Paul Cooijmans, Pertti Luukkonen, Theodore Kaczynski (Unabomber), Anders Behring Breivik
Psychological Evaluation of Theodore Kaczynski
Paul Cooijmans 2005 http://www.paulcooijmans.com/psychology/unabomber.html
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FORENSIC EVALUATION NAME: KACZYNSKI, Theodore John
DOCKET NUMBER: CR S-96-259 GEB
DATE OF BIRTH: 05/22/42
DATE OF REPORT: 01/16/98
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Sally Johnson, M.D.
Chief Psychiatrist
Associate Warden of Health Services
Federal Correctional Institution
Butner, North Carolina
SCJ/dmd
On the psychiatric report (2005 Paul Cooijmans)
http://www.paulcooijmans.com/psychology/unabomber.html
Paranoid schizophrenia is the most severe diagnosis possible in the Unabomber's case, and with anything less he might well have been sentenced to death.
The diagnosis is justified in the report by viewing his belief system regarding technology (explained in the manifesto) and his suspicions against his family as delusional. Without these two delusions, he would not have satisfied the criteria for schizophrenia, and would have remained in the realm of personality disorders (paranoid personality with avoidant and antisocial features).
He was not psychotic at the time of his many psychological examinations, and the material shown in the report does not suggest any episodes of full-blown psychosis earlier on in life. There is no evidence of hallucinations; the report suggests his dreams and fantasies may really have been hallucinations, but that is but a weak attempt to suggest past psychosis in the absence of evidence. The diagnosis therefore rests upon interpreting his belief systems as delusional.
The important matter of his use of violence against innocent through bomb attacks - "reckless regard for the safety of others" is the euphemism employed in the report - is classified under "features of Antisocial Personality Disorder". He does not get that actual diagnosis (only features thereof) because there was no evidence of a conduct disorder before age 15. So the question as to how a highly intelligent person gets to use violence against innocent appears to be a question for the cause of Antisocial Personality Disorder or features thereof. This disorder is much more common in the less than highly intelligent, but clearly it does occur occasionally in high-I.Q. individuals. I do not know the cause of this disorder and may look into it later. At the moment I assume it is either genetic or has its cause in things going wrong (physically) in pregnancy, around birth or very early in life. Antisocial behaviour in children might also be related to psychological factors like their environment (e.g. living in a high-crime neighbourhood), but when it persists into (or occurs in) adulthood I suspect a non-psychological cause. Since neither of the Unabomber's parents appears to have been antisocial, one might think of a non-genetic brain defect caused by poisoning, nutritional shortage, illness and so on, very early in life (including pregnancy).