Personality Profile of Eric Harris

USPP

Unit for the Study of Personality in Politics

[Warning: explicit, violent, offensive language]

Indirect Evaluation of Eric Harris

Prepared for U.S. News & World Report

By Aubrey Immelman

April 30, 1999

Disclaimer: This is a psychological analysis of Eric Harris as he portrayed himself in personal communications posted on his Web site and should not to be construed as a direct psychodiagnostic evaluation based on face-to-face interviews, formal psychological testing, and collection of collateral information. However, the analysis employed an established methodology for assessing public figures at a distance, based on an biographical data.

Executive Summary

Eric Harris emerged from my assessment as a primarily aggressive (sadistic) personality with secondary antisocial, narcissistic, and paranoid features. This personality configuration is consistent with the severely disturbed personality syndrome that psychoanalyst Otto Kernberg (1984) called "malignant narcissism." Malignant narcissism has four core components:

Extreme grandiosity and self-confidence, and self-absorption to the extent that one is incapable of empathizing with others’ pain and suffering (a narcissistic quality).
A social "conscience" dominated by self-interest. Malignant narcissists have a defective superego, or lack of conscience (an antisocial quality), accompanied by a sense of entitlement and a messianic self-perception; they view themselves as special – their own god, so to speak, a law unto themselves (a narcissistic quality).
Unconstrained, self-serving aggression (a sadistic quality). These individuals display narcissistic rage, rooted in their grandiosity and sense of entitlement. They experience an all-consuming quest for revenge, for righting perceived wrongs and personal slights.
A paranoid outlook. Underlying their grandiose facade, malignant narcissists have a siege mentality. They do not understand their own role in creating enemies and use real or imagined enemies as justification for their aggression. In fact, these individuals may have a deep-seated psychological need for enemies. Rather than acknowledging their personal shortcomings and inadequacies, they "split off" devalued aspects of themselves and project, or attribute, them to an external enemy, which they then attack.

Paranoid qualities are to some extent a function of an underlying sadistic character (which by definition is hostile and distrusting), exacerbated by alienation. In other words, underlying personality attributes are reinforced and sustained by negative feedback from the social environment.

Eric Harris’s writings reflect deep-seated anger and hostility, permeated by a sense of entitlement and narcissistic rage and portend a propensity for unrestrained discharge of hostile impulses against perceived adversaries which he hold in utmost contempt. His narcissistic fantasies are remarkable for the extraordinary force of his rage.

Self-Perpetuation Processes

Personality theorist Theodore Millon (1996, pp. 498-499) asserts that the sadistic (aggressive) personality pattern becomes ingrained as the result of three self-perpetuation processes: perceptual and cognitive distortions, demeaning of affection and cooperative behavior, and the creation of realistic antagonisms.

Perceptual and cognitive distortions

"In the sadistic/aggressive individual . . . there is an ever-present undertone of anger and resentment, a persistent expectation that others will be deviously denigrating, if not openly hostile. Because these moods and expectancies endure, these personalities are likely to repeatedly distort the incidental remarks and actions of others so that they appear to deprecate and vilify them. They persist in misinterpreting what they see and hear, and magnify minor slights into major insults and slanders." According to Millon, the hypersensitivity of aggressive personalities to derogations makes them perceive threats where none exist. This has self-defeating consequences and prevents one from perceiving reality more objectively and changing one’s outlook and attitudes. (Millon, 1996, pp. 498-499)

Demeaning of affection and cooperative behavior

According to Millon, the sadistic/aggressive personality "is not only suspicious of, but tends to depreciate sentimentality, intimate feelings, tenderness, and social cooperativeness. These individuals lack sympathy for the weak and oppressed, and are often contemptuous of those who express compassion and concern for the underdog. . . . By denying tender feelings, they protect themselves against the memory of painful parental rejections. Furthermore, feelings of sympathy would be antithetical to the credo that they have carved for themselves as a philosophy of life. To express softer feelings would undermine the foundations of their coping strategy and reactivate feelings that they have rigidly denied for years. Why upset things and be abused and exploited again? Sympathy and tender feelings only get in the way, distracting and diverting them form their need to be hardheaded realists. . . . By restraining positive feelings and repudiating intimacy and cooperative behaviors, these personalities provoke others to withdraw from them. Their cold and abusive manner intimidates others and blocks them from expressing warmth and affection." (Millon, 1996, p. 499)

Creating realistic antagonisms

"[T]he sadistic personality evoke[s] counterhostility, not only as an incidental consequence of their behaviors and attitudes but because they intentionally provoke others into conflict. They carry a chip on their shoulder, often seem to be spoiling for a fight, and to appear to enjoy tangling with others to prove their strength and test their competencies and powers. . . . By spoiling for a fight and by precipitous and irrational arrogance, they create not only a distant reserve on the part of others but intense and well-justified animosity." (Millon, 1996, p. 499).

