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Psychopath? Depressive? Schizophrenic?Was Cho Seung-Hui really like the Columbine killers?

By Dave CullenPosted Friday, April 20, 2007, at 3:45 PM ET

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Several clues to psychosis jumped out at Ochberg in Cho's plays. The endings particularly interested him: "The bad guy wins," he said. Harris and Klebold wrote and illustrated innumerable fantasies, and whether they were portraying heroic Marines battling aliens or vicious killers knocking off students, their protagonist always triumphed. But Cho's protagonists were crushed. That's a common way for schizophrenics to depict their dark sides triumphing, Ochberg said.

The most striking difference between Cho and the Columbine killers is blood lust. Witnesses described Cho emptying his clips robotically Monday—barely a word or a facial expression. Harris and Klebold relished their rampage. They laughed and howled and taunted their victims mercilessly. And their anticipation was equally arousing. "I can taste the blood now," Harris wrote a year earlier. Dylan depicted the slaughter of fictional "preps" in graphic detail, capturing the wail of police sirens and blood splatters in the moonlight. Victims wet their pants and hyperventilated in fear. The huge, hulking murderer emanated "power, complacence, closure, and godliness."

Cho's videos described only himself raped, crucified, impaled, and slashed ear to ear. He resorted to pronouns like "it" or "this" to avoid even mentioning his murders, much less depicting them: "I didn't have to do this. ... It's for my children. ... I did it for them." In other monologues, he distanced himself even further, implying what he'd begun but refusing to name it: "You forced me into a corner and gave me only one option. The decision was yours. Now you have blood on your hands that will never wash off."

Arrogant, cocky killers do not behave this way.

Ochberg observed Cho's inability to relate to others, a blank affect, disordered thoughts, and perceptions wildly out of sync with reality. "I'm beginning to think he's not responding to abuse and neglect, he's responding to all the fantasies and delusions in his head," Ochberg said Wednesday afternoon. "He could be struggling to fight these things. I'm beginning to think we have a mentally ill guy." Ochberg was hesitant to express those views publicly, but as evidence accumulated and he continued discussions with colleagues, he leaned further in the direction of psychosis. Other leaders in the field tend to be drifting that way as well.

But the best of them are reserving final judgment. "It's hard to diagnose the dead," Ochberg said. "We're going to need more information."

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Dave Cullen is the author of Columbine, which is being published this week. Cullen has contributed to Slate, Salon, the Washington Post and the New York Times.

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