Fantasy role-playing by Drew
I was going to call this 'The Devil's Web' which is the title of a book written in 1990 by Pat Pulling and Kathy Cawthon about children who get involved in role-playing games or virtual realities. It is a long time since I read it, during which time some people have been critical of it, I believe along the lines of its exaggerating any risk involved.
Since then people are more aware of some of the issues around violent films that children watch, or sadistic games played on computers. There is general and governmental concern about increasing crime and violence among young people, and about spree killings occurring in colleges particularly in the United States.
What does seem to warrant attention, apart from anything else, is that fantasy enactments in violent role-playing games are along the lines that adults are trained in for combat - to desensitise them and reduce any qualms they may have about actually pulling the trigger on a gun with the aim, desire or compulsion to kill people.
I do not know the number of instances in the UK where there could be cause for concern, but recently read that the man responsible for the Hungerford murders had just prior to them been involved in a violent role-playing game and had seemed to be 'still in it'.
In the UK we used to be led to believe by researchers that there was no significant correlation between watching violence and engaging in it. Nowadays we like to listen to researchers or journalists saying that there are reasons why things occur in places like America and, by implication, reasons why they are hardly likely to occur in the UK.
There is a concept - dare I term it 'received wisdom'? - that people are only likely to be adversely affected by violent films or games if there is something a bit wrong with them already, with the oft repeated phrase about how many people are not affected and go on to 'live normal lives'.
Well, they may do, but those affected through no fault of their own, because they cannot overcome the conditioning or grooming process towards violence, or because they or a family member are a victim of such violence, do not go on to 'live normal lives'.
Myths or Masks
Ask someone their favourite book or film and you tend to get an answer with a theme behind it, some hero or heroine who fought the odds or the world to come up trumps, or remain detached from horrendous things and get along just fine.
I spent some time reading what psychological profilers said about people like serial killers and I don't recall the details. But there was a recurrent theme about incidents in their past leading up to where the killers continue till they are caught - as if nothing else will do as a suitable end-piece. Are they 'responsible' for how the killing or activity began, can they change without getting caught, can they change after getting caught?
I feel we should not generalise too much, because each person or 'soul' is different. I do believe some killers and violent criminals gain significant insight either by their own efforts or with appropriate help. It's as if they can see into their own and other people's souls.
I've never been happy with a theory that, because some people suffer bad experiences in their formative years and do not proceed to commit atrocities, everyone with bad experiences should be able to avoid committing atrocities. Actually I don't feel that option is open to all: it is more like something greater having such a huge impact they can't control it.
We need our myths, fairy tales, heroes or whatever it is, so that we can latch our strange human brains onto them. We need a choice of role models to guide us through literally or mentally in our mind, some concept or construct which does the job for us, makes us more than we are as an individual acting alone.
Masks & Masquerade added July 2013
What did the Ancient Greeks or other civilisations know about the human psyche?
Does it have relevance today when we look at reasons for our malaise?
Taking the tour
Suppose that we are all a bit of a mixture, various strands each representing some continuum of personality or behaviour or whatever. We weave our way through with some consistency or maybe not much at all. As other people don't see all of it all of the time, they either don't notice something that jars or they are much puzzled by it. We may be too, because we don't have the full story either. What tends to happen is we rationalise to ourselves if we do something unusual, finding plausible explanations so there's not so much dissonance or discrepancy with what we like to think or have always thought.
So this 'tour of personality' reminds me of a man-of-war fish that looks like an anomaly that gathered various flotsam and jetsam along the way. Maybe some parts are actually bigger than us, or cumulatively they change us beyond recognition.
Some of the people I mentioned in the books by Ann Rule, who are capable of varied and extreme behaviour, seem able to deny to themselves some things they have done. They then convince a lot of other people that 'what they see is what they get', and the other parts of themselves simply cannot be there - so therefore they did not do this particular thing. It works remarkably well.
There's a phrase about people re-inventing themselves, giving themselves a psychological makeover, which has relevance here. We accept it up to a point in others, use it up to a point ourselves to make headway, dropping off modes of behaviour which don't work so well or get us into trouble, finding something that works better. All of that seems fine so long as we don't shove something deep down that seeks expression and may find subversive ways to do that.
Tour of personality
I began reading books by Ann Rule who was initially a court reporter in the United States sometimes working on murder cases. She became intrigued and researched deeply into the lives and characters of some people involved and came up with amazing information and insights. What seemed to emerge was a phenomenon I am calling 'tour of personality'.
Some of the people involved in scenarios she describes are complex and the situations are naturally so. But some people seem to ride the waves no matter what happens and however bleak their future looks for being accused and convicted. Some play the legal system and key players against each other to get off the hook or get decisions overturned.
Some people are extremely complex and versatile, turning their hand or charm to a variety of situations and adapting along the way. Some are pillars of the community, much respected for their charity or humane work. One wonders how anyone could fit in a complex and turbulent private life, along with managing a family and home life, a business and public life. Then they face court or public scrutiny - and they keep on going. When the chips are down or there's no hope on the horizon, another rabbit comes blinking out of the hat and round it goes again with both supporters and detractors and the final 'truth' often hingeing on an apparently minor detail. So many variables come into play that some get away with it. Whether they can avoid sailing close to the wind for ever more is another theme.
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