Walter Reed Officials Asked: Was Hasan Psychotic?

[cali]

by Daniel Zwerdling
A
November 11, 2009

Starting in the spring of 2008, key officials from Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences held a series of meetings and conversations, in part about Maj. Nidal Hasan, the man accused of killing 13 people and wounding dozens of others last week during a shooting spree at Fort Hood. One of the questions they pondered: Was Hasan psychotic?

"Put it this way," says one official familiar with the conversations that took place. "Everybody felt that if you were deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, you would not want Nidal Hasan in your foxhole."

<snip>

When a group of key officials gathered in the spring of 2008 for their monthly meeting in a Bethesda, Md., office, one of the leading — and most perplexing — items on their agenda was: What should we do about Hasan?

Hasan had been a trouble spot on officials' radar since he started training at Walter Reed, six years earlier. Several officials confirm that supervisors had repeatedly given him poor evaluations and warned him that he was doing substandard work.

Both fellow students and faculty were deeply troubled by Hasan's behavior — which they variously called disconnected, aloof, paranoid, belligerent, and schizoid. The officials say he antagonized some students and faculty by espousing what they perceived to be extremist Islamic views. His supervisors at Walter Reed had even reprimanded him for telling at least one patient that "Islam can save your soul."

<snip>

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120313570

[JudyInTheHeartland]

1. Even more disturbing is this:

From the article:

Second, some of Hasan's supervisors and instructors had told colleagues that they repeatedly bent over backward to support and encourage him, because they didn't have clear evidence that he was unstable, and they worried they might be "discriminating" against Hasan because of his seemingly extremist Islamic beliefs.

[Fire1]

7. Ya think?? n/t

[AntiFascist]

18. Look at all the extremist Christians....

many of whom are probably borderline as well. They probably didn't want to rock this particular boat.

[EFerrari]

21. That sounds like total bullshit to me.

These people were trained to assess people. Am I expected to believe these highly trained individuals were "afraid" because they had such low social self awareness that they didn't know if they were acting in a discriminatory manner?

Balls.

[dugaresa]

2. so they blame the tedious process for why they did not start the process of discharging him?

They passed him on to Fort Hood because they didn't want to deal with him.

[cali]

4. and that's it in a nutshell. Disgusting.

[dugaresa]

5. it is disgusting and to be honest the information in that article

leads me to believe that many of them should be held acountable for passing Hasan off to Ft. Hood.

[cali]

6. agreed. and the names of his supervisor's are in the article.

[Arctic Dave]

10. Jeez, you think these guys were a part of the church and no the military.

[EFerrari]

11. It's insane. This guy was in a position of relative power

and the people around him didn't know if he was psychotic? For YEARS?

What kind of psych unit was that, anyway?

[dugaresa]

13. I'm betting when his behavior confirmed their suspicions, they transferred him to Ft. Hood

[EFerrari]

14. They should all be up on charges, dereliction or whatever it's called. nt

[dugaresa]

19. totally agree

[Are_grits_groceries]

3. If they have to even

think about asking that question then they should do something about it. Somebody that is giving off what could be construed as psychotic tendencies should be quietly checked.

[EFerrari]

8. Six years is a long time to screw up that badly.

[cali]

9. it is. and his supervisors clearly did not do their jobs.

[depakid]

12. Yet they promoted the guy

Go figure.

[cali]

15. It appears that for a variety of reasons they just didn't want to deal with him

[depakid]

20. Fine, but promoting the guy?

:crazy:

Hell, the prof ought to have flunked him for his bizarre rant in his Environmental Health course. Mine would surely have....

[cali]

23. I completely agree.

[EFerrari]

26. I just read somewhere that there's a big push to promote guys and

it's being called "No Major Left Behind". We've known the Army has been shorthanded for a long time. :(

[Avalux]

16. Hasan was a medical doctor. Not as easy to get rid of as an enlisted soldier.

I worked with plenty of military docs who weren't wrapped too tight and were just plain bad at being a doctor.

I'm not making excuses but the environment is such that it isn't as easy as people might think.

[cali]

17. It may not be easy but it appears that nothing was done about many, many concerns

Easy or not, there's no excuse.

[bik0]

22. Religion played a role

His behavior could also be explained by the mental conflict presented by being a devout Muslim working for infidels who support wars that he is against. His way to resolve the conflict was to commit himself to Islam and declare jihad on the military. If he were an atheist, I seriously doubt this would have happened. Religion played a big role in his actions.

Psychosis: fundamental derangement of the mind (as in schizophrenia) characterized by defective or lost contact with reality especially as evidenced by delusions, hallucinations, and disorganized speech and behavior.

[cali]

24. uh, no.

You are roughly correct in your description of psychosis. And it sounds like Hasan was exhibiting some of those symptoms. As you may be aware, religious delusions are very common in psychosis.

[bik0]

29. Not delusional

None of descriptions of his behavior (disconnected, aloof, paranoid, belligerent, and schizoid) included "delusional". My point was he did not appear to by psychotic based on the descriptions but his behavior could be explained by the conflict of his devotion to his religion and serving in the military with people his religion vilifies.

Schizoid personality disorder (SPD) is a personality disorder characterized by a lack of interest in social relationships, a tendency towards a solitary lifestyle, secretiveness, and emotional coldness.

[EFerrari]

34. Psychosis often shows up as detachment.

You can't judge by how explosive a person is because it's possible for a person to be quietly psychotic.

And no, people with even very serious conflicts such as the one you describe don't usually wind up going on shooting sprees.

[bik0]

35. The massacre was planned - he did not snap

Hassan bought a gun in August, he gave away his possessions the week leading up to the massacre. On the day of the massacre Hasan gave his neighbor his Koran and told her "I'm going to do good work for God" before leaving for the base.

Hasan was driven by religious fervor. He was reprimanded for trying to convert his patients to Islam. He made a conscious decision to kill those people because in his view it was the right thing to do according to his radical interpretation of Islam.

[EFerrari]

36. All of that may be true although we don't know that it is

and this man has been suspected of being psychotic for years.

[EFerrari]

25. Atheists have no special protection from psychosis

which is a medical condition and not a belief or dependent on beliefs.

[FarCenter]

27. Trying to fire an employee like this can end a manager's career and expose the manager to liability

Terminating an employee in a protected class is very dangerous. Unless the termination done very carefully, with all procedures following the book and carefully documented and corrobarated, an employee in a protected class can easily get the manager fired, as well as bring a lawsuit for damages against the manager. This could end the manager's career and impoverish his family. Higher managers will not protect the manager responsible for terminating the employee, and will hang him out to dry to save their own skin.

I'm really surprised that they had group meetings that discussed this. I'd be appalled if anyone made a written record of them.

[EFerrari]

28. You're talking about the Army, not Sears. The US Army acts with impunity

and all over the world.

[FarCenter]

30. If an adminstrative separation for psychological unsuitability is so simple

Why are there a couple of 140 page documents on the procedure?

[EFerrari]

31. Are you serious? Do you really believe there is any correlation whatsoever

between the number of pages a bureaucracy produces on a task and getting the task done?

[FarCenter]

32. The complexity of the procedure, the considerations required, the approvals, etc. are in the books.

It doesn't look simple.

[EFerrari]

33. Two thoughts. I'm sure there are stacks and stacks of books

on how to treat prisoners but that didn't stop the Army from buying them from Afghan warlords, kidnapping them without ceremony and taking them to Cuba for torture.

The other one is: If this man was suspected of instability, I bet you there is a procedure in place for temporarily taking a doctor out of the action for a check up.

Nobody bothered.