Hypothesized Pathogenic Developmental Background

Personality is a complex, multidetermined construct. It is influenced by hereditary and other biogenic factors that are too inscrutable or speculative to warrant definitive conclusions – particularly in an indirect assessment. Millon (1996, p. 496) notes, however, that a person’s experiential history is often sufficient to prompt a particular personality style.

Hypothesized biogenic factors

According to Theodore Millon, a primary biogenic (inborn, constitutional) factor accounting for the aggressive/sadistic personality pattern is a "choleric infantile reaction pattern." Millon explains the hypothesized pathogenic effect of a choleric infantile reaction pattern as follows:

"Parents often complain that their child displayed temper tantrums even as an infant. . . . [G]iven a ‘nasty’ disposition and an ‘incorrigible’ temperament from the start, these youngsters provoke a superabundance of exasperation and counterhostility from other. Their constitutional tendencies may, therefore, initiate a vicious circle in which they not only prompt frequent aggression from others, but, as a consequence, learn to expect frequent hostility." (Millon, 1996, p. 496).

Evidently, some personalities are biologically "hard-wired" to be aggressive, in the sense that parental hostility can be prompted by a difficult to manage infant born with a testy, sullen, crabby, prickly, fractious, or choleric temperament.

Parental hostility

According to Millon, a sadistic or aggressive personality style is typically the product of parental hostility – which, as noted, is sometimes prompted by a difficult to manage infant born with a testy, sullen temperament. Inborn disposition aside, children sometimes serve as a convenient scapegoat, or "lightening rod," for parental anger arising from occupational, marital, or social frustrations. Rather than manage their anger directly and appropriately, these parents vent their anger on their children in a maladaptive coping strategy known as "displacement." (Millon, 1996, pp. 496-497).

Chronic exposure to parental rejection – typically teasing, belittlement, and humiliation – results in a view of the world as hostile and dangerous and breeds a suspicious if not paranoid outlook on life. Most children subjected to this kind of treatment come to view themselves as weak, worthless, and beneath contempt; they ultimately develop a timid, insecure, avoidant personality style. Some children, however, perhaps being by nature more resilient and hardy, learn instead to believe they are a power to contend with. To their way of thinking, they have the potency to influence the moods and actions of others, the capacity to create distress. Adding injury to insult, parental hostility, by virtue of the intense anger and resentment that it generates in a child, can ultimately breed counterhostility. (Millon, 1996, p. 497).

Modeling

A more straightforward explanation is that aggressive or hostile models (including parents) serve as socially sanctioned standards for conduct. Children imitate models in their environment and learn similar behaviors.

Summary and Formulation

The respective explanatory models are not mutually exclusive; as said before, personality style is overdetermined. In my opinion, the psychogenesis of an aggressive personality style is encapsulated in Millon’s assertion that these personalities "go out of their way to denigrate any values that represent what they themselves did not receive in childhood" (Millon, 1996, p. 498). Thus, they become untrusting and harsh in their interpersonal relationships and the world at large; they are persistently on the defensive and any cracks in their tough outer facade or perceived exposure of personal weakness or inner vulnerability prompts capricious, precipitous surges of hostility and outbursts of rage.

One may speculate that the underlying reasons for Harris’s hostile, vindictive conduct were an inborn disposition (i.e., he was biologically "hard-wired" with a choleric infantile reaction pattern) and vicarious learning from parental or other models (including media) that may have modeled a range of aggressive behaviors. Concerning the hypothesized parental hostility, we simply don’t have any direct evidence at this stage in the investigation. In this regard, it would be instructive to interview people familiar with Harris’s early life. The clue to look for is strict, even harsh, early childhood discipline meted out by one or both parents or possible parent surrogates, who may have displaced some of their frustrations indirectly onto Eric, possibly in the form of severe humiliation.

Psychodiagnostic Meta-Analysis of Source Materials

Aubrey Immelman

April 30, 1999

I conducted the assessment by evaluating Eric Harris’s statements against the eight universal attribute domains encompassed by Theodore’s Millon’s (1969, 1986a, 1986b, 1990, 1991, 1994, 1996) model of personality, namely expressive behavior, interpersonal conduct, cognitive style, mood/temperament, self-image, regulatory mechanisms, object representations, and morphologic organization.

