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Every two years, Psychodynamic Psychiatry, the journal of the American Academy of Psychodynamic Psychiatry and Psychoanalysis, awards a Journal Prize for the best article published during the preceding two years. For the years 2022-2023, we are proud to announce that the Journal Prize has been awarded to psychiatrists Dr. Nina E. Cerfolio, Dr. Ira Glick, and Dr. Danielle Kamis, and lawyer Mr. Michael Laurence, for their distinguished paper, “A Retrospective Observational Study of Psychosocial Determinants and Psychiatric Diagnoses of Mass Shooters in the United States” (Psychodynamic Psychiatry, 50[3], 513-528). The prize of $2,500 will be shared by the authors.
This remarkable research article, with broad public health significance, used the Mother Jones database of 115 mass shootings from 1982 to 2019 to study all 35 of the surviving assailant cases and 20 of the 80 cases in which the assailant died at the time of the shooting. Although few of these assailants had come in contact with the mental health system before their crime, the authors used a variety of evidence, including testimony of forensic experts at their trials, psychiatric records from pre-, during, and post-trial, extensive FBI interview reports, social media posts made by the shooters, and videotapes of interviews with the shooters, in addition to other data.
The authors focused on the DSM-5 psychiatric diagnoses of the 35 surviving assailants and found that 32 of them had a major psychiatric diagnosis (there was not enough information to make certain diagnoses for the other three). The majority of the 32 diagnosed shooters were actively ill with schizophrenia. Not one had been accurately diagnosed or was taking appropriate medication at the time of the attacks. The authors note that only 5% of studies of mass shootings and terrorism have been done by psychiatrists. The authors argue for the removal of stigma toward those with severe mental disorders so that they may be more respected, less marginaliz