Opinion: No Conspiracy Theory
by Michael J. Salamon
Issue of November 20, 2009/ 3 Cheshvan 5770
The human mind is built to try to comprehend the environment. Part of our role as thinking human beings is to create an order to our lives and set some guidelines for healthy interactions with others. This striving for insight has led us to create many impressive theological and scientific advances. When misdirected it causes us to develop what is known as confirmatory bias, ignoring the reality that is right before us. Both are at work in the situation of the Fort Hood terrorist Major Nidal Malik Hasan.
I deliberately call the major a terrorist and I did so from the beginning because he created a situation filled with terror at Fort Hood. If you create terror then you are a terrorist. I am also enraged at our media sources for discovering a new diagnostic category to explain away his act of terrorism. He was never exposed to a war-time battle, so he did not develop Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. His behavior could not be excused away by calling his troubles PTSD. What the media did was give him a diagnosis of secondary or vicarious PTSD, said to be caused by being exposed to people who were exposed to trauma which caused his problem. By creating a new diagnostic grouping the media trivialized the heinousness of what Hasan committed. There is no real data that indicates that PTSD is a prima facia cause for the desire to shoot over 50 people. Most sufferers of PTSD have terrible symptoms and often withdraw socially but they do not necessarily become homicidally aggressive. Many mental health specialists work with PTSD sufferers, myself included. There is a great deal of stress when working with individuals who suffer from this problem but I know of very few who have developed anxiety disorders as a result of this. Trained psychologists know when to take a respite from this type of work. They do not deliberately shoot their comrades. This rush to minimize the true effects of PTSD on individuals who are traumatized by creating a new category as an excuse to explain Hasan’s rampage is inexcusable.
New information about Hasan is slowly leaking out. It is now evident that Major Hasan scored at the lowest possible level on his professional internship reviews. No one else who scored at this level, assuming anyone ever did, was given a commission to practice medicine in the Army. One of Major Hasan’s bosses at the Fort Hood hospital where he was assigned spoke to reporters two days after his shooting rampage and stated that it was obvious that the Major had trouble fitting in, as she said, “we were working with him.” An army physician I am in contact with said that there had been many warning signs about Hasan but no action was taken.
Even more information is trickling out about Hasan. He gave away all his belongings before the attack. This alone is a common sign of suicidality or homicidcal intent. Investigators have found his most recent business cards which do not have the appellation Major. Instead, Hasan added SoA, servant of Allah, before his name. It seems that his calls to and possible visits with radical Muslim clerics were known but overlooked. In an overwhelmingly bizarre way political correctness or confirmatory bias allowed the military and the FBI to ignore some frighteningly clear indicators of a developing terror attack.
In his weekly radio address President Obama asked Congress this past weekend not to investigate the Fort Hood shooting yet as it may become too politicized. By asking for this the president is backtracking on his promise of openness. More importantly, he is creating an impression of obfuscation that goes beyond the media all the way to the president’s office.
Recent research of terrorists and their behaviors is instructive. According to Dr. John Horgan at Pennsylvania State University, who has studied 60 terrorists in depth, these individuals display no real mental pathology. They are angry, alienated, they identify with perceived victims and believe that random violence against others is morally allowed. Many people throughout the world meet these criterion but we rely on our leaders to give us the guidance and protection we deserve when they have the proper information. If that most basic form of protection is withheld we naturally develop theories bordering on the absurd. Human beings strive for understanding and we are often put in a position of piecing together information to make sense of disparate facts. Lately this very common psychological exercise has been labeled as constructing conspiracy theories. If the case of Hasan is any indication we may find that the theories are not just conspiratorial but real.
Dr. Salamon is founder and director of the ADC Psychological Services in Hewlett, NY. His recent books include The Shidduch Crisis: Causes and Cures, published by Urim Publications.