Each of the eight categories (attribute domains A-H) contains unique diagnostic criteria (consisting of a defining term and a descriptive phrase) for each of the 15 personality patterns posited by Millon. The present assessment specifies only the diagnostic criteria for the four personality patterns most relevant to the syndrome of "malignant narcissism," namely (S) the abusive pattern (sadistic personality), (A) the aggrandizing pattern (antisocial personality), (N) the egotistic pattern (narcissistic personality), and (P) the suspicious pattern (paranoid personality).

Attribute A: Expressive Behavior
The individual’s characteristic behavior; how the individual typically appears to others; what the individual knowingly or unknowingly reveals about him- or herself; what the individual wishes others to think or to know about him or her. (Millon, 1990, p. 137)

S Precipitate: disposed to react in sudden abrupt outbursts of an unexpected and unwarranted nature; recklessly reactive and daring, attracted to challenge, risk, and harm; unflinching, undeterred by pain and undaunted by danger and punishment. (Millon, 1996, p. 484)

Affirmative

"My belief is that if I say something, it goes. I am the law, if you don’t like it, you die. If I don’t like you or I don’t like what you want me to do, you die. . . . I will rig up explosives all over a town and detonate each one of them at will after I mow down a whole fucking area full of you snotty ass rich mother fucking high strung godlike attitude having worthless pieces of shit whores. i don’t care if I live or die in the shootout, all I want to do is kill and injure as many of you pricks as I can. . . ." [Harris:1]

A Impulsive: impetuous and irrepressible, acting hastily and spontaneously in a restless, spur-of-the-moment manner; is shortsighted, incautious, and imprudent, failing to plan ahead or consider alternatives, no less heed consequences. (Millon, 1996, p. 446)

Equivocal [Indirect evidence only in Harris’s writings]

N Haughty: acts in an arrogant, supercilious, pompous, and disdainful manner, flouting conventional rules for shared social living, viewing them as naive or inapplicable to self; reveals a careless disregard for personal integrity and a self-important indifference to the rights of others. (Millon, 1996, p. 405)

Affirmative

"All you people with your set standards and shit, like you have to go to college and be smart and shit, and you have to have a job and pay taxes, blah blah fucking blah, shutup and DIE! I really don’t give a good god damn about what you think is ‘right’ and what is ‘wrong’ and what is acceptable and what isn’t nice, I just don’t fucking CARE! SHUTUP AND DIE!!!!!!!" [Harris:2]

"Wie gehts. Well all you people out there can just kiss my ass and die. From now on, i don’t give a fuck what almost any of you mutha fuckers have to say, unless I respect you which is unlikely. . . . No i am not crazy, crazy is just a word, to me it has no meaning, everyone is different, but most of you fuckheads out there in soceity, going to your everyday fucking jobs and doing your everyday routine shitty things, i say fuck you and die. if you got a problem with my thoughts, come tell me and ill kill you, because ...... god damnit, DEAD PEOPLE DON’T ARGUE! God DAMNIT I AM PISSED!!" [Harris:10]

P Defensive: is vigilantly guarded, alert to anticipate and ward off expected derogation, malice, or deception; is tenacious and firmly resistant to sources of external influence and control. (Millon, 1996, p. 702)

Affirmative

"Wie gehts. Well all you people out there can just kiss my ass and die. From now on, i don’t give a fuck what almost any of you mutha fuckers have to say, unless I respect you which is unlikely. . . . if you got a problem with my thoughts, come tell me and ill kill you, because ...... god damnit, DEAD PEOPLE DON’T ARGUE! God DAMNIT I AM PISSED!!" [Harris:10]

Attribute B: Interpersonal Conduct
How the individual typically interacts with others; the attitudes that underlie, prompt, and give shape to these actions; the methods by which the individual engages others to meet his or her needs; how the individual’s actions impact on others; how the individual copes with social tensions and conflicts. (Millon, 1990, pp. 137, 146)

S Intimidating: reveals satisfaction in intimidating, coercing, and humiliating others; abrasive, regularly expresses verbally abusive and derisive social commentary, as well as exhibiting vicious, if not physically brutal behavior. (Millon, 1996, p. 484)

Affirmative

"If I do something incorrect, oh fucking well, you die. Dead people cant do many things, like argue, whine, bitch, complain, narc, rat out criticize, or even fucking talk. So that’s the way I solve arguments with all you fuckheads out there, I just kill! God I can’t wait till I kill you people. Ill just go to some downtown area in some big ass city and blow up and shoot everything I can." [Harris:1]

