The Psychosis of Psychopathy Masquerading as Autism
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| Alek Minassian |
"Am I really going to be able to hit the accelerator or am I just going to chicken out and just drive past the intersection?""Because it is such a big act, people didn't normally do this, obviously I was hesitating.""I was thinking negatively on purpose just to make myself do it. I wanted to do it but I also wanted to want to do it ... I was trying to push out all thoughts of trying to talk myself out of it.""As soon as the light turned green my mind did a complete 180 and I thought I'm just going to go for it. And then I slammed the accelerator and drove onto the sidewalk.""I remembered to post that message on Facebook. The car was rolling forward at slow speed. I unlocked my phone and pressed send -- and I have that feeling of satisfaction that I have completed that task. At that point, I felt much more satisfied and happier and I continued driving forward."Alek Minassian, mass murderer, Toronto
"I don't think he was wrestling with the morality of the decision, I think he was wrestling with whether he had the guts to do this.""I don't think he was having a moral struggle. I think he was struggling with daring himself and putting things in place to ensure he didn't chicken out."{[Minassian could articulate the wrongfulness of his actions] on an intellectual level [but couldn't understand the emotional and moral implications.""He wasn't being constrained by the impact of what he was about to do. He doesn't have the faintest idea."Dr.Alexander Westphal, American forensic psychologist specializing in autism
The continuing trial of Alek Minassian has aired some compelling testimony from the man himself, describing his thoughts while driving down Yonge Street in Toronto on April 23, 2018. That he had almost come to the decision not to follow through on the action he had planned for weeks and rented a van for that purpose. To drive it at speed toward a crowded sidewalk intending to hit and kill as many people as he could possibly manage.
That was his goal. His purpose was to make a name for himself, to be noticed in the darkly sinister corners of the WorldWideWeb where criminal notoriety was admired by a wide circle of critically disaffected people rejecting societal norms, psychopaths by endowment of birth and inclination. Dr. Westphal is invested in persuading the court that the man he had interviewed and videoed was not a psychopath, but someone suffering from autism, a condition that limited his understanding of the outcome of his actions.
An ambition that seems quite at odds with the testimony of this man who disappointed himself by killing a mere ten people, young and old, men, women and children, injuring another sixteen, a horrible act of psychotic fusion with a distemper for life. He regretted that he was unable to kill more people. More women in particular. He invoked the message of incel, 'involuntary celibates', men who claim that women ignore and pass them over for other men and they dream of vengeance. Alek Minassian saw himself as a tool of revenge and that his accomplishment would be his claim to fame.
He would gladly have given his own life to have been able to kill far more than the mere ten lives he took. And during a police interview shortly after his arrest he said all that, and more. On the day of the action, he said, he was "nervous", while he performed a "mental rehearsal" of performing the act that would lift him to acclaim in the underground world of benighted deviants. He imagined pushing the pedal, mounting the curb. To "rev" himself up in the week leading to his launch he focused on the incel ideology of raging misogyny, leading to "forcing myself into the mindset ... so that I didn't chicken out at the last minute".
His destination was to drive further, into downtown Toronto (from where he set out from where he lived with his parents, in Richmond Hill). But as he approached Finch Avenue in north Toronto he happened to notice five people waiting to cross the road at a light. And it was there, instead, that he put his plan into action. With considerable success, although not to his complete satisfaction. Managing to kill ten and injure sixteen innocent people enjoying a fine spring day in the sun, strolling along a popular leisure route.
And though he expressed his dissatisfaction at a work unfinished during that interview after his arrest, that he would be prepared, given the opportunity, to go back and do it all over again, but better, to achieve a higher kill, he claims he should not be held criminally responsible for the atrocity since his autism ensured he was incapable of fully understanding that what he was doing was wrong. His trial for mass murder aired all of this. Leading Crown prosecutor Joseph Callaghan to question the expert witness, Dr.Westphal in his opinion that Minassian was unable to fully comprehend his actions.
Dr.Westphal responded that Minassian knew his attack would conclude with events that would end with him being arrested and imprisoned, if not killed during the attack himself. "I don't think that that means it was being referenced against some moral framework." While the attack was progressing, Minassian paused; as part of his plan, one detail was to post a message he had earlier composed on his Facebook page to the effect that the attack he had embarked upon was linked to an "Incel Rebellion".
During Monday's hearing, Minassian dozed off continually, eyes closing, head nodding down before jolting upright, then repeat and repeat and repeat. In contrast with his behaviour throughout the trial proceedings on previous occasions; ramrod straight posture, attentive focus.
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| CTV News 28-year-old Alek Minassian police interview (left) Scene of the carnage (right) |
Labels: 2018 Toronto Van Attack, Trial
posted by Pieface @ Wednesday, December 09, 2020
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