Fee: $25 Registration Fee

Registration Process: The deadline to register is Sunday, January 22nd at 11:59 pm. The Zoom meeting link will be emailed within one week. Reminder emails will be sent the week before, the day before, and the hour before the event. All emails will come directly from [email protected]. Please check your spam folder if the initial link is not received within two weeks of your registration date.

Continuing Education: 3 hours of continuing education credit will be offered for this course, which meets the CE requirements of the Virginia Board of Psychology and may be eligible for credit with other State Boards of Psychology.

Event description: This webinar will start with a review of the justifications cited by perpetrators of mass attacks, as well as a consideration of underlying psychological dynamics. Next, three psychological types of mass attackers will be presented to demonstrate the intersection of their internal dynamics and life experiences. Following this, four additional cases will be reviewed to highlight the variability in functioning among perpetrators and the need to look behind superficial accomplishments to detect risk factors for violence.

Workshop Overview:

1. Preliminary material
2. "Who they are and what happens to them"
3. Underestimating psychopathology in mass attackers
4. Power dynamics and identity issues
5. Three categories of justifications used by mass attackers
6. Challenge of identifying potential attackers: case example
   1. Case examples to illustrate three psychological types of mass attackers
   2. Psychopathic attacker
   3. Psychotic attacker
   4. Traumatized attacker
      1. Additional cases to illustrate diversity of functioning and presentation among attackers
      2. Case example: failing in personal and professional domains
      3. Failing in personal domain, apparently succeeding in professional domain
      4. Apparently succeeding in personal domain, failing in professional domain
      5. Apparently succeeding in personal and professional domains
      6. Summary/conclusions 

Course Objectives

At the conclusion of this course, participants will be able to:

1. Identify three psychological categories of mass attackers.
2. Explain the role of identity issues and aspirations in mass attackers.
3. Discuss the intersection of psychological dynamics and life experiences as risk factors for violence.