Roeder psyche fascinates county psychologist

As the case continues to unfold against the man accused of killing Wichita abortion provider Dr. George Tiller, there is one aspect that grabs the attention of Johnson County Mental Health psychologist Dr. Art Ross.

"What fascinated me when I heard about (Tiller's murder) was the inconsistency," Ross, who works with inmates through the Johnson County Sheriff's Department. "Here's a person who champions this cause (against abortion), saying (Tiller) is actually killing people by what he's doing and then yet, at the same point, goes out and does the act he is protesting against.

"That's what fascinates me about this whole case."

Although Ross admits to not having talked with Scott P. Roeder, Merriam, the man accused of murdering Tiller, or any knowledge of the evidence against him, Ross has spent the past 8 years with Johnson County Mental Health and working talking to inmates that have committed violent acts, even murder. He has an additional 13 years of practice.

Ross said there are no absolutes when a person takes the life of another human being.

"There are various reasons," he said. "In the realm of psychology, there are different viewpoints and philosophies. Some believe it's early childhood development, especially parental oversight or their involvement or lack of, and that people tend to become pathological or have pathology as a result of that.

"That's more of your psycho-dynamic or Freudians of the world."

Others, he said, believe some people are natural-born killers that have a genetically dominant disposition that can be fostered through environmental triggers to make that type of person act upon and carry out the behavior.

"The other is everybody's born to be good, but then through environmental influences they acquire certain behaviors," he said. "So you go through the whole gamut of the deterministic view to actually more of a positive view that ends up going sour, if you will."

Ross stresses that a person who murders another doesn't mean mental illness is involved.

"A person could be normal and kill somebody and not be pathological," he said. "Sometimes people think you have to have a mental illness to be dangerous; I do not necessarily believe that to be so.

"Sometimes maybe you just get angry. If you've had no psychological issues and you've been a model citizen and then one day you get so angry and you go act on your anger, you get impulsive for whatever the reason and you go and do the act, afterward, you're very remorseful and then you're back to where you were and that's not necessarily pathological."

Ross said sometimes people bottle their emotions and their feelings are similar to a smoldering fire that suddenly flames and burns down the forest.

"Another piece of the (diagnosis) is when people really believe in something, what is the distance they are willing to go in that belief," he said. "Even though in that instance (the Tiller murder killing for example) is not sanctioned, but in their mind they might sanction it as being their calling or their duty."

In combat, Ross said, some soldiers come home and have suffer mental health problems because they have trouble coping with what they have experienced while others, because they believe completely in their mission, are able to gear themselves toward combat situations and mentally are able to live with their war experiences.

It has been reported that Roeder has had a history of mental health problems, that he has been involved with the anti-government organization Free Men, and that since the early 1990s, he has been obsessed in promoting the anti-abortion movement. He has been described as someone "extremely quiet and very scary."

Ross various factors can play a role in triggering a person to act upon their thoughts. There have been some accusations that some of the blame in Tiller's murder lies with the rhetoric by some news commentators and anti-abortion organizations that not only entice violence but condones it when it happens.

"I would never eliminate the possibility of the influence of the environment and also the passion (in a cause or belief)," Ross said. "I'm a cognitive behavioral psychologist, so I believe in how we think about things and feel about things. To me, I think there is a faulty logic in a sense that somehow, in (Roeder's) mind, he gets himself to believe that what he's doing is the right thing; that he would not see any inconsistency in (murdering to stop what he perceives as a murderer); it probably wouldn't even come into his mind so that when he goes out and does the act, his cognition fits the behavior."

Would toning down the environmental rhetoric help deter this kind of violence in the future?

"I don't know," Ross said. "It's hard to believe that a person champion that kind of cause would (commit murder). I'm fascinated with that. But in the end, (all the theories) are all hypothesizes; there is no exact profiling.

"(Murdering) is illegal and you should be punished for it, but that doesn't make you psychotic or mentally ill."

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