The Unibomber is a particularly instructive case study in
superiority/inferiority complex formation. The basic facts are:
* He is from Chicago.
* His parents allowed him to attend Harvard in the early sixties beginning at
the age of 16. He obtained a BA in Mathematics and left the impression of
unsociability which suggests that he was thrown in with more mature 18 year
olds and was unable to relate to them.
* He attended the University of Michigan in the middle sixties very
successfully, obtaining a Masters and Phd in Mathematics.
* He taught at UC Berkeley in the late sixties, probably the premier new Phd
job in his field in this country. He stayed only two years and gave the
impression of greater interest in social issues, suggesting that he was
experimenting with marijuana, a very likely possibility given the year.
* He sent letter bombs to members of his profession and members of related
fields for 18 years without being discovered.
* He was finally exposed by his brother, who will be elligible for a million
dollar reward if a conviction ensues.
* When discovered, he was living in a remote village in Montana in a one room
cabin with no electricity or plumbing. He owned a bicycle made from scavenged
parts.
* He published a manifesto declaring that technology had proven an
unmitigated disaster for humanity.
* He maintained a long term pen pal relationship with a working class
Mexican, whom he never met, but to whom he sent a lovingly carved, elaborate
container. He communicated with this man in Spanish. This suggests that he
was very lonely and very bored.
From these items and a general understanding of this complex, some conclusions
can be reached.
The UB suffers from excessive intelligence which produces alienation in many
cases due to rejection after demonstrations of superior intellect to peers in
childhood, and inadequacy in sports and social graces. This situation is
implied by the reports that no socializing was remembered by his peers at
Harvard.
We can surmise that he spent all his time emphasizing his superiorities and
repressing his inadequacies. The inadequacies will have, therefore, built up
into a complex, generating feelings of inadequacy and desire for revenge. The
desire for revenge will be directed at those who rejected him at his arrival at
Harvard, forcing, we can suppose, long months of isolation on him and
introspection regarding the source of his suffering. This explains the
recipients of his explosive messages.
The experiences of the sixties will also have exposed him to rebellion, the
perception that everyone was sexually involved except him, and discussions of
an anti-technological nature.
The complex and its desire for revenge will be the motivating force behind the
letter bombs, not the environmental awareness. How can it be imagined that
letter bombs will have a prosurvival effect at the individual, societal, or
species level? It cannot. It does have the effect of producing fame and fear
and it is useful for rationalizing. One can say to oneself, "Society is in
danger and these acts will wake them up." Of course no awakening is necessary,
considering the excess of media commentary environmentalism gets.
As with other complexes, we can expect that parental involvement is to be
suspected, but no evidence has so far been exposed, except for his enrollment
at Harvard at 16. Certainly his parents had something to do with this. Having
obtained the education he did and living in a cabin in Montana with no visible
means of support suggests a pampered childhood in an upper middle class home.
It is very common in such circumstances for the parents to do everything they
can to encourage intellectual overachievment, thinking this a route to fame
which will reflect on them. This is a particularly naive and destructive form
of parenting and will produce a shock when the child is exposed to peers that
are unimpressed with his endowments. This commonly occurs on the female side
when a mother pushes an attractive child into beauty comparisons with her
peers. The result is usually isolation due to the implicit negative comparison
experienced by peers and the desire to evade the experience. In males it is
even worse, due to the more rare occurrence of great intelligence compared to
beauty. The reverse also occurs, that is excessive intelligence in the female
and excessive physical beauty in the male, but more rarely. It has the same
effect.
Obviously, it is not necessary that unusually endowed children grow up with
psychological problems, but it is likely in the absence of particularly
sensitive parents. The best strategy for parents to adopt in these
circumstances is to emphasize the child's weaknesses and to minimize the
significance of the strengths.
One final indication of a UB complex, perhaps the most important is what I
would call a child complex. This is indicated by several comments about his
treatment of his family, for example requiring them to mark their important
letters under the stamp and his own complaints about a lack of autonomy in his
personality. This suggests to me that he has a child complex that takes over
from time to time especially in relating to his family. How this could occur
would be in circumstances where when still a child one is encouraged to act
like an adult. This would lead, if the encouragement was strong enough, to
acting out the adult role, and if this were done habitually, the effect would
be to repress the childish features of the personality instead of allowing them
to mature out of existence in the usual way. That is to say, as an effort of
self will through understanding preferring adult responses. This is a
dangerous kind of complex, since children are frequently cruel due to lack of
understanding of the implications of their actions.
The Scotland Children's Massacre
This is another interesting complex case study. The basic facts are:
* A Scottish man enters a local school with two handguns and kills and wounds
the teacher and several children before taking his own life.
* His history includes functioning as a scout master to young boys and
criticism for sexual improprieties.
* His father departed the family when the boy was 18 months old.
* The subject reportedly exhibits a fascination with guns.
From these facts, it can be surmised that the man suffered from a
sexual/dominance complex. This arises when the parent, usually the mother,
punishes any manifestation of a sexual nature, such as masturbating, and any
occurrence of aggression, like fighting with other boys. Over time an
alternate personality accumulates of a sexual/dominance nature. This attracts
the sufferer to the scout leader experience, where opportunity to satisfy this
complex exists. Some attempts are made, resulting in the reported criticism
and the elimination of this outlet. The needs of the complex, being unmet,
build up over time, leading to the explosion in the school house, which is the
experience par excellence in satisfaction of the needs of the complex, and so
compelling that the sufferer is willing to sacrifice his life to get it. It is
perfect because guns are used to impose one's will on relatively defenseless
boys. Guns, as we know from Freud, are a substitution for the phallus and a
perfect one they are too. They are profoundly stiff and ejaculate on demand
and the result is destruction.
The correspondence between complexes and ordinary garbage dumps cannot be
overemphasized. In these times when garbage dumps have become an ubiquitous
problem in most communities of any size in this country, the similarities
between them and the psychological complex should be apparent. In both cases,
humans are trying to be rid of unwanted objects that don't enhance the domicile
being created. In both cases the dump builds up until it presents a
destructive force on its own. In both cases, memory of the dump's creation can
be lost and the only method of identification becomes analysis of its effects.
Beyond that, we live in a world of symbols, similarities, parables, similes,
allegories, analogies, etc. It should be no surprise that a physical analog
for the complex exists, in fact, it should provide confirmation of the analysis
of this psychological phenomenon.
The Tasmanian Devil
A wealthy and eccentric loner massacres 35 and wounds 19 more in Tasmania.
O.J.