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Possible Motives of Mark O. Barton
USPP
Unit for the Study of Personality in Politics
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Profiles
The Possible Motives of Atlanta
Day-Trading Mass Murderer Mark O. Barton
Aubrey Immelman
July 31, 1999
Part I: Personality Profile
Atlanta brokerage-office shooter Mark O.
Barton appears to fit the profile of individuals described in the psychopathology
literature as "sadistic borderline" personalities, a pattern that Theodore
Millon calls "explosive psychopathy" (Millon & Davis, 1998) or
"explosive sadism" (Millon, 1996) These individuals typically manage their
behavior sufficiently well to cope with the demands of their daily lives, careers, and
relationships, but lack the necessary psychological strength and cohesion to maintain
control in all situations, periodically erupting "with precipitous and vindictive
behaviors." As Atlanta mayor Bill Campbell told NBC’s "Today" show in
the aftermath of the rampage, it would be "too simplistic" to attribute
Barton’s final act solely to financial losses on the stock market. And Helen
Morrison, a forensic psychiatrist, told MSNBC that she agreed with Campbell about avoiding
simplistic answers, noting that psychiatric tests conducted in 1993 suggested that Barton
was predisposed to violence.
Millon and Davis (1998) describe the explosive
psychopath as follows:
The explosive psychopath is differentiated from other
psychopathic [or sadistic] variants by the unpredictable and sudden emergence of
hostility. These "adult tantrums," characterized by uncontrollable rage and
fearsome attacks upon others, occur frequently against members of the [explosively
sadistic] psychopath’s own family.
Such explosive behavior erupts precipitously, before its
intensive nature can be identified and constrained. Feeling thwarted or threatened, these
psychopaths respond in a volatile and hurtful way, bewildering others by the abrupt change
that has overtaken them, saying unforgivable things, striking unforgettable blows. As with
children, tantrums are instantaneous reactions to cope with frustration or fear. . . .
[T]he explosive behavior . . . is not primarily an instrumental act [i.e., designed to
achieve a particular objective], but rather an outburst that serves to discharge pent-up
feelings of humiliation and degradation.
Disappointed and feeling frustrated in life, these persons lose control
and seek revenge for the [perceived] mistreatment and deprecation to which they feel
subjected. In contrast to other [types of] psychopaths [or sadists], explosive individuals
do not move about in a surly and truculent manner [i.e., they can be seemingly easy-going
and affable]. Rather, their rages burst out uncontrollably, often with no apparent
provocation. In periods of explosive rage, they may unleash a torrent of abuse and storm
about defiantly, cursing and voicing bitter contempt for all. This quality of sudden and
irrational belligerence, as well as the frenzied lashing out [which in extreme cases can
include physical assault] distinguishes these psychopaths [or sadists] from the other
subtypes. Many are hypersensitive to feelings of betrayal or may be deeply frustrated by
the futility and hopelessness of their lives.
When explosive psychopaths are faced with repeated failures,
humiliations, and frustrations, their limited controls may be quickly overrun by deeply
felt and undischarged resentments. Once released, the fury of the moment draws upon the
memories and emotions of the past that surge unrestrained to the surface, breaking out
into a wild irrational, and uncontrollable rage. (p. 166)
The key to understanding Barton’s motives
in the Atlanta rampage may be this:
Whether justified or not, certain persons come to symbolize for
explosive psychopaths the sense of frustration and hopelessness that sparks their
explosive reactions. . . . [As sadistic borderline psychopaths] see it, these symbolic
figures must be obliterated. . . . The mere presence of these symbolic individuals stirs
deep feelings of failure and reminds them of the ways life has violated their hopes and
their integrity. Because they are unable to resolve the real sources of their resentment
and frustration, they come to feel that these symbols of futility and hopelessness must be
removed from the scene. Confronted by their inadequacies, explosive psychopaths may be
provoked into panic and blind rage. The resulting violence is a desperate, lashing-out act
against symbols rather than reality.
Millon and Davis’s analysis provides a chilling insight into
the motives of Mark Barton.
Finally, Millon and Davis suggest that
physical attacks against strangers or casual acquaintances may occur when verbally
unskilled psychopaths seek to terminate altercations in which they feel incapable of
responding adequately:
Unable to verbalize what they feel and why, feeling outmaneuvered
and humiliated, the [explosively sadistic] psychopaths respond in the only way possible
[as they see it] to remove the irritation. Thus impotence and personal failure become the
source of these aggressive acts, which serve to release accumulated tensions. Because
these explosive psychopaths may be provoked by otherwise innocuous interactions [or
unrelated events], their victims often seem rather incidental and arbitrarily selected.
The explosions are not so much a [reasoning] social response as an [irrational] emotional
release.
Part II: Acute Stress-Induced Symptom Disturbances Superimposed
on the Underlying Personality Pattern
According to Theodore Millon (1996),
"[t]he affective instability and diminished controls that characterize the
[borderline personality] pattern result in the periodic emergence of a number of Axis I
[mental] disorders" (p. 671), among them anxiety syndromes.
