Through the eyes of a psychiatrist: what drives people to kill? – Respublika.lt

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Terrorist attack in Moscow. EPA-Elta photo.

Martynas MARCINKEVIČIUS, director of the Vilnius City Mental Health Center, comments:

“When it comes to what makes people kill, the reasons can be very diverse. Let’s say that in wars, soldiers kill because it is the command of the commanders, but here too there are moral dilemmas. However, as the Nuremberg trial showed, only the highest commanders were tried for crimes against humanity and particularly brutal concentration camp wardens, but not ordinary enforcers of orders.

In this particular case, we have little information and it is not clear whether it can be trusted. But most of the time, such killings are not about money, but about beliefs, religious or otherwise. People decide to kill because some leader – political or spiritual – convinces them that it will serve a higher idea. And then people, even knowing that they may be arrested or killed themselves, still decide to turn their guns on those around them.

By the way, in this case, it is strange when the attackers shot at the crowd without being disturbed for several minutes, and then managed to escape, but I think they knew that they were actually sacrificing themselves. So, I highly doubt that money was the main motive in Moscow, because the people arrested are neither professional killers nor mercenaries. Here, most likely, the authority of the one who gave the orders in the shadow worked and their own conviction that they would serve a higher idea.

When it comes to survivors of a terrorist attack, there is no doubt that some of them will experience or are already experiencing post-traumatic stress. This topic has been one of the most discussed in the global psychiatric community in recent years due to the covid restrictions, the growing number of illegal migrants and the third year of the war in Ukraine.

The intensity with which it will occur will be determined by how dangerous a situation people were. Those who have been cornered, forced through flames, or shot at will experience a stronger and more profound shock that, if left untreated, can have lifelong consequences. And in contrast to those who simply ran, but did not understand from what, the consequences may be lighter.

We work with Ukrainians in our hospital and we notice that being in the war itself may not cause stress, but it is 100%. occurs if a person gets into a situation where his life is in danger.

The mentioned circumstance presupposes that after the war in Ukraine ends and the soldiers return home, new outbreaks of violence may await Russia. As US practice shows, in the 20 years after the Vietnam War, more veterans died of violent crimes in America than in Vietnam itself. It is the same with the participants of the Afghanistan war in Lithuania – they are almost gone.”