Marc Lepine, a 25 year old boy entered the corridors of Montreal's École Polytechnique University and started separating boys and girls. He then opened fire and killed 14 girls (The Montreal Massacre – Gunman massacres 14 women, 1989). Looking into Marc’s case deeply and studying his childhood reveals that his actions can be significantly explained using psychological theories such as Miller and Dollard’s Four Stage theory, the idea of lacking empathy and Bowlby’s and Ainsworth’s attachment theory. This paper not only depicts the effect of the psychological deviant behaviours but also its connection to above mentioned theories. Steps have been taken to take this paper beyond the classroom teachings by researching various books, news articles and journals.
What will go through one’s mind if he/she hears a boy killed 14 girls at once? A normal person would think “was he crazy?”, “was he out of his mind?” and more phrases like this. A very similar event happened on December 6th, 1989. Marc Lepine, a 25 year old boy entered the corridors of Montreal's École Polytechnique University and started separating boys and girls. He then opened fire and killed 14 girls (The Montreal Massacre – Gunman massacres 14 women, 1989). His words such as “I want women”, “I hate feminists” show his hatred towards women and his cause for committing this crime. Just before killing women, he justified his actions by saying “You’re all a bunch of feminists. I hate feminists” (Eglin and Hester, 2003).
Marc’s home and his family atmosphere were the major contributors towards the crime committed by Marc.
Empathy is the basis of all morality and social life. The best and most appropriate time to learn empathy is childhood. Parents are the main ‘teachers’ in this case. The lack of empathy makes a person selfish, cold, inhumane and as a result they often don’t experience guilt, identification and
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