Millon (1996, p. 671) writes: "Brief
eruptions of uncontrollable emotion" occur in individuals with borderline personality
disorder, "who often experience states of generalized anxiety" as Barton
has apparently experience since last October, based on the account in his suicide note.
"For various reasons, traceable to particular vulnerabilities or coping
inadequacies" borderline personalities "fear the imminence of an impending
disaster or feel that they are being overwhelmed or will disintegrate from the press of
forces that surge within them." Considering feelings of impending doom, the stock
market uncertainty in the second half of 1998 may well have played a role. As for
overwhelming inner forces, the sadistic component of Barton’s apparent personality
pattern is characterized by an underlying character structure whose "eruptive"
morphologic organization, according to Millon (1996) comprises "powerful and
explosive energies of an aggressive . . . nature [that] threaten to produce precipitous
outbursts that periodically overwhelm and overrun otherwise competent restraints"
(p. 488). [Note: "Morphologic organization" refers to the overall
intrapsychic architecture that serve as a framework for the individual’s psychic
interior; in other words, the structural strength, interior congruity, and functional
efficacy of the personality system that serves as a primary determinant of an
individual’s ego strength.]
The generalized anxiety that erupts
periodically in individuals with underlying borderline personalities "may follow a
period of mounting stress in which a series of objectively trivial events cumulate to the
point of being experienced as devastating or crushing" (Millon, 1996, p. 671).
At other times, a "dramatic upsurge and emotional discharge" may be triggered by
the activation of unconscious impulses, and the consequent breakdown of intrapsychic
controls (p. 671). Both of these psychological pathways to an acute anxiety state may
plausibly have been at work in the case of Mark Barton. In his case, the unconscious
impulses in question most likely were powerful sadistic impulses of an explosive,
aggressive nature, exacerbated by the low threshold for hostile discharge and intolerance
for frustration associated with antisocial elements in his underlying personality.
Mark Barton’s suicide note suggests that
in the days or weeks prior to his killing spree, he may have developed acute panic
attacks. Millon (1996) writes: "There are . . . more intense periods when a sweeping
disorganization and overwhelming panic disorder take hold [in borderline
personalities]. The individual’s inner controls disintegrate and he "is carried
by a rush of irrational impulses and bizarre thoughts that often culminate in a wild spree
of chaotic behavior, violent outbursts, . . . suicidal acts, and so on" (p. 671) In
the case of Barton, sadistic elements in his underlying personality apparently contributed
to the inclusion of mass murder in his "wild spree of chaotic behavior." Millon
notes that these extreme behaviors may escalate to the level of a brief psychotic
disorder, characterized by "transitory states of both intense anxiety and ego
decompensation [i.e., breakdown of psychological controls and defenses] that terminate
after a few hours, or at most no more than one or two days," following which the
individual "regains his or her normal equilibrium" (p. 672) This, too, is
consistent with the intrapsychic character structure of borderline individuals, who,
according to Millon, experience "periodic schisms" in their psychic order and
cohesion, "often resulting in transient, stress-related psychotic episodes"
(p. 662).
Barton’s suicide note suggests that his
hypothesized psychotic breakdown presented as an acute delusional episode, characterized
by projection, in which Barton defensively disowned his undesirable, sadistic personal
traits and motives and attributed them to others – for example, his father ("The
fears of the father are transferred to the son. It was from my father to me and from me to
my son"), his wife Leigh Ann ("one of the main reasons for my demise"), and
unidentified others ("people that greedily sought my destruction"). Millon
(1996) asserts that sadistic personalities are particularly prone to delusional syndromes
by virtue of their "hypersensitivity to betrayal." Sadistic personalities,
according to Millon, "have learned to cope with threat by acting out aggressively
and, at times, explosively." In what appears to be a good fit for Barton’s
rampage, Millon writes: "Faced with repeated failures and frustrations, their fragile
controls may be overwhelmed by undischarged and deeply felt angers and resentments. These
hostile feelings, spurred by memories and emotions of the past, may surge unrestrained to
the surface, spilling into wild and delusional rages" (p. 492). Tragically, for
his victims the consequences of Barton’s troubled inner life were lethal.
References
Millon, T. (1996). Disorders of Personality: DSM-IV
and Beyond (2nd ed). New York: Wiley.
Millon, T., & R. D. Davis (1998). "Ten subtypes of
psychopathy." In T. Millon, E. Simonsen, M. Birket-Smith, &
R. D. Davis (Eds), Psychopathy: Antisocial, Criminal, and Violent Behavior
(pp. 161-170). New York: Guilford.
Page maintained by Aubrey Immelman,
USPP director and Suzanne Wetzel, USPP
contributor
www.csbsju.edu/Research/Barton.html
Last updated April 20, 2000
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