PRIMITIVE INSTINCTS

Victor Bloom MD

Today's New York Times (May 17) reports an averted high school murderous rampage in Port Huron. Perhaps the Littleton tragedy helped classmates, teachers and parents to spot some warning signs and take preventive action.

The Port Huron Public Schools and the police said they closed all 21 schools on Friday after www.luxbaggirl.com discovering the plot by four students at Holland Woods Middle School. The superintendent had formed a committee to create a security plan for the district.

Two of the boys, age 14, were charged as adults with conspiracy to commit murder and ordered held in lieu of $100,000 apiece. Two younger boys were charged as juveniles with the same crime and all four are being held in custody. Police say the four planned a rampage like the one in Littleton, Colorado, that left 15 people dead in Columbine High School.

This report is yet another indication that a 'critical mass' has been achieved, in which, taking all teenage boys into account, a larger and larger percentage of them have been raised to be capable of murder, even mass murder. The complex causes have been given as media violence, parental neglect, the ease of obtaining firearms and explosives, the availability of information on the Internet of making bombs and battle plans, the consumer driven economy and a culture that tolerates abortion on demand.

All these various 'causes' have in effect overwhelmed the moral imperative not to kill. It is as if the Ten Commandments were rendered obsolete and archaic. The biblical prophets in their times were well aware of the people's savagery and barbarism. The bible was an attempt to control primitive instincts and enable a civilized culture to form. It has only partly succeeded. Despite billions of people who were raised with religion this century, there were abundant individuals who participated in war and genocide. Even now, Bosnian Serbs are destroying ethnic Albanians in a civil war the world would like to abort.

The trouble is that we, homo sapiens, are born with primitive instincts to kill. It is our jungle heritage. Since evolution dictates survival of the fittest, some of the fittest have been the most strong and ruthless. They were able to hunt effectively and wage war. They were able to defend themselves against other attacking groups.

But it was not just the most fierce and ruthless that survived. Among the fittest were those with intelligence, reasonableness and the ability to cooperate. While the soldiers were fighting, others maintained the home front and developed agriculture and animal husbandry. Others developed literature, science and the arts.

What we have today, in each person, is an admixture of destructive instincts and constructive inclinations. When we read about 'senseless' killings, we can't make any sense of Ñwhy one person would want to destroy another. We hate to think that some people actually get a sadistic thrill from killing, from exerting ruthless and indomitable power and destructiveness. Yet history proves that millions are capable of it. It is our primeval heritage. Most civilized people have a hint of their destructive potential in angry fantasies when things do not go their way. But the vast majority of us are in control of our instincts, and prefer to do symbolic acts, such as tear paper or bang on the desk or tabletop. Or go to movies and play in sports--- or simply watch.

Freud spoke of parenting as 'taming the instincts'. Each infant is a little animal with no culture, no morality, no consideration for anyone outside of it. The recent tendency toward promoting 'self-esteem' at the expense of demanding anything of a child, dictates that the older a child gets, the moreå unruly it gets without adequate controls. The infant must be taught not to bite the nipple, the toddler not to climb on furniture or run out into the street. The child must eventually be taught to control its excretory functions, and not necessarily when the child is 'ready', but when the mother is ready.

Toilet training is the first big battle in which the child's natural narcissism must give way to parental demands. This can be done gently and patiently, but firmly and persistently, giving rewards for deserving behavior. There is no other reason any child will control these functions, except out of love and fear of the parents. A childå who is given lots of love in the first year will naturally want to please the mother, and feels bad to displease the mother. This is the beginning of respect for authority and consideration of the feelings of others.

This is the beginning of controlling instinctual urges, which is the prerequisite of obeying the commandment, "Thou Shalt Not Kill."

Dr Bloom is Clinical Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Wayne State University and member of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis. He welcomes feedback by email to vbloom@comcast.net and visits to his website, victorbloom.com, where there are past issues of his columns.