IMO his parents had abandoned him for years (testimony of a neighbor). Traumatizing a child e.g. by neglect, rewires their brains permanently, so we can’t assume his violent tendencies existed independently of the way he was treated by them.
There was plenty enough in that household to create the conditions for either murder or suicide; you treat a child the way they did from a young age, at the very least, you’re going to get disordered thinking patterns, because normal human thinking patterns require certain parental (or parent-figure) interactions.
There is a lot of research current in this area. As an example that may not exactly be obvious, they have discovered that it’s not unusual for adopted children with behavior (issues), likely before they were adopted, to have poor internal rhythm. Treatment involves time on a trampoline, and having them bounce.
The lead scientist in this area is Van der Kolk.
Here’s a snippet of his work to summarize what I’m trying to say:
Traumatised people live in a world that's different from people who have not been traumatised. Their world looks different in every conceivable measure, whether it's brain or mind or body. It's a different planet.
Bessel van der Kolk
Boston Trauma Centre director Bessell van der Kolk believes that traumatic events affect people’s bodies as much as their brains. He explained to Lynne Malcolm why self-awareness is at the centre of his unconventional approach to therapy.
www.abc.net.au
I believe this is the speech where van der Kolk talks about trampolines. Hearing him speak like this may be the best way to latch onto the kinds of things he talks about. His focus is how child abuse changes the brain, including how violence comes about. Very compelling talk IMO.
