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First, I once again congratulate the authors for contributing a set of articles that serve to further the task of elaborating a psychoanalytic perspective on bullying. As I write this, the United States continues to simultaneously experience overwhelming horror and enveloping numbness in the wake of yet another mass murder—this time in a primary school in Newtown, Connecticut, in which the average age of the victim was between 6 and 7 years old. There has been a search by some to find an easily identified scapegoat, as well as a quickly enacted solution that will wreak vengeance: for example, the President of the NRA announced on television shortly after the shooting that the only one who can respond effectively to a “bad guy with a gun, is a good guy with a gun!” Commentators try to examine the motivations of these murders—in Connecticut, in Colorado, in Virginia, in Arizona, and elsewhere—as citizens hunker down, some of them clutching their assault rifles all the tighter. Although there is yet no definitive understanding of what motivates these killers to decide to go out “in a blaze of glory”, our authors have contributed a series of thoughtful perspectives on the coconstructed roles of bullies and victims, with some tentative reflections upon the contributions of bystanders—including the larger socio-cultural community—to the creation of mindlessly violent societies. It cannot be noted frequently enough that those who resort to violence of varying kinds often were subject to various kinds of narcissistic injuries, including bullying, and often were isolated from the opportunity for empathy and social support.
In writing this epilogue, I pay further attention to the contribution of our commentators to this very rich journal issue. Dan Frank and Ken Corbett each bring a unique sensibility and somewhat different expertise to the topic of bullying—Frank as a psychologist/principal and group consultant, and Corbett as a theorist known for his grasp of the nuances of