Psychological Analysis of the Boston Marathon Bomber - Essay Example

Psychological analysis of the Boston Marathon bomber The bomber was coming from a dysfunctionalfamily with his father having left the family in 2010 and gone to live in Russia, the parents divorcing and the mother also living in Russia. The brother whom was his rock and support was killed the previous week prior to the Boston Marathon attack by the police in a shoot-out. The only other family member was the uncle whom they had a falling out with leaving the family estranged to each other. The boy who is only a teenager may be suffering from depression and this may be his way of acting out to gain attention of someone as at now he barely had anyone in his life to call family.

Testimony by a social worker indicated that the two boys before the police shot the older brother had been attending meetings and relying on a supportive network of friends that were immigrants to do away with the loneliness that they felt for lack of a family themselves. The fact that they were doing so while they had each other is indication enough that the boy is not a criminal mastermind but was clearly undergoing psychological problems at the time. The criminal mind would have been instigate by his brother who was into criminal activities and hence may have influenced him into engaging in the activities as a way to act out his anger and frustration at all the happy people while deep down he suffered from being alone and the loss of a dear brother whom had been looking up for him and at him since the parents left without a backwards glance towards their children or even reaching out to them (Cullen 98).

The combination of the loss and grief from the death of the brother who was his guardian and best friend, the frustration by the parents divorcing and leaving to go to another country without their children, the loneliness and the fact that no one seemed to care about him or his situation not even the government drove him towards the edge of the behavior. The only way the brother had taught him to release his anger and frustration was by engaging in crime and this is what he did when he bombed the Boston Marathon.

The fact that the bombing was carried out by pressure cooker that was released is a clear indication that the boy was not a terrorist as he lacked the sophisticated bombings or even a clearly made and elaborate escape plan. He was simply just acting out of the moment. I am sure that he had not even thought about committing the heinous act before and it was purely a spur of the moment probably triggered by the happy faces of people all around without a care in the world about anything which is what he did not want to see or even hear at that moment in time.

People with early signs of depression normally lock themselves up in rooms but in this case, the teenager acted it out (Cullen 167). There is a similarity in the manner in which Malcolm X’s felt hurt and betrayed from the history of his life to a point of advocating for violence to solve issues that one has no control over with the same way the life of Tsarnaev was (Helfer 67). He was hurt by the system the most and resorted to retaliating through bombing the Boston Marathon hence following the advice by Malcolm X who advocated for retaliating against the system through violence.

Work Cited Cullen, Kairen. Introducing Child Psychology: A Practical Guide. New York: Icon Books, 2011. Print. Helfer, Andrew. Malcolm X: A Graphic Biography. New Jersey: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2006. Print.