars.)
Hello Paul,
I lived in Jerusalem, Palestine in the mid 90’s when an American terrorist Baruch Goldstein murdered 29 praying Palestinians in a house of worship in Hebron. The Sandy Hook Mass murderer Adam Lanza had Goldsteins terror attack on his PC according to state police records just realeased last month. Do you think both of them were Grievance collectors? Or were they just mentally ill? Also, what would you classify Timohy McViegh as?
A terrorist or a sick grievance collector?
It just looks like if an American like Dylan Roof kills because of someones skin color, it is stated in the media that he is just mentally ill.
What I guess I am trying to ask is, why don’t we charge Americans who attack because of someones race or political stance “terrorists” and we only use it for one certain type of people, namely Middle Eastern or should I say, anyone against Israel.
Thanks for reading and commenting.
Comparing mass murderers and their motives is an extremely difficult, if not impossible task. I know that law enforcement typically will gather as much information as they can off of available sources, including computers, but personally, I don’t think a computer can adequately mimic what is going on inside the mind of its user. I am also not a psychologist, psychiatrist, nor do I have advanced degrees in criminal or social fields.
That being said, anyone who lacks the ability to move on from a real or imagined unfair act, and tends to dwell on them, and/or tends to magnify them, fits the category of a ‘grievance collector;’ however, there is an issue of magnitude. Someone who complains about their boss or co-worker probably is not a grievance collector, unless their entire life is focused around their anger and frustration.
Let me put this into a political perspective. Someone who disagrees with President Obama and his policies is not a grievance collector; however, if a person reacts every time the subject of President Obama’s name comes up and they fly into a rage, and then they start saying Obama is a Muslim, he wasn’t born in America, etc., then that person is demonstrating grievance collector behavior.
Why a person falls into a grievance collector mode is usually attributed to a mental issue; however, I’m not sure one can discount the social environment of a mass murderer as a factor in their mental state.
But to your final point. I wish the word ‘terrorist’ were removed from our language. Terrorist indicates that a person is acting on behalf of some cause. It makes it seem like they might have a legitimate reason to be angry and they are just acting out in the only way they no how. That is bull.
A murderer is a murderer is a murderer. Killing people who are living out their daily lives, that have no means of defending themselves, and who have no real connection to any act against the murderer is criminal. To me, none of the people you list, nor of the men who committed the 9/11 atrocities are anything more than common criminals. They kill for the thrill of killing, and whatever reason they offer is a lie. They want to make a name for themselves as a ‘terrorist’ and yet they are nothing more than a coward with a gun or a bomb.
I agree with you that Baruch Goldstein, Adam Lanza, Timothy McVeigh, are no different Dylan Roof than any other individual that runs into a crowd of people with a bomb, shoots tourists on a beach, or beheads a man who is tied up and defenseless. They are murderers. They have no honor. They are not fighting for a cause. They choose to kill people who are most vulnerable and they hope people will notice them because they do.
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