Widespread public reaction to the Columbine tragedy has raised questions about the nature of humanity as well as the state of society, according to Donald Weatherley, associate professor of psychology at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
The death of 15 people at Columbine High School in Littleton April 20 was particularly traumatic to people for several reasons, Weatherley said.
"Obviously bad events occur all the time. But why did this one capture the attention of so many? Some very hurtful things happened to a lot of people. And the hurtful events happened as a product of human agents -- people did this to other people," he said.
"That is the kind of trauma that is most damaging and most upsetting to us, as opposed to events that are products of nature, like floods or earthquakes.
Weatherley said the impact of Columbine was profound "because our relationships with other people are so very important to our sense of security and safety. When we get information that the human world may be less safe than we think, that can be very frightening," he said.
Weatherley thinks that one of the primary reasons the Columbine shootings gained so much national and worldwide attention was because the people who were involved were not the kind that society would expect to be malevolent.
"We know of people shooting each other in inner cities, and have become accustomed to that kind of news," he said. "We have it segregated in our minds that there are people who live there who do bad things to each other. But people who live in suburbs and who are well off economically aren't perceived that way. This is an event that shakes our beliefs, that says violence can erupt anywhere."
Weatherley believes that strong public reaction is also an indicator of some uneasiness about the way that our society is progressing.
"It is raising a lot of questions in people's minds," he said. "There seems to be some feeling in our society that, for all of our economic success and things going so well in our country, things are not quite as right as they should be and can be. People aren't feeling as happy or satisfied with their lives as they should, given all of the wealth and our economic well-being."
Weatherley says there is no question that in his lifetime there's been a drift away from time with families. The emphasis on raising children as a major part of life has declined in the interest of participating in the pursuit of wealth and material acquisitions.
"There have been positive sides to that," he said, "such as increased participation of women in the workplace and more equality between women and men. But the idea of investing in raising a family as worthwhile and important has been downplayed.
"I think this event served notice that in the last 25 years, children often have not been attended to as much as they deserve to be, and this is a loss for everyone -- the parents and the kids," he said. "I think the strong public response is a healthy reaction. It means that attention is now being paid to the insecurity and trouble that can be under the surface of an ordinary looking middle-class high school, and to the many factors that contribute to turning that trouble into a violent outcome.
"There's a lot of work being done now in terms of taking a hard look at ourselves and our society, and all of that is useful. Before Columbine, we may have had a vague sense that something was amiss under the surface of our economically powerful society, but people haven't been able to verbalize it or put their finger on it. Then an event like this happens and people say, 'Oh God, that's right, something's going on here,' and then they get mobilized."
Weatherley, a clinical psychologist on the faculty at 抖阴短视频-Boulder since 1960, is director of the psychology department's Raimy Clinic. The major focus of his work has been on individual and family psychotherapy.