Just read this about the Virginia Tech shooter:

Cho wrote a play called "Richard McBeef" in which he describes a 13-year-old boy who accuses his stepfather of pedophilia. The story ends with the boy's death.

Another piece, called "Mr. Brownstone," has three high-school students facing an abusive teacher.

"I wanna kill him," says one character.

"I wanna watch him bleed like the way he made us kids bleed," says another.

If there turn out to be survivor issues involved in Cho's rampage, there may be a lot of ugly attacks on male survivors in the press. I don't know if we've got any way of coping personally or responding publicly, but the finger-pointing is already getting out of control and nobody's latched onto the survivor angle.

Stay strong, my friends -- could be a lot of triggers coming...

MV

Its funny how we always expect the finger to be pointed at us.
This tragedy will not be blamed on him being abused, it was
more to do with a girl he was besotted with.

Nobody can know when someone decides to use their anger as a
weapon to kill, but some signs where there and nobody took
notice.

Hindsight or finger pointing is not going to raise the dead,
neither does the thoughts of the masses.
He was an obvious psychopath, just one of the many amongst us,

ste

I think Cho was a survivor who lacked the support and courage to seek help. I bet he was perped. I could be wrong, but my GUT FEELING is that he was a victim of CSA.

Survivor angle has already come up, in the more "thoughtful" journals. I was reading a blog this morning where a therapist said she thought he was an abuse survivor.

http://newsbloggers.aol.com/2007/04/17/cho-seung-huis-plays/

That's the link to the 'plays'

Reading them I'm sure he was a victim of abuse, almost certainly sexual. Just how many clues are there in those writings?

Everything is there, revenge, the graphic details, the 'feel-good' of the casino win, the expectation of being the 'loser' and the subsequent loss of the win.
Even the style of writing has the essence of a fast running fantasy / dissociation to it.

I'm not an expert, never professed to be one either, I'm a survivor who's made an effort to understand what goes on in order to help myself, everything else I've learned is a bonus.

People were reading this stuff he'd written, far better educated and informed people than me, didn't someone spot that this kid was having problems?
Or am I sounding like one of the army of TV 'experts' ?

Dave

I had a different take of McBeef. It appeard as though Cho was Mcbeef. The spoiled kid, the over protective, irrational women...both use to wealth. How McBeef hadnt actully commited any offense but underwent all this attack until he finally snapped at the end. Maybe cho saw that as himself, being unjustly attacked.

I actully dont believe he underwent any sexual abuse. I think he turned psychotic. Isolated and introveted with his thoughts, fantasies and angers for too long that the line blurred and something trivial set him off. Brings to mind Marc Lapine who hated feminists. Cho hated rich kids and women.

Marc Lepine hated everyone, but he especially hated women.

Here is a good psych-based assessment of that Cho guy, from a blogger I know:

http://everyoneneedstherapy.blogspot.com/

I think Cho was sexually abused as a child. My gut feeling is that the fact that he never made eye contact with people and hardly ever spoke was due to shame and a secret he was trying to protect. I think the secret of the abuse finally ate him alive. Notice also the rage in his two plays towards older male figures including a stepfather and male teacher his characters wanted to kill. These father figures I think are the real targets for the rage.

I think in his videos he was talking to a real person, rather than all people. I think he wanted to bring shame upon this person by killing a bunch of innocent bystanders. Of course, this is all speculation on my part, but as someone who was sexually abused by his father, I can relate to much of Chos rage including wanting to get even and wanting to act it out. I got help for my rage, shame and terror issues, though. Its too bad he didnt get the help he needed so that he could have talked it out instead of acting it out.

His classmates already had him down as "a school shooter*.
The writings were assessed by a psychologist, and dismissed
as fantasy.

I dont think anyone could have foretold the horror ahead, but in
hindsight, we all see the clues.
There are many pieces to this jigsaw, and blaming one aspect
will never lead us to the cause.

Lets face it, he should have had some level of support, but
he did not.
If you track it back to his childhood, who knows what he has
witnessed, or been made to do.

He obviously did not fit into society, that is all they may
ever know,

ste

Of course guys, you know it was the gun's fault. That ought to take lot of the media attention andvery limited time off of survivors.

They seem to be treating his potential "abuse issues" in a foregone-conclusion mode. That is, they say "victim of abuse"...the public automatically has their well in-grained conclusion surronding that....and "that" seems to be the vampire syndrome et. al.