Peter Langman

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Peter Fabbri Langman (born February 20, 1960 ) is an American psychologist and author who is an expert on young people running amok .

Career

Langman received his BA in Psychology from Clark University and his MA in Counseling Psychology from Lesley College, Cambridge . With a qualitative study of multicultural education as a dissertation , he received his Ph.D. in counseling psychology from Lehigh University in 2000. PhD.

Since his book Amok im Kopf , Langman has been an expert on young people running amok. He analyzed 27,000 pages of conversation transcripts, school essays and, above all, the diaries of ten perpetrators of the rampages at Columbine High School in 1999 , Virginia Tech in 2007 , Red Lake Senior High School in 2005 , in Springfield (Oregon) in 1998 , and Parker Middle School in 1998 in Erie County, Pennsylvania , Westside Middle School in 1998 near Jonesboro, Arkansas , Heath High School in 1997 in McCracken County, and Regional High School in Bethel, Alaska in 1997. The original book was published in English with a foreword by Klaus Hurrelmann translated into German, further editions appeared in Finnish and Dutch. After the book had been found two and a half years earlier both by the gunmen of the Munich attack in 2016 and at Arapahoe High School in Centennial (Colorado) , the extent to which potential perpetrators could look for models or inspiration in the book was discussed several times.

Interviews with Langman as a rampage expert appeared, for example, in the Berliner Morgenpost , the evening newspaper , Spiegel Online , Deutsche Welle , the Tages-Anzeiger , and numerous English-language media. In a book published in 2015, Langman continued his research on adolescent gunmen, expanding his considerations on the motivation and living conditions of the perpetrators of rampage from ten to 48 analyzed cases. Langman blogs on Psychology Today under the title Keeping Kids Safe .

Langman's first book Jewish Issues in Multiculturalism , published in 1999, examined a. a. the Jewish identity , the psychology of anti-Semitism and Jewish-Christian themes.

Langman is not only active as a psychologist, but also as a poet and playwright . Pieces written by him span dramas on a wide range of subjects, including scripts of college women with eating disorders , Native American history , Martin Luther King , British romantic poets, Scottish folk tales , Jewish / Holocaust issues, and more.

His volume of poetry, The Last Days of John Keats and Other Poems, includes poems in the voices of several British romantic poets and other historical figures, sonnets and texts that focus on nature, spirituality and human relationships, as well as poems based on Scottish folklore and the English Story based.

Reviews

For Sandra Kegel , Langman's research could not solve the riddle of rampages in schools, but in her opinion he provided insightful information about reasons that can prove valuable in prevention. In the ten case studies he examined, Langman identified three types of juvenile perpetrators, all of whom had severe psychological deformations. In particular, Kegel emphasized Langman's conviction that rampaging amok is never about spontaneous outbreaks of violence or acts triggered by media violence.

In ZEIT ONLINE , Parvin Sadigh criticized the fact that Langman's “sometimes very redundant and detailed portraits” would lead to a very short conclusion that gave only a few concrete recommendations on how to prevent rampages. Nonetheless, he thought Langman's analysis was "important to make it clear that teachers, parents, relatives and friends cannot avoid" looking at every single child. Politicians would "not be able to solve the problem with a new gun law".

For Annette Wilmes , Langman did away with the cliché with what she saw as a successful book that young people running amok were always bullied loners who wanted to take revenge on their classmates. He chose a completely different approach than previous studies, which dealt more intensively with the social environment of the perpetrators and less with their personality and psyche. His most important suggestion is: take threats seriously, don't ignore them!

While the debate in Germany on rampages in schools is primarily focused on framework conditions such as too many killer games , too much television, too easy access to possible weapons, Armin Himmelrath took a different perspective through Langman's radical focus on the personality of the perpetrators. Because this can hardly be understood by laypeople, Langman's book may seem "initially quite disturbing" to German readers. The second big, disturbing moment when reading the book, which is well worth reading for him, is the realization of how little the structures of German schools are prepared for early detection and preventive help for potential gunmen.

Publications

  • Peter Langman: Amok in the head. Why students kill . J. Beltz Verlag, Weinheim - Basel 2009 ISBN 9783407858870 .
    • English original edition: Why Kids Kill: Inside the Minds of School Shooters . Palgrave Macmillan, New York 2009. ISBN 9780230608023
  • Peter Langman: School Shooters: Understanding High School, College, and Adult Perpetrators . Rowman & Littlefield Lanham 2015 ISBN 9781442233560
  • Peter Langman: Jewish Issues in Multiculturalism: A Handbook for Educators and Clinicians . Jason Aronson 1999 ISBN 9780765760296
  • Peter Langman: The Last Days of John Keats and Other Poems . 2009 ISBN 9780578005539
  • Peter Langman: A qualitative investigation of multicultural education . ( Dissertation ) 2000

Web links

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Michael S. Rosenwald: The twisted minds of school shooters, and the anguished man who studies them . In: The Washington Post . July 1, 2016.
  2. ↑ a b Annette Wilmes : The psyche of gunmen . In: Deutschlandfunk Kultur . November 19, 2009.
  3. ↑ Amber Jamieson: "It's disturbing": author of book found in Munich shooter's home sees pattern . In: The Guardian . 23rd July 2016.
  4. ↑ Ulrich Kraetzer: US author Langman dismayed after a rampage in Munich . In: Berliner Morgenpost . 23rd July 2016.
  5. ↑ Peter Langman: "Why Students Kill" . In: evening newspaper . July 25, 2016.
  6. ^ Mathias Hamann: What drives gunmen . In: Spiegel Online . October 9, 2009.
  7. ↑ Chase Winter: Amok Expert: Learning to see the warning signs . In: Deutsche Welle . 07/27/2016.
  8. ↑ Beat Metzler: The perpetrators must not appear heroic . In: Tages-Anzeiger . July 24, 2016.
  9. ^ Peter Langman: Keeping Kids Safe . In: Psychology Today .
  10. ↑ Sandra Kegel : When shots are fired at school . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . December 23, 2009.
  11. ↑ Parvin Sadigh: Lonely and Without Empathy . In: ZEIT ONLINE . October 9, 2009.
  12. ^ Armin Himmelrath : Disturbed perpetrator personality . In: Deutschlandfunk . November 2, 2009.
personal data
SURNAME Langman, Peter
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Langman, Peter Fabbri (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American psychologist and author
DATE OF BIRTH February 20, 1960