Why did Seung-Hui Cho actually do this massacre thing?

Question

I am writing a report on this but I cant find out why he did this?

Answer 1

I can tell you this. Seung was mentally ill and delusional. In my opinion he was paranoid schizophrenic. This means he was out of touch with reality. He believed that the whole world was against him. In his video, he said that "all" of us could have avoided this, but we were determined to make him miserable. This is called in psychiatric terms "delusions of persecution." He also said that he was dying "like Christ" and he had a vague idea that the blood he shed would help the oppressed. This is called "delusions of grandeur." He thought he was more important than he was, that he had some kind of divine importance. This is pretty common among paranoid schizophrenics.
His actions did not make any sense to a rational person, and there is no point in looking for its meaning in that way. It doesn't make sense to think he did it because he had been bullied, or for some religious cause. A number of people tried to reach out to him, but were unsuccessful. He was too delusional to respond. Yet he managed to hide his delusions well enough that people did not recognize what was wrong with him. Again, this isn't too unusual in a paranoid schizophrenic. And, although he did express some religious themes (also a common thing in paranoid schizophrenics) they weren't consistent; there were Muslim and Christian references, and they didn't make sense.
In short, he did it because he thought almost everybody wanted him to be miserable, and because he thought the bloodshed would have some kind of redemptive effect as well as providing vengeance.
No doubt his family had some idea that he had problems, but I'm almost sure that he hid his psychosis so well that they had no idea that he was suffering from these delusions. This disorder is not caused by anything that anybody did to him. It is caused by abnormal brain chemistry and is nobody's fault.
I was relieved to hear the recent report saying that part of the cause of the massacre was that those in contact with him didn't give Seung the help he needed. This acknowledges that he was seriously mentally ill. I do not blame those who didn't help him, because they did not know or understand what was going on in his mind. I hope that this incident may lead to greater care being taken to diagnose and treat people who may have this kind of disorder.

Answer 2

Well the first dragon wrote your report for you and is no doubt totally right. However Seung-Hui does illustrate a weakness in our society. We really have no institutions that help prevent people like Cho from being socially marginalized and given help sooner than too-later.

Answer 3

I don't think anyone really knows why he did it.