Kip Kinkel Essay

Kip Kinkel was a high school student at Thurston High who was incarcerated for killing his parents, 5 students, and injuring over 20 other kids at school. Kip had a lot of psychological problems due to the biological and social aspects of his life, that maybe if had been treated properly, would not have made him feel the need to commit the crimes that he did. To begin, Kip Kinkel had many biological problems that may have kick started his problems from a young age. He had dyslexia, so he could not read and write very well. This caused him to fall behind in class and have to be held back a year. Biological psychologists would say that he had this problem due to his brain structure and chemicals and his brain that were dysfunctional and it caused him to have learning problems. He was also too small for his age, this made him get bullied by other boys at school. Psychoanalytic psychologists would say that because he had bed experience as a child, he probably would become bitter and feel like an outcast later in life as well. His mother was older than the recommended age to have babies and still be healthy, biological psychologists would say that this may have caused some abnormalities in his body and brain, such as the small body for his age, and dyslexia. Kip Kinkel had a terrible social life at home and at school. He got bullied in school because of his small body image; according to humanistic psychologists, this would lead him to low self esteem. He also had a lack of friends because growing up, he only had one friend, who was a girl, because he lived in a house that was kind of secluded in the woods, so there weren’t many kids around. He also got held back a year while all of his friends went on to the next grade. This would make him feel lonely and isolated according to the humanistic approach. Kip had a bad relationship with his family as well. He did not live up to his parents standards, and he did not really have anything to bond with his father over, except guns. This probably made him insecure about himself, always trying to be better than he was to please his parents. According to the psychoanalytic theory, security and parental relationships are major influences on personality. Kip also had many psychological issues that may have pushed him over the edge. He was diagnosed with depression, and given Prozac. However, shortly after he was starting to feel okay, the doctors took him off of it. This made him depressed again, but nobody realized it. He was also believed to be a schizophrenic because he would talk about â€Å"the voices in my head†, however he was never diagnosed and never treated for it. The combination of depression and schizophrenia lead him to maladaptive behaviors, according to the cognitive perspective, such as exploding homemade bombs and shooting things to take out his anger and relieve stress. Incarceration may not have been the been conclusion for the crimes that Kip committed. All of the things he did were because of his of his psychological problems that were caused from the social and biological aspects of his life growing up, and that were mistreated. If Kip had been better treated medically, the shootings may have not happened. Kip Kinkel is just the severe victim of his disorders, not just a cold hearted killer.