The psychology of Jason Ivler

DATELINE MANILA
by: BINGO P. DEJARESCO

Lest it be misconstrued, we are four-square behind having killer Jason Ivler (27, Ex-Marine Fil-Am) face the bar of justice for the deaths of at least two men over road accident altercations.

We are 100% behind the charges of illegal possession of firearms, resisting persons in authority resulting in injuries and frustrated homicide in wounding two NBI agents who engaged him in a firefight last week.

Ivler, the modern-day “Rambo” deemed as AAD (armed and dangerous) resisted arrest armed with a baby Armalite and a .45 caliber gun while holed in a storeroom inside his mother’s (Marlene) house in No. 23 Hillside Drive in Blue Ridge - an uppity subdivision in Quezon City.

Jason bore four gunshot wounds and is recuperating in a metropolitan hospital under heavy security.

While we sometimes commiserate the pain of an even (sometimes) weird mother like Marlene, our hearts also beat in the same manner for the mothers of both Nestor Ponce (2004 Ivler victim) and Renato Ebarle Jr. (November 2009 Ivler victim) in incidents which psychologists in the 80s - 90s now call as deaths resulting from “road rage”.

“Road rage” is an extremely angry display of emotions while in a vehicle on the road shown by insults, dirty gestures, dangerous car movements, threats and assaults to a source of rage - usually resulting in injuries or death.

“Road rage” is common in a society where people look at drivers who drive faster than them as “speed maniacs” and those slower than them as “idiots”.

In 1995, the U.K reported 1,200 such incidents and 1,500 per year is the USA annual average “road rage” incidents. It is commonplace for the driving public especially in crowded cities because “driving” indeed is a stressful situation.

“Road rage” is usually macho image-driven where egos are initially deflated over issues of territoriality on the road, concepts of power struggle and general impatience. “Road rage” can affect any of us, even the people who are by predisposition - good natured. Stress is the overall culprit.

Psychiatrists, aside from dispensing relaxation medication, have a checklist meant to contain road rage.

It includes: (a) controlling one’s temper (b) not to react to the other driver’s actuation (c) not to car honk or use headlight to show displeasure (d) have enough sleep (e) plan one’s day and give oneself enough time to reach the destination (f) to use relaxing music in the car rather than upbeat ones that race the heart and (g) to generally practice kindness on the road so that it becomes a habit.

All of the above may have worked with Jason Ivler if practiced often enough. But to our minds, Jason is a special case. The object of the nation’s hatred today Jason may really be a victim of being “shell-shocked” or “war shocked” as a result of his exposure to the war in Iraq as a marine soldier.

Studies show that one of seven soldiers in World War I, for instance, are affected by this mental ailment. Long after the war had ended and the soldier has placed away his gun down - there is a still “war” going on in the victim’s head.

This nervous upheaval is a result of the extraordinary mental and physical stress a war can bring. This medical condition called PTSD (post trauma stress disorder) can also come from being victims of natural disasters, physical or mental abuse from others in the past.

The victim becomes a “war freak” quick to anger because he is precisely irritable, easily aroused emotionally and anxious. A small incident can trigger a violent outburst - sometimes they become suicidal as when the wounded Jason told his NBI captors: “I want to die. Kill me.”

The brutality of the war sometimes results in the victim resenting the very society on whose behalf he had killed people for. Other times, there is the resentment within for “surviving the war while others suffered and died.” It is an agonizing ordeal.

The presentation above is not meant to plead to exempt Jason from the wheels of justice being turned on him - by no means. Nor does it cheer mother Marlene’s plea to the USA “to protect your soldier” for Jason is no longer an active one like the Colonel Smith, convicted Subic Bay rapist.

Our position, likewise, does not condone Marlene’s harboring of a criminal in her home - because what kind of society would we become if all mothers would do that -since all criminals do have mothers?

The point of the matter is that maybe, the lessons on the psychology of Jason Ivler, the Killer should not be lost on governments and the Departments of Health all over the world - that potential war freaks like Jason - coming from, wars, disasters or domestic violence - should undergo some psychiatric programs to lick the demons within their psyches.

Until the world recognizes this, there will be many other Ivlers lurking stealthily around the globe - waiting for their time to grab the headlines - with murder and mayhem.

It is a grave societal menace.