We’ve all heard of declarations before. We learn about them in school. We create them in our deviance of our parents’ rules and sometimes as we get older we formulate personal declarations that guide the way we expect life and people to treat us. You may have heard people call it a creed, a system of beliefs that they hold true about themselves and the world in which we all live. But few have gone as far to call it a “manifesto” until recently when we learned that’s what mass murderer, Dylann Roof, called it.
Dylann Roof is a 21-year-old man who two weeks ago beastly killed nine adults in the historic Mother Emmanuel AME’s church in Charleston. One of the reasons I thought it best to address the way the media has painted his terrorism as lack of mental health intervention and poor gun policy is mainly to inform the public about the disordered way in which, Dylann Roof by clinical judgment, a sociopath operates. This is in no way to undergird the rationale of a killer. Instead, it’s a way to provide the language and information to better equip ourselves in the future with what to make of people like Roof.MUST READ: 8 Red Flags You May Be Dating A Sociopath
The reports the media provides describe Dylann Roof as delusional; delusional by way of examples given in his written statements denying the inhumane treatment of African Americans in this country. He also separated out Latinos as possible allies but only the “white” Latinos and said Jews’ focus is strictly on the fact that they’re Jewish. But what strikes me more than that is his calculated motives that targeted a specific group of folks from whom he felt have abused the privileges given to others in the United States. Another disturbing observation was the calm and intentional manner in which he took part in the prayer service and the choice words he used to selectively kill some members of the congregation while lauding that he would allow others to survive to tell the story.
Sociopaths carry an armor of air as if the world belongs to them. We know this in clinical terms as entitlement. They fail to experience guilt or shame in their willingness to hurt, manipulate or deceive people. Sociopaths usually believe their own distorted thinking and defend their stance to be justified. Dylann Roof made himself believe that he had a right to victimize an entire community of people and overall a nation of people who live in fear of copycat attacks.
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Sociopaths don’t reason, they rationalize and unfortunately, by psychological standards they have also been deemed incapable of recovery. Now, as Dylann Roof sits alive in his cell on a $1 million bail, families and friends of the nine massacred victims had to say a premature farewell to their loved ones.
Asha Tarry, LMSW, PLLC is a Mental Health Specialist, Life Coach and Owner of Behavioral Health Consulting Services (www.BHConsultingServices.net), a mental health company that provides consultations, evaluations, referrals and life coaching to adults 18 years and older with mental health and social services’ needs. Follow her @ashtarry on Twitter/ Asha Tarry on Facebook and LinkedIN. For a FREE 10 minute consultation with Asha, click here.