"Wie gehts. Well all you people out there can just kiss my ass and die. From now on, i don’t give a fuck what almost any of you mutha fuckers have to say, unless I respect you which is unlikely. But for those of you who happen to know me and know that i respect you, may peace be with you and don’t be in my line of fire. for the rest of you, you all better fucking hide in your houses because im comin for EVERYONE soon. and i WILL be armed to the fuckin teeth and I WILL shoot to kill and i WILL fucking KILL EVERYTHING!" [Harris:10]

A Irresponsible: untrustworthy and unreliable, failing to meet or intentionally negating personal obligations of a marital, parental, employment, or financial nature; actively intrudes upon and violates the rights of others, as well as transgresses established social codes through deceitful and illegal behaviors. (Millon, 1996, p. 446)

Equivocal [If coded for prior to shooting, there is no direct evidence in materials examined, except Harris's for activities involving firecrackers. Collateral information, however, offers evidence of theft.]

N Exploitive: feels entitled, is unempathic and expects special favors without assuming reciprocal responsibilities; shamelessly takes others for granted and uses and manipulates them to achieve personal goals, enhance self, and indulge desires. (Millon, 1996, p. 405)

Equivocal [No direct evidence in materials examined. Consider the possibility that Harris used Dylan Klebold and others.]

P Provocative: not only bears grudges and is unforgiving of those of the past, but displays a quarrelsome, fractious, and abrasive attitude with recent acquaintances; precipitates exasperation and anger by a testing of loyalties and an intrusive and searching preoccupation with hidden motives. (Millon, 1996, p. 702)

Affirmative [Many of the postings consist almost exclusively of a listing of things that Harris hates. This in itself suggests numerous grudges and a preoccupation with others’ motives.]

"YOU KNOW WHAT I HATE!!!? --- When there is a group of assholes standing in the middle of a hallway or walkway, and they are just STANDING there talking and blocking my fucking way!!!! Get the fuck outa the way or I’ll bring a friggin sawed-off shotgun in your house and blow your snotty ass head off!!" [Harris:12]

Attribute C: Cognitive Style
How the individual focuses and allocates attention, encodes and processes information, organizes thoughts, makes attributions, and communicates reactions and ideas to others. (Millon, 1990, p. 146)

S Dogmatic: strongly opinionated and closed-minded, as well as unbending and obstinate in holding to one’s preconceptions; exhibits a broad-ranging authoritarianism, social intolerance, and prejudice. (Millon, 1996, p. 484)

Affirmative

"America: Love it or leave it mother fuckers. All you racist (and if you think im a hypocrite, come here so I can kill you) mother fucking assholes in America who burn our flags and disgrace my land, GET OUT! And to you assholes in iraq and iran and all those other little piece of shit desert lands who hate us, shut up or die! We will kick your ass if you try to fuck with us or atleast I will! I may not like or government or the people running it or things like that, but the physical land and location I DO fucking love! So love it or leave it!" [Harris:1]

A Deviant: construes events and relationships in accord with socially unorthodox beliefs and morals; is disdainful of traditional ideals, fails to conform to social norms, and is contemptuous of conventional values. (Millon, 1996, p. 446)

Affirmative

"Society: I live in denver, and god damnit I would love to kill almost all of its residents. Fucking people with their rich snobby attitude thinkin they are all high and mighty and can just come up and tell me what to do and then people I see in the streets lying their fucking asses off about themselves. And then there is all you fitness fuckheads saying shit like ‘yeah do 50 situps and 25 pushups each morning and run a mile every day and go to the gym and work out and just push yourself to do better and you can achieve anything and set high goals and have great expectations and be happy and be kind and treat everyone equal and give to charity and help the poor and stop violence and drive safely and don’t pollute and don’t litter and take shorter showers and don’t waste water and eat right food and don’t smoke or drink and don’t sell guns and don’t be a bad person’ ....... phew. I say ‘fuck you .... shutup .... and die....’ And then pull the trigger of a DB#3 that is in your fucking mouth. All you people with your set standards and shit, like you have to go to college and be smart and shit, and you have to have a job and pay taxes, blah blah fucking blah, shutup and DIE! I really don’t give a good god damn about what you think is ‘right’ and what is ‘wrong’ and what is acceptable and what isn’t nice, I just don’t fucking CARE! SHUTUP AND DIE!!!!!!!" [Harris:1-2]

N Expansive: has an undisciplined imagination and exhibits preoccupation with immature and self-glorifying fantasies of success, beauty, or love; is minimally constrained by objective reality, takes liberty with facts, and often lies to redeem self-illusions. (Millon, 1996, p. 405)

