A motive is emerging (Sandy Hook shooting)

[frostfern]

70. I don't buy it...

Far from uncaring, the picture I'm getting was that Nancy Lanza was overprotective of her son. In addition to being socially awkward, he had a somewhat rare condition where his sense of pain was deadened, thus as a child he frequently injured himself. This makes her fearfulness understandable. She pampered and controlled him and he felt extraordinarily trapped and was made to feel that he was defective.

Also, autism is a condition that can sometimes make it exceptionally difficult for a child to show outward affection. This makes the mother feel like her desire to be nurturing is being rebuffed, making her feel inadequate. Then the tendency is to overcompensate by becoming controlling and overbearing. He didn't feel unloved. He felt smothered. He wanted to strike out on his own but his mother was afraid to let him. Chances are Nancy tried to institutionalize him because he threatened to move out and she was afraid. This damaged his ego so much that he went into an almost psychotic blind rage.

He also had a condition called alexithymia that made it impossible for him to express how he was truly feeling. People with this condition tend to resist any kind of talk therapy. When in distress they bottle up their emotions. They will not tell you what they're feeling. They cannot be consoled. Adam Lanza's mind was a boiling pressure cooker.

Why did he choose to kill children? I think maybe it was symbolic. They're innocence and shelteredness was the very thing that enraged him. They represented his past. It wasn't revenge. It wasn't punishment. It wasn't rational at all. It wouldn't have happened if he hadn't had access to such weapons while he was in such a senselessly blinded state of mind.