Kazmierczak Dissociatve?
The details about this man who shot 20 people and left 7 dead are beginning to unravel.  This mornings AP article talked about the contradictions in his behavior.  They sound, in my experience, very much like those of a Dissociative Identity Disordered individual.
Evidence?
Kazmierczak was hospitalized in the past, for what condition we don't know. One of the issues he dealt with is that he didn't like staying on his meds.  Many DID clients are mistakenly given anti-psychotic medications which cause them side effects and are inneffective in managing symptoms.  Voices that come from being split into alter personalities cannot be silenced by drugs.
Another issue he struggled with was self harm, a common symptom of DID.  Reportedly he was a "cutter" (someon who cuts themselves).  "Cutters" do this in an effort to manage internal pain. Our bodies release endorphins when we are injured and these endorphins coursing through our system relieve pain in much the same way opiates do.  This is one of the reason's it is so difficult to stop "cutters" from cutting.  It becomes quite addictive.
Kazmierczak's pain
Most of the people who knew him had little to say about him that sounded like he was suffering in any way.  They saw him as a nice guy, though some suggested he struggled with intimacy problems.  He had a girlfriend who reports say he sometimes engaged in physical altercations with, though it never involved hitting.  He would physically restrain her during arguments.
The night befoe the shootings he talked with his uncle making plans for playing a game of chess with him.  None of this sounds like someone in psychological distress.  Though there are reports of his possibly haven broken up with his girlfriend.
What could have happened to him?
It's doubtful that we will ever know what happened to him to have created the kind of turmoil he was clearly experiencing. Family's of these type of perpetrators rarely admit to having knowledge of their having been abused in any way. Why would they want to acknowledge what they might have done to contribute to these people's horrific behaviors?
Cho Seung-hui, the gunman who killed 32 students at West Virginia Tech, had sent many more clues as to his misery. He was reportedly on anti-psychotics and also had been hospitalized for mental illness in the past.  But his writings certainly indicated trauma history.  He wrote repeatedly suggestive statements of his having been sexually abused, and his intense anger about it. Could he have been split, too? It's not so clear with him since his behavior was more consistent with the profile of someone who would do this sort of thing. But he was certainly suffering from some kind of traumatic history.
Traumatic splitting
Traumatic splitting occurs, generally in childhood, when a person is subjected to some kind of traumatic incident that is overwhelming to the child. While the trauma is happening the child energetically leaves their body, looking down on themselves as if from above.  They then look at the child being traumatized as being separate from them, as if it were happening to someone else.  This kind of splitting, when it occurs frequently enough, becomes DID. At least, that is one of the paths to the disorder.



The faces of evil or the faces of pain?
Looking at these facese is spooky, perhaps because we know what happened to the person behind those eyes. But even without having known what these men did, we could easily see that something is missing in their eyes. Could it be dissociation? Could these hollow expressions carry the blankness of one's mind being split so completely as to carry out such horrific behaviors? Let me know what you think when you see these faces.  Could this kind of pain be behind the attacks? Comment below.