Affirmative

"I am the law, if you don’t like it, you die. If I don’t like you or I don’t like what you want me to do, you die. . . . I will rig up explosives all over a town and detonate each one of them at will after I mow down a whole fucking area full of you snotty ass rich mother fucking high strung godlike attitude having worthless pieces of shit whores." [Harris:1]

"I live in denver, and god damnit I would love to kill almost all of its residents." [Harris:1]

"No i am not crazy, crazy is just a word, to me it has no meaning, everyone is different, but most of you fuckheads out there in soceity, going to your everyday fucking jobs and doing your everyday routine shitty things, i say fuck you and die. if you got a problem with my thoughts, come tell me and ill kill you, because ...... god damnit, DEAD PEOPLE DON’T ARGUE! God DAMNIT I AM PISSED!!" [Harris:10]

P Suspicious: is unwarrantedly skeptical, cynical, and mistrustful of the motives of others, including relatives, friends, and associates, construing innocuous events as signifying hidden or conspiratorial intent; reveals tendency to magnify tangential or minor difficulties into proofs of duplicity and treachery, especially regarding the fidelity and trustworthiness of a spouse or intimate friend. (Millon, 1996, p. 702)

Affirmative

"YOU KNOW WHAT I HATE!!!? --- When people don’t watch where THEY ARE FUCKING GOING! Then they plow into me and say ‘oops, sorry’ or ‘watch it!’ NNNYAAAA!! Next time it happens i will rip out 2 of your damn ribs and shove em into your fucking eye balls!!!" [Harris:12]

Attribute D: Mood/Temperament
How the individual typically displays emotion; the predominant character of an individual’s affect and the intensity and frequency with which he or she expresses it. (Millon, 1990, p. 157)

S Hostile: disinclined to experience and express tender feelings; excitable, irritable, pugnacious temper that flares readily into contentious argument and physical belligerence, especially when obstructed; is angry, cruel, mean-spirited, and fractious; willing to do harm, even persecute others to get own way; reacts to personal criticism with rage. (Millon, 1996, p. 484)

Affirmative

"YOU KNOW WHAT ELSE I HATE? --- Jon binay how ever the fuck you spell her spoiledass name Ramsee!!!! We don’t care! Good fucking riddens!!! What the fuck do you expect if you fucking put your kid in all these beauty pagents when shes 4 years old!! SLUUUUUUUUUUUT!!!!!! I bet her damn dad did it. Fuckin perrrv." [Harris:12]

A Callous: insensitive, unempathic, cold-blooded expressed in a wide-ranging deficit in social charitableness, human compassion, or personal remorse; exhibits a course incivility, as well as an offensive, if not reckless disregard for the safety of self or others. (Millon, 1996, p. 446)

Affirmative

"YOU KNOW WHAT ELSE I HATE!!!? --- Jon binay how ever the fuck you spell her spoiledass name Ramsee!!!! We don’t care! Good fucking riddens!!! What the fuck do you expect if you fucking put your kid in all these beauty pagents when shes 4 years old!! SLUUUUUUUUUUUT!!!!!! I bet her damn dad did it. Fuckin perrrv." [Harris:12]

"God I can’t wait till I kill you people. Ill just go to some downtown area in some big ass city and blow up and shoot everything I can. Feel no remorse, no sense of shame. Ich sage FICKT DU!" [Harris:1]

N Insouciant: manifests a general air of nonchalance, imperturbability, and feigned tranquillity; appears coolly unimpressionable or buoyantly optimistic, except when narcissistic confidence is shaken, at which time either rage, shame, or emptiness is briefly displayed. (Millon, 1996, p. 405)

Equivocal/Negative [No direct evidence in the materials examined]

P Irascible: displays a cold, sullen, churlish, and humorless demeanor; attempts to appear unemotional and objective, but is edgy, envious, jealous, quick to take personal offense and react angrily. (Millon, 1996, p. 702)

Affirmative

"I will rig up explosives all over a town and detonate each one of them at will after I mow down a whole fucking area full of you snotty ass rich mother fucking high strung godlike attitude having worthless pieces of shit whores. i don’t care if I live or die in the shootout, all I want to do is kill and injure as many of you pricks as I can. . . ." [Harris:1]

Attribute E: Self-Image
The individual’s perception of self-as-object or the manner in which the individual overtly describes him- or herself. (Millon, 1990, pp. 148-149)

S Combative: proud to characterize self as assertively competitive, as well as vigorously energetic and realistically if not militantly hard-headed; values aspects of self that present a tough, pugnacious, domineering, and power-oriented image. (Millon, 1996, p. 484)

