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Eric Harris 'Psychopathy Behind The Columbine Killer'

1768 Words8 Pages

Sara Whobrey
Professor McCrady
English 102
24 January, 2023 The Psychopathy Behind the Columbine Killer, Eric Harris
Psychopaths are people who are born unable to feel a strong emotion of humans, empathy. Empathy is the ability to understand and feel for others and their feelings. Lack of empathy is only one trait of a psychopath. According to Crego and Widiger, the trait most attributed to psychopathy are antagonism, manipulativeness, dishonesty, and callousness. (Crego and Widiger 1.) These traits can be seen in many people worldwide, but are also concealed by them. Their veiling of these traits makes it harder for those closest to them to identify these traits. One person with these traits is one of the Columbine killers, Eric Harris. …show more content…

Eric was a person driven and engulfed by hate and disgust for the human species. His disdain is one of the main reasons he shot up Columbine. His belief is that people are lower and their behavior towards him by making fun of him creates a built-up hatred in Eric. An example of hatred Eric wrote in his journal says, “I hate the fucking world, too much god damn fuckers in it.” (Langman 1, Harris 26.) Eric blatantly reveals it is not any specific group he hates, but merely the human species as a whole. When he had originally planned his attack he planned to bomb the school, then shoot any stragglers. He never targeted jocks, African-Americans, or people with white hats, but aimed to kill everyone in the school. Eric colorfully expresses his disgust many times throughout his journals, papers, and essays as well as to Dylan Klebold. Eric very descriptively describes his hate in many fashions from the world to humans, when overall he hates everything. In his journal, Eric states, “The human race sucks. Human nature is smothered out by society, job, and work and school. Instincts are deleted by laws. I see people say things that contradict themselves, or people that don’t take any advantage to the gift of human life. They waste their minds on memorizing the stats of every college basketball player or how many words should be in a report when they should be using their brain on more important things.” (Langman 3, Harris 26.)He believed that humans were awful, and did not hold them in high esteem. Since he disregarded them in such a manner he believed himself to be God himself, placing himself above everyone else. Eric’s hatred for the world was clear for all to see alongside his psychopathy, although some believe he was only just beginning to be a

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