Lewiston shooter Robert Card’s mental state remains in question as authorities reported Thursday that he heard voices.
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Psychiatrist Cécile Rousseau first warns that we cannot currently be certain about Mr. Card’s mental health, but still rejects three hypotheses.
“First, there are people who hear voices when they use substances: drug use can cause them to hear voices,” she explains.
“The other possibility is that people who have had particularly difficult and traumatic lives may hear voices at times and in episodes that express their inner anger,” adds the psychiatrist.
The final possibility is that the shooter is suffering from a severe and persistent disorder or “psychosis.”
This last hypothesis may seem surprising at first since Mr. Card demonstrated technical skills in carrying out his murders that might seem inconsistent with a psychotic state.
“We often think that having a mental health problem means that we are no longer responsible for our actions and that we do everything. That’s not it: According to FBI data, active shooters, people who commit mass killings, are often people who were troubled, whose lives were very painful, who were in great distress, with anger and significant despair, but which were fully equal to their technical possibilities,” explains Ms. Rousseau.
“You are capable of taking a weapon, planning a murder and carrying it out. It is not because a person is not desperate, because he is aware of what he is doing, which is why it is necessary to offer help to people who make threats,” -She recalls.
Listen to the full interview with psychiatrist Cécile Rousseau in the video at the beginning of the article.