Affirmative

"From now on, i don’t give a fuck what almost any of you mutha fuckers have to say, unless I respect you which is unlikely. But for those of you who happen to know me and know that i respect you, may peace be with you and don’t be in my line of fire. for the rest of you, you all better fucking hide in your houses because im comin for EVERYONE soon. and i WILL be armed to the fuckin teeth and I WILL shoot to kill and i WILL fucking KILL EVERYTHING!" [Harris:10]

"I say ‘fuck you .... shutup .... and die....’ And then pull the trigger of a DB#3 that is in your fucking mouth." [Harris:2]

A Autonomous: sees self as unfettered by the restrictions of social customs and the constraints of personal loyalties; values the image and enjoys the sense of being free, unencumbered, and unconfined by persons, places, obligations, or routines. (Millon, 1996, p. 446)

Affirmative

"This page explains the various things in the world that annoy the SHIT outa me. God i just LOVE freedom of speech. Keep in mind that these are just my point of views and may or may not reflect on anyone else. I do swear a lot on this page, so fuck off if you’re a pussy who cant handle a little god damn bad language. heeeheee." [Harris:12]

N Admirable: believes self to be meritorious, special – if not unique – deserving of great admiration and acting in a grandiose or self-assured manner, often without commensurate achievements; has sense of high self-worth, despite being seen by others as egotistic, inconsiderate, and arrogant. (Millon, 1996, p. 405)

Equivocal

"YOU KNOW WHAT I HATE!!!? --- When im walking around the mall and there is this SLOW AS SHIT person walking in front of me!! Godamnit im tryin to get somewhere! So move it or loose it BITCHES!" [Harris:12]

P Inviolable: has persistent ideas of self-importance and self-reference, perceiving attacks on character not perceivable to others, asserting as personally derogatory and scurrilous, if not libelous, entirely innocuous actions and events; is pridefully independent, reluctant to confide in others, highly insular, experiencing intense fears, however, of losing identity, status, and powers of self-determination. (Millon, 1996, p. 702)

Affirmative

"My belief is that if I say something, it goes. I am the law, if you don’t like it, you die. If I don’t like you or I don’t like what you want me to do, you die." [Harris:1]

Attribute F: Regulatory Mechanisms
The individual’s characteristic mechanisms of self-protection, need gratification, and conflict resolution. (Millon, 1990, pp. 146-147)

S Isolation: can be cold-blooded and remarkably detached from an awareness of the impact of own self-destructive acts; views objects of violation impersonally, as symbols of devalued groups devoid of human sensibilities. (Millon, 1996, p. 484)

Affirmative

"YOU KNOW WHAT I LOVE!!!? --- Making fun of stupid people doing stupid things! Like one time when i was watching this freshman try to get on a computer that needed a password .... he typed in the password ....... and waited. The retard didnt press enter or anything. He just waited. Then he started cussing at the computer saying it was screwed up. Then the freshman went and got a teacher and the fucking teacher could not figure out why it wasn’t going anywhere!!! JESUS!! Personally i think they should be shot." [Harris:12]

A Acting-out: inner tensions that might accrue by postponing the expression of offensive thoughts and malevolent actions are rarely constrained; socially repugnant impulses are not refashioned in sublimated forms, but are discharged directly in precipitous ways, usually without regret or remorse. (Millon, 1996, p. 446)

Affirmative

"[I]f you got a problem with my thoughts, come tell me and ill kill you, because ...... god damnit, DEAD PEOPLE DON’T ARGUE! God DAMNIT I AM PISSED!!" [Harris:10]

[The massacre at Columbine High also fits into the acting-out category, but I am limiting my analysis to the primary documents (the independent variable), not the outcomes that they hypothetically predict (the dependent variable).]

N Rationalization: is self-deceptive and facile in devising plausible reasons to justify self-centered and socially inconsiderate behaviors; offers alibis to place self in the best possible light, despite evident shortcomings or failures. (Millon, 1996, p. 405)

Affirmative

P Projection: actively disowns undesirable personal traits and motives, and attributes them to others; remains blind to his or her own unattractive behaviors and characteristics, yet is overalert to, and hypercritical of, similar features in others. (Millon, 1996, p. 702)

Affirmative

"YOU KNOW WHAT I HATE!!! --- RACISM!!! Anyone who believes that blacks, asians, mexicans, or people from any other country or race besides white american .... people who think that should be drug out into the street, have their arms ripped off, be burnt [illegible] at the stumps, then have every person of the race that YOU hate come out and beat the shit out of you. and if you are female, then you should be raped by a male from the race you hate and be forced to raise the child! You people are the scum of society and arent worth a damn piece of worm shit. You are all trash. And don’t let me catch you making fun of someone just because they are a different color because i will come in and break your fucking legs with a plastic spoon. i don’t care how long it takes! and that’s both legs mind you." [Harris:6]

[Note in this and several similar statements the hostility, lack of impulse control, and escalation of violence. Verbal aggression (antilocution) is followed by the threat of physical attack, which is followed gratuitously by an the threat of even more excessive, yet meticulously executed, violence.]

