High-school shootings and other forms of hatred and violence are due in part to a psychological condition that has been difficult for authorities to understand and accept.

From childhood all of us displace inward some of our natural aggression that is directed back at ourselves as self-aggression. In milder forms, it is experienced as self-doubt and self-criticism. In more self-defeating forms, it intensifies to self-negation, self-condemnation, self-rejection, and self-hatred.

A violent gunman who randomly kills others isn't likely to be aware of the antagonistic relationship he has with himself. He convinces himself that somehow his targets are deserving of his hatred. But he is projecting his own self-rejection and self-hatred on to others and he imagines others reject and hate him to cover up his own self-hatred.

Few people understand how this works. Most Americans, even the most educated among us, don't understand basic tenets of psychology such as projection, transference, resistance, and narcissism. When we don't see the behavioral and emotional consequences of these psychological dynamics in ourselves, we can't understand a social phenomenon such as random killings.

In the case of high-school shootings, students who have personality disorders can have a particularly difficult time regulating or moderating their negative reactions to feelings of being rejected or bullied by others. The negativity they feel coming at them from others fuels their own self-hatred, causing a more intense projection of that hatred outward to others.

We cant control the number of students with personality disorders or borderline personality disorders who attend our schools. A psychologist may need several hours of talk and testing with an individual to determine whether such a disorder exists. When the disorder does exist, behavioral consequences usually cannot be predicted. The answer lies in improved teaching in our schools. Both emotionally stable and unstable students can benefit from a better understanding of psychology.

For instance, no one is teaching our children that rejection and bullying are reflections of one's own relationship with oneself. In rejecting others, a person is revealing the rejection he feels for himself. If an individual looks inward with this awareness, he is in a position to recognize the ways in which he doesn't like himself, to understand that this dislike is irrational and emotional, and to begin to appreciate and love his true being.

In this process, we see the fallacy of blaming others for our emotional reactions and we are less likely to act out antagonistically or violently toward others.

Cliques are a fact of life in the nations schools. Students use the cliques acceptance and validation to override their inner doubt and conflict. The left-out losers get to feel more intensely their non-acceptance, their self-rejection, and their perceived insignificance and worthlessness. The same dynamics are at work in students who become members of gangs or students who succumb to peer pressure to begin smoking.

But our schools aren't teaching our kids how to get along with each other. When psychology classes are taught, the course material is simplistic and homogenized, and more likely to focus on the behavior of rats in a cage than on the emotional plight of students trying desperately to come into harmony with themselves and others.

Many mental-health professionals discount the influence of subconscious forces and describe violence as learned behavior. But how do we account for the fact that many abused children become respected citizens? Or that respected citizens can produce anti-social children? A violent society or violent parents can certainly have a negative influence on young people -- but where does this violence originate?

When we are brave enough to face ourselves, we see our capacity for evil and violence in our human nature. As an example of our instinct to deny this, Luke Skywalker, in fright and disavowal, attacked the evil image of himself that he saw reflected as Darth Vader in the cave where Yoda sent him. Unless we take responsibility for this part of ourselves, we remain susceptible to its covert and dangerous impulses.

The dark side of our nature was previously kept more in check by influences such as religion, kinship, and a slower pace of life. Modern influences such as the availability and lethal power of firearms are thrusting upon us a need for greater self-understanding.

10/19/99

Peter Michaelson, M.A., is director of the Michaelson Psychotherapy Institute in Santa Fe.