John Elder Robison's book on Asperger's syndrome was found in the house of Adam Lanza, who had the disorder and killed 20 children and six educators in the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
SPRINGFIELD – John Elder Robison of Amherst, who has lived with Asperger’s syndrome, and has written three books on the disorder, said he should probably not be surprised that one of his books was found in the home of Adam Lanza, who carried out the December massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.
Robison’s memoir, titled “Look Me in the Eye – My life with Asperger’s,” was found among a large cache of weapons and ammunition in Lanza’s home, after he carried out a shooting rampage that killed 20 children and six educators. Lanza had Asperger’s, a milder form of autism, that causes difficulty with communication and social interaction, but Robison said that research shows there is no link between Asperger’s and violence.
“Autism is not associated with violence, not predictive of violence,” Robison said, during an interview at the CBS3 television station in Springfield. “Autism is not something that makes you angry or violent. It’s a communications disorder.”
Adam Lanza The publicity on the Newtown shooting show Lanza’s mother as doting on him and devoting her life to taking care of him, so Robison said it is probably not surprising that she had his book published in 2007, which he described as “the most widely read memoir of life with Asperger’s in the world.”
Lanza, 20, who lived with his mother, killed her prior to the shooting rampage, and killed himself at the end of the massacre.
It is quite possible that Lanza’s mother Nancy, had obtained the book to use as “a window” to help better see what her son was going through, Robison said.
The Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee, and Robison himself, have written that “there is no connection between autism, Asperger’s, and a propensity for violence towards others,” he said.
“It’s a tragedy, but I don’t think it’s a tragedy of autism,” Robison said, of the rampage. “It’s a tragedy of whatever else was going on and was wrong in their lives. I understand that people look for a cause, some quick thing to blame when something terrible happens.”
The disorder can make it hard for the person to read either the words or the unspoken messages of other people, and it can make you lonely, depressed or anxious, Robison said.
“People with autism are much more likely to be victims of violence whether that be bullying or attacks,” Robison said.
On a related issue, Robison said that a person having Asperger’s should not be considered a sole reason for taking away guns from a household.
“If we have a young man who is potentially suicidal or has thoughts of violence or is writing about violence, is wrapped up in that kind of world, and you say should he have him around guns, I would say absolutely not,” Robison said. “But that has nothing to do with Asperger’s. That has to do with somebody whose thoughts are moving in the direction of hurting himself or others.”
Research shows that some of the worst rampage killing is often someone not with a history of diagnosed mental illness, but rather “one day they snapped,” Robison said.
Just because someone has Aspergers, he could also have other problems, “other potentially serious disorders,” Robison said, which he suspects is the case with Lanza.
"I have no idea what was going on in the Lanza house, but clearly having those guns there was a tragic error of judgment for everyone, Lanza said.
Robison’s newest book, just released, is titled “Raising Cubby,” and is about raising his son who also has Asperger’s.