[Compare the following bigoted statement with the preceding, in which bigotry is condemned in others.]

"All you racist (and if you think im a hypocrite, come here so I can kill you) mother fucking assholes in America who burn our flags and disgrace my land, GET OUT! And to you assholes in iraq and iran and all those other little piece of shit desert lands who hate us, shut up or die! We will kick your ass if you try to fuck with us or atleast I will!" [Harris:1]

Attribute G: Object Relations
The inner imprint left by the individual’s significant early experiences with others; the structural residue of significant past experiences, composed of memories, attitudes, and affects that underlie the individual’s perceptions of and reactions to ongoing events and serves as a substrate of dispositions for perceiving and reacting to life’s ongoing events. (Millon, 1990, p. 149)

S Pernicious: internalized representations of the past are distinguished by early relationships that have generated strongly driven aggressive energies and malicious attitudes, as well as by a contrasting paucity of sentimental memories, [and] tender affects, [internal conflicts], and an underdevelopment of images that activate feelings of shame or guilt. (Millon, 1996, p. 484)

Affirmative

A Debased: internalized representations comprise degraded and corrupt relationships that spur revengeful attitudes and restive impulses which are driven to subvert established cultural ideals and mores, as well as devalue personal sentiments and to sully, but intensely covet, the material attainments that society has denied them. (Millon, 1996, p. 446)

Affirmative

N Contrived: internalized representations composed far more than usual of illusory and changing memories of past relationships; unacceptable drives and conflicts are readily refashioned as the need arises, and deprecatory evaluations are quickly transformed to enable these individuals to maintain their contrived image of themselves and their past. (Millon, 1996, p. 405)

Negative

P Unalterable: internalized representations of significant early relationships that are a fixed and implacable configuration of deeply held beliefs and attitudes; these are driven by unyielding convictions that, in turn, are aligned idiosyncratically with a fixed hierarchy of tenaciously held, but unwarranted assumptions, fears, and conjectures. (Millon, 1996, p. 702)

Equivocal [No direct evidence was found in the materials examined]

Attribute H: Morphologic Organization
The overall architecture that serves as a framework for the individual’s psychic interior; the structural strength, interior congruity, and functional efficacy of the personality system (i.e., ego strength). (Millon, 1990, pp. 149, 157)

S Eruptive: a generally cohesive morphologic structure composed of routinely adequate modulating controls, defenses, and expressive channels; nevertheless surging powerful and explosive energies of an aggressive and sexual nature threaten to produce precipitous outbursts that periodically overwhelm and overrun otherwise competent restraints. (Millon, 1996, p. 484)

Affirmative

"This page explains the various things in the world that annoy the SHIT outa me. God i just LOVE freedom of speech. Keep in mind that these are just my point of views and may or may not reflect on anyone else. I do swear a lot on this page, so fuck off if your a pussy who cant handle a little god damn bad language. heeeheee." [Harris:12]

"That’s all for now folks, hope you enjoyed it! If I think up any more things, I’ll put em on here! And sorry if i offended you, but, if I did, that means that you are one of the people that i mentioned that i hate, so i guess im not sorry, you asshole." [Harris:6]

A Unruly: inner morphologic structures to contain drive and impulse are noted by their paucity, as are efforts to curb refractory energies and attitudes, leading to easily transgressed controls, low thresholds for hostile or erotic discharge, few sublimatory channels, unfettered self-expression, and a marked intolerance of delay or frustration. (Millon, 1996, p. 446)

Affirmative

N Spurious: morphologic structures underlying coping and defensive strategies tend to be flimsy and transparent, appear more substantial and dynamically orchestrated than they are in fact, regulating impulses only marginally, channeling needs with minimal restraint, and creating an inner world in which conflicts are dismissed, failures are quickly redeemed, and self-pride is effortlessly reasserted. (Millon, 1996, p. 405)

Equivocal/Negative [No direct evidence was found in the materials examined]

P Inelastic: systematic constriction and inflexibility of undergirding morphologic structures, as well as rigidly fixed channels of defensive coping, conflict mediation, and need gratification, create an overstrung and taut frame that is so uncompromising in its accommodation to changing circumstances that unanticipated stressors are likely to precipitate either explosive outbursts or inner shatterings. (Millon, 1996, p. 702)

Equivocal [No direct evidence was found in the materials examined]

Explanatory Notes

In my psychodiagnostic meta-analysis of Eric Harris’s writings I attempted to reproduce the exact text, including spelling and punctuation. The small font size and poor quality of the copy complicated this endeavor. Unspaced ellipses are reproduced from Harris’s text; spaced ellipses signify material omitted from my reproduction of the text. Page references for Harris’s writings and my personal comments appear in square brackets.
Some of Harris’s statements/utterances are diagnostically employed in two or more categories. The reason is that specific statements can illuminate several personality attributes.
Each diagnostic criterion in the "psychodiagnostic meta-analysis" is coded to indicate its associated personality pattern (S = sadistic/aggressive; A = antisocial/psychopathic; N = narcissistic; P = paranoid). Other personality patterns that need to be investigated are avoidant personality disorder (withdrawn pattern) and borderline personality disorder (unstable pattern). Borderline personality can be a factor in self-destructive behavior and adolescent self-mutilation. Overtly unstable, mercurial behavior may be indicative of an underlying borderline personality disorder. I suspect that Eric Harris may have had some borderline features, but this would be difficult to establish without collateral information from people who knew him. Avoidant personality is relevant for two reasons: First, it may be significant with reference to Dylan Klebold, who apparently was the more reticent of the two. Second, from Millon’s perspective, Kernberg’s self-psychological formulation of the developmental etiology of narcissistic disorders (including malignant narcissism), describes a mixed narcissistic-avoidant syndrome in which the subject is presumed to have been "narcissistically wounded" in childhood, resulting in an underlying sense of insecurity and weakness. Theodore Millon, in contrast, views narcissism as being undergirded by genuine feelings of self-confidence and high self-esteem stemming from parental overevaluation and indulgence (not childhood rejection and disillusion as posited by Otto Kernberg and Heinz Kohut). It remains to be seen which perspective provides the better fit for Eric Harris.
The summary of my findings addresses the dominant "sadistic/aggressive" component of Harris’s personality profile. I have yet to examine his antisocial, narcissistic, and paranoid features more closely. It is conceivable that Harris, through his obsession with violent revenge (potentiated by Internet, film, and video influences), may have decompensated into a malignantly narcissistic, transient, paranoid state with fantasies of grandeur and self-glorification.
The present evaluation is based on a preliminary, partial coding of Harris’s writings; however, the preliminary coding yields sufficient information for tentative conclusions.
Concerning Dylan Klebold, I have little to go on, but at an intuitive level I don’t have the sense that his personality profile is consistent with what one would expect in a mass murderer. This may be of some relevance at the policy level: whereas Harris may have been biologically wired for disaster, Klebold could have been a victim of social influences and group dynamics. At the level of public policy, this is the only context in which the current debate about Hollywood, film violence, video games, the Internet, the "Goth" subculture, religion, and even parental responsibility makes any sense (in my opinion). For someone like Harris, the only useful preventative measures may simply have been stricter gun control, better school security, more effective law enforcement interventions and follow-up, and a system in place at Columbine High for reporting and dealing with suspicious activity (i.e., measures to protect society from his violent inclinations).

References

Kernberg, O. (1984). Severe personality disorders. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Millon, T. (1969). Modern psychopathology: A biosocial approach to maladaptive learning and functioning. Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders. (Reprinted 1985 by Waveland Press, Prospect Heights, IL)

Millon, T. (1986a). A theoretical derivation of pathological personalities. In T. Millon & G. L. Klerman (Eds.), Contemporary directions in psychopathology: Toward the DSM-IV (pp. 639-669). New York: Guilford.

Millon, T. (1986b). Personality prototypes and their diagnostic criteria. In T. Millon & G. L. Klerman (Eds.), Contemporary directions in psychopathology: Toward the DSM-IV (pp. 671-712). New York: Guilford.

Millon, T. (1990). Toward a new personology: An evolutionary model. New York: Wiley.

Millon, T. (1991). Normality: What may we learn from evolutionary theory? In D. Offer & M. Sabshin (Eds.), The diversity of normal behavior: Further contributions to normatology (pp. 356-404). New York: Basic Books.

Millon, T. [with L. G. Weiss, C. M. Millon, & R. D. Davis] (1994). Millon Index of Personality Styles manual. San Antonio, TX: Psychological Corporation.

Millon, T. [with R. D. Davis] (1996). Disorders of personality: DSM-IV and beyond (2^nd ed). New York: Wiley.

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Last updated April 